MELANESIAN MAGIC ON DAY ONE OF FUTSAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji all got off to perfect starts on Match Day One of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Futsal Championship today at the Vodafone Arena in Suva, Fiji.

The three Melanesian teams are now favourites to represent OFC at the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil in September after combining for a total of 15 goals in their three respective games.

The tournaments opening match proved a real crowd pleaser as hundreds of Solomon Island fans packed into the indoor stadium to show their support for Victor Wai’ias young squad.

The Solomon boys didn’t disappoint and bounced out to a five goal lead with goals to Elliot Ragamo (2), Micah Lea’alafa, Maffat Sikwa’ae and Jenan Kapu.

New Zealand scored a consolation goal with one minute left on the clock through Bakr Al Saudi but it was not nearly enough to stop the Solomon side establishing themselves as tournament favourites.

Vanuatu fought through some stubborn first half Tuvalu defending to increase their one goal half time lead to six at the final whistle.

Jack Vira Ala was the star of the show finishing off a classy hat trick after goals from Ben Edward and Derek Malas.

In the final game of the night Kamal Hassan stole the show when his two late goals propelled Fiji to a well deserved 4-2 victory over New Caledonia.

Alexandre Rosso’s opener for New Caledonia was cancelled out by a Sandeep Sanjesh Nair screamer which shook the gathered crowd of over 1000.

Fiji went 2-1 up through Nayzal Siga Ali before New Caledonia equalized again three minutes from time through Albert Hnailolo.

Hassan then scored two goals in the space of a minute to earn Fiji a very valuable three points and please the local faithful.

Match Day Two kicks off tomorrow at 16H00 (local time) when New Zealand meets Vanuatu.

Photos by Marc Peretic Wilson