Victorious coach Aaron McFarland says he is ecstatic to be heading to the U-20 World Cup and savoured the fact it wasn’t an easy win for his side this afternoon.
“PNG came to the game with a lot of energy and made life difficult for us which is exactly what we want,” McFarland says.
“I think a lot of kudos has to go to the island nations where they’re putting a lot of resources into the women’s game and it’s paying dividends.
“Physically they challenged us with their speed of pressing and they wanted to play in possession as well which gave us some challenge so we’re very pleased to come through with the win.”
The score line perhaps belies the football witnessed on the field as New Zealand were made to work incredibly hard for their ticket to Canada.
Belinda Van Noorden opened the scoring in the tenth minute after cutting inside her defender and firing home. New Zealand dominated possession in the first half but never appeared overly comfortable as Papua New Guinea showed the progress they’re making back home. With a solid defence and the speed to make some dangerous counter-attacks New Zealand’s back-line were kept on their toes, though goalkeeper Lily Alfeld was rarely challenged.
New Zealand for their part were peppering the goal as they tried to extend that lead and get comfortable in the match. It took until the 86 minute when substitute Jasmine Pereira thumped the ball into the back corner with her first touch of the match. The Junior Football Ferns sealed the victory in the last few minutes of additional time, with an unfortunate own goal from Papua New Guinea.
McFarland says he’ll now be looking to spend more time with the group as they refine their game ahead of the World Cup.
“There’ll be a group working in Auckland and some based in the United States but working with all the individuals on all the programmes so that come the World Cup and beyond, which is really important as well, they’re as technically competent as possible,” he says.
Papua New Guinea coach Rachel Wadunah was disappointed not to hold New Zealand to a closer margin but gave credit to a standout performance from her side.
“I’m very impressed with my girls because they could hold New Zealand in the first half to 1-0 and in the second half they did very well to hold New Zealand again, the own goal was unfortunate but otherwise I’m very, very impressed with my girls,” Wadunah says.
The day’s opening match saw two sides vying for their first wins of the tournament. After an impressive display against New Zealand on Thursday, Tonga were looking to build on that performance against a Vanuatu side that had seen the Kiwis knock 12 goals past them in their opener.
But after holding Papua New Guinea to just 4-0, Vanuatu too were looking to net their first goal as well as a victory. And it was the Vanuatu side putting all the early pressure on Tonga showing there are some talented young players in this side.
The first twenty-five minutes saw the two sides switching possession back and forth, with Vanuatu’s Samantha Paul the more overworked of the two keepers. Tonga’s break finally arrived on 30 minutes when midfielder Wendy Feke sent a long ball to Unaloto Tahitu’a who crossed in from the right edge of the box. Paul just got her fingertips to the ball but she sent it to the feet of an arriving Malia Tongia who tapped in behind Paul to open the scoring. Five minutes later and this time it was Tahitu’a capitalising on a bouncer to find the back of the net. Just ahead of the break Tonga captain Vea Funaki played a ground grubbing pass that cut through the defence where Tongia picked it up and calmly fired home for her second. Ten minutes after the return Tonga sealed the victory when Ilisapeti Malekamu knocked in a fourth goal for the Kingdom.
While the score line didn’t end in their favour, Vanuatu showed they’ve made some great progress taking part in this event. Monica Melteviel showed great talent in taking on players and making inspiring runs, while Synia Wanemut, Jane Alatoa amd Melissa Wakaret will be ones to watch going forward.
Victorious Tonga coach Penateti Feke, having recovered from Thursday’s historic game, says she’s incredibly excited to finish with a win and very proud of her players.
“Even though we didn’t start off the tournament very well, they’ve improved after every game and we’ve decided to finish this tournament with a great result – 4-0 against Vanuatu,” Feke says.
“Watching the game, we had a couple of early opportunities to score goals but we missed a lot, but in the end the finishing was just good enough.”
A once again defeated Vanuatu coach Tom McDonald says his girls improved over the course of the competition but still have some way to go if they want to be more competitive at international level.
“We need to learn from our mistakes which we didn’t today. We let them get on top of us and made a couple of little mistakes and didn’t learn,” McDonald says.
“The first half was definitely football we wanted to play, we had a plan and we executed it. A couple of mistakes were made, but the second half, the girls fell away quite badly and I’m not very happy with that.”
In the individual awards Papua New Guinea’s Meagan Gunemba secured the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, with an impressive display of wide-ranging talent. New Zealand striker Emma Rolston secured the Golden Boot with four goals while Tonga goalkeeper Tangimausia Ma’afu was given the Golden Gloves following her outstanding performance against New Zealand especially. The Fair-Play award went to the Vanuatu team.