Teams vie for day one honours

Solomon Islands will face Fiji in the opening match at 12:00pm before Vanuatu square off against American Samoa at 2:30pm and New Zealand meet Papua New Guinea at 5:00pm. Group stage matches are set to be played from 16-20 March with the semi-finals taking place on 22 March and the 3rd/4th play-off and final on…

Emblen and his coaching staff, which includes former All White Chris Zoricich, will get a chance to run their eye over other Group A members Tonga and potential play-off adversaries from Group B in tomorrow’s early games and on Sunday when the Oly Whites enjoy a bye.They head into their opener with little knowledge of…

A total of 13 matches will be played at Owen Delany Park with American Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu all trying to keep their Olympic dreams alive.The countries have been divided into two pools and will compete in a round-robin format with the group stage followed by semi-finals…

Fiji, who finished third as hosts of this event four years ago, share the honour of opening the tournament with Solomon Islands and the two sides are set to clash on Friday from 12pm at Owen Delany Park in Taupo, New Zealand.“It’s going to be a very difficult game for us against the Solomons but…

Moleni named his 20-strong squad this month and was able to select seven players capped by their country at senior level and five that have also worn the red of Tonga in the U-17 age group.The tournament takes place at Owen Delany Park from March 16 to 24 and Tonga have been dealt a tough…

The match will be the first time the Football Ferns have played a home international outside Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Hamilton and will form part of a festival of international and local football with the game preceded by the men’s and women’s finals of Northland’s Community Cups.“It’s great to be able to take a crucial…

Along with New Zealand’s Neil Emblen, Farina is one of the most high-profile coaches at the tournament but has the edge over Emblen, still relatively new to the coaching game, in terms of experience. A top-class player himself, Australian Farina enjoyed a lengthy professional career in Europe before returning down under and moving into management.Farina,…

The tournament is set to start on Friday in Taupo and Stephen was expected to have to sit out all of Vanuatu’s matches after picking up an injury in the squad’s lead-up tour of Australia.But, despite initially being told he would not be able to take the field for at least a month, the 19-year-old…

The Bilikiki are the country’s beach soccer team while the Kurukuru are the national futsal side, meaning there was plenty of talent in the opposition’s ranks to test the Solympics squad.But the youngsters performed well at Lawson Tama Stadium in their first friendly match since being brought together in February and dominated proceedings.Luke Eroi’s charges…

Current All Whites Jake Gleeson and Marco Rojas, who have been released by Portland Timbers and Melbourne Victory respectively for the event, are the biggest coups for Emblen’s squad with Rojas joining after his side’s home match against Wellington Phoenix on Friday night, thus missing New Zealand’s opener against Papua New Guinea the same day.Emblen…