Tahiti booked their spot in Wednesday’s grand final yesterday and were joined by Steve Cain’s men this afternoon after goals from Ryan Howlett, Nathan Buswell and Tim Payne gave them enough points to pip Vanuatu, who ensured they will take part in the 3rd/4th play-off with a 7-0 victory over American Samoa in the day’s other Group A match.
New Zealand coach Cain was satisfied with his charges’ efforts today and is pleased with how they are progressing.
“The aim was to get to the final and we’ve done that comfortably,” he says. “We’ve still got a lot left in us and we’ll show that in the final.”
Cain is wary of the threat posed by Tahiti and thinks his squad will have to be at their best to prevent an upset.
“We expect a very hard game from them,” he says. “We know that we will really have to raise our game because Tahiti are a lot stronger than anyone we’ve played so far.”
The Young All Whites needed just a draw from their clash with Papua New Guinea, who still had a mathematical chance of finishing in the top two themselves, but began as if they needed to score a raft of goals. It took them only 38 seconds to get off the mark when Ryan Howlett, whose pace and skill caused Papua New Guinea problems throughout, ran onto a pin-point Rhys Jordan pass and tucked the ball underneath goalkeeper Benjamin Wilbert.
The impressive Jordan had a big hand in the second goal on 16 minutes when another searching through ball picked out Nathan Buswell, who finished from a tight angle. Papua New Guinea enjoyed a larger share of the possession in the second spell as they looked to keep their tournament alive but failed to create many attacking opportunities.
Any faint hopes they might still have harboured were well and truly snuffed out when New Zealand scored a spectacular third in the 54th minute, Howlett drilling the ball across the six-yard box and Tim Payne leaping to volley it home.
Finding the net so soon after kick off gave New Zealand a big advantage and Cain says that was the plan all along.
“Our intention was to score an early goal and settle things down. We knew they would then have to chase us,” he says.
Papua New Guinea coach John Davani was expecting a bit more from his team but admitted the Young All Whites deserved to go through to the final.
“I thought the boys could have done better today but I don’t want to take anything away from New Zealand,” he says.
“I was worried the quick through balls would catch us out and that’s what happened straight away. I think the nerves about playing a team like New Zealand might have gotten to our players.”
Davani is proud of his squad but says they fell short of the pre-tournament goals set for them.
“We wanted to win three games but we have only won two. It was a hard pool for us and that was actually good because we could measure ourselves against the best.”
The Kaltak brothers, Tony and Jean, were the heroes for Vanuatu in the day’s other game as they kept their country on track for the bronze medal with a pair of hat-tricks against American Samoa.
Jean Kaltak put his side 2-0 up at half-time with goals in the 24th and 43rd minutes before completing his hat-trick on the hour mark. Not to be outdone, his sibling scored in the 46th and 77th minutes before challenging Jean for the match ball with his third goal in stoppage time.
George Mahit became the only non-Kaltak player to get on the scoresheet when he struck with seven minutes remaining.
Coach Wilson August and his team will now go on to meet either Solomon Islands or New Caledonia in the 3rd/4th play-off, which takes place at 1.30pm on Wednesday before the 4pm grand final.
Vanuatu’s opponents will be confirmed tomorrow when New Caledonia take on Tonga and Solomon Islands face Cook Islands, both games kicking off at 1pm at North Harbour Stadium.
American Samoa – Vanuatu Match Summary
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New Zealand – Papua New Guinea Match Summary Download PDF
Competition Summary Download PDF