South Pacific Games football tournament: Women’s round seven preview

NAUSORI, 9 July 2003: The women’s football tournament at the South Pacific Games will go down right to the wire tomorrow in the final round of competition at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori.

Today’s results from round six have conjured up a number of possible outcomes and depending on the final results the gold medal is still pretty much up for grabs.

After round six, Guam leads with 11 points but they have completed their games and the other leading teams should overtake them by the end of tomorrow. While the gold may not be in their reach, they still have an outside chance at a bronze medal depending on other results. Guam had their chances of gold destroyed by Papua New Guinea who beat them 1-0 earlier today.

PNG, Tahiti and Tonga are tied on equal second with 10 points each and separated in that order by goal difference. Fifth place Fiji can also be counted in the equation if they beat Tonga tomorrow. But they would still need PNG and Tahiti to draw their match tomorrow. Fiji kept their chances alive after a thrilling come from behind 3-2 win over Vanuatu today. Down 2-1, the Fijian women again rose to the occasion in front of a parochial crowd to peg back the deficit.

Tahiti also put themselves in a prime position with their 5-1 thrashing of Kiribati. Tahiti will play Papua New Guinea in the crucial match with the winner likely to take out the gold medal based on the current goal difference between the teams. Fiji and Tonga play in the other crucial encounter in the round’s first match at 9:00am (local). In the event that both games end in draws then PNG looks the best positioned on their superior goal difference. The other game of the round sees bottom place Kiribati tale on Vanuatu with both sides looking for their first win of the tournament.

Day 8 Women’s Review – Wednesday, 9 July

WOMEN’S RESULTS (ROUND SIX) at Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori

9:00am – PNG vs Guam 1-0

11:00am – Kiribati vs Tahiti 1-5

1:00pm – Fiji vs Vanuatu 3-2

Tonga bye

Women's Points Table after Round 6
POS TEAM P W D L For Ag Pts GD 
1 Guam 6 3 2 1 8 2 11 +6 
2 PNG 5 3 1 1 19 6 10 +13 
3 Tahiti 5 3 1 1 11 5 10 +6 
4 Tonga 5 3 1 1 8 5 10 +3 
5 Fiji 5 3 0 2 9 6 9 +3 
6 Vanuatu 5 0 1 4 6 12 1 -6
7 Kiribati 5 0 0 5 2 27 0 -25

Day 9 schedule – Thursday, 10 July

WOMEN’S ROUND 7 at Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori

9:00am – Fiji vs Tonga

11:00am – Kiribati vs Vanuatu

1:00pm – PNG vs Tahiti

3:30pm – Medal Ceremony

Guam bye

*all times are local in Fiji