Vanuatu followed suit in the second match earning a hard-fought 1-0 win over neighbours New Caledonia before Papua New Guinea knocked two goals past Solomon Islands for an opening victory of their own.
While Fiji are blessed with home advantage, the side is also having to deal with the weight of expectation as the winner of this competition will qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
With that in the back of his players’ minds coach Ravinesh Kumar was impressed with the overall performance of his side – though knows some tweaks are still required.
“I would say that a win is a win. We came out to get three points and we got three points, but our finishing needs to improve a lot,” he says.
“As we go along players will settle and we will work on our finishing.”
Fiji made early inroads pushing high and heaping the pressure on the American Samoa defence, who themselves were led superbly by captain Rueben Luvu, son of American Samoa coach Rupeni Luvu.
After being held out by some great saves from the American Samoa keeper Frederick Maiava, Fiji finally got their break in the 15th minutes as lofty striker Saula Waqa slotted home a precision cross from Samuela Naibenia.
Fiji continued driving into their opponent’s box and ten minutes later it was captain Jale Dreola adding his name to the score board. Antonio Tuinuva found the back of the net in the 30th minute before Fiji all but sealed the game just ahead of the break as Naibenia added a goal to his earlier assist.
While disappointed to come back in the second half with a four goal deficit, American Samoa didn’t hang their heads and managed to lock Fiji out of adding to their tally for the duration of the half.
Both sides still have plenty to work on as Fiji enjoyed 78 per cent of possession but of their 30 shots on goal, were off-target 23 times. American Samoa managed two off-target efforts throughout the duration of the match, and will no doubt be looking to improve on those statistics in their coming encounters.
“I was really happy with the way the team performed but they came up short,” says American Samoa coach Luvu.
“I think we’re just going to have to try and learn from our mistakes and carry one. It’s our first game and the first one is always hard. We’ll see from here and try to develop for our second game.”
The second game of the day saw Vanuatu take on New Caledonia. The two sides were pegged as being fairly evenly matched and they lived up to expectation in what was an exciting encounter from the off-set.
New Caledonia came flying out of the blocks with Vanuatu gloveman Charlie Waivui called into early action with Jim Ouka taking several punts.
The match settled into a back-and-forth rhythm as both side ventured forward swiftly but struggled to find the finishing touch that might inch them ahead of their opponent.
Still locked at 0-0 coming back from the break, the match seemed to change for the Francophone side as they were forced into a half-time substitution following a late first-half injury to playmaker Ouka. He was replaced by Simane, a quality player in his own right, but the momentum seemed lost and Vanuatu slowly started asserting themselves with greater authority.
Some exciting forays into the opposition half were led by Bong Kalo with Justin Koka and Andre Bule looking equally impressive on attack. Vanuatu sent the crowd wild in the 66th minute as a pass cut through the New Caledonian defence falling just right for
Koka to chip over goalkeeper Yoran Waima to open the scoring.
New Caledonia’s best chance to pull themselves back into the match came in the 72nd minute as Valentin Nyikeine got his head to a cross, just sending his effort around the post.
An elated Vanuatu assistant coach Anthony Pisano says the match went according to plan.
“We knew New Caledonia was going to come out hard in the first 25 minutes so our plan was to consolidate, and make sure we didn’t concede – and that’s what happened,” he explains.
“It is an important win that instils a bit confidence in the boys heading into the second match. It was an important victory for us and the crowd support from the university students helped get the boys over the line.”
The game played out as closely as expected with Vanuatu enjoying 52 per cent of possession and showing themselves to be slightly more dangerous in their opponent’s area. New Caledonia managed just 13 shots at goal, with five off-target, while Vanuatu had eight efforts on-target and eight off.
It certainly wasn’t the result that New Caledonia were after as coach Kamali Fitialeata explains.
“We didn’t come here looking for that result but I have to congratulate the Vanuatu team, who today won this match.
“Our team was on the mark, except yesterday we learned of the passing of the grandfather of one of our players which could have affected the mentality of the players. But we’re not looking for excuses – we fell to a strong Vanuatu side,” he finishes.
The evening’s final encounter was a tough one to call as Papua New Guinea had struggled in a pre-tournament encounter with the New Zealand U-20 team, while Solomon Islands, a nation brimming with talent, arrived with a squad of relative unknowns.
Getting an early win was essential for this encounter according to Papua New Guinea assistant coach Reggie Davani, who was ecstatic the players could pull it off.
“The boys worked hard and they were fortunate there to get the win in the end,” he says.
The Solomon Islanders made an early foray into the Papua New Guinea area with Joachim Kari and Dunstan Quantifier looking incredibly dangerous on the advance.
However, Papua New Guinea showed they learned a valuable lesson in their encounter with the Kiwis as they took the lead just 10 minutes in. Papalau Awele got behind a free kick just outside the penalty area, it deflected up over the wall before falling for Ayrton Yagas to head past Solomon Islands keeper Phillip Mango.
The goal seemed to invigorate the Papua New Guinea side as they started venturing deeper into the Solomon Islanders half. Though that approach left them vulnerable in the back they were fortunate their counterparts couldn’t capitalise.
A double substitution for Papua New Guinea at half-time saw Janel Cambial and Peter Dabinyaba replaced by Steven Inia and Isaac Lalo, a decision that paid dividends. From another dead ball situation Papua New Guinea extended their lead as Maya Bob lofted the ball in over the outstretched fingertips of Mango.
Solomon Islands continued to excite with their on-ball talents and had a wealth of shots on goal, but the finishing continued to elude them despite some valiant efforts which really tested Papua New Guinea’s Vagi Koniel in goal.
The final minutes of the match were fraught as Solomon Islands chased down an elusive goal, while Papua New Guinea battled to keep their lead.
With both of their goals coming from set-pieces Davani was pleased to see the hard work they’d put into those paying off.
“It’s something we’ve been working on in both attack and defence and we were lucky with the second one but we’ll take it.”
Coming into the encounter Solomon Islands had hoped to secure a victory early in the competition and assistant coach Gideon Omokirio was decidedly disappointed that wasn’t the case.
“We came very determined to win this game and unfortunately we lost by two goals,” he laments.
“Actually we missed a lot of opportunities which we were supposed to convert but it turned out not to be on our side tonight. We’ll go back to the drawing board and the training pitch to sort out some of the mistakes and improve.”
Omokirio isn’t wrong in saying his side missed opportunities.
Of 17 total shots the Solomon Islanders saw an incredible 11 efforts go off-target. While in just six total shots, Papua New Guinea proved their accuracy with two goals, from just three on-target efforts.
The OFC U-20 Championship continues at AN
Z Stadium in Suva on Sunday 25 May with the first match between Solomon Islands and Vanuatu kicking off at 2.30pm. Papua New Guinea play American Samoa at 5pm before the final Match Day 2 encounter between Fiji and New Caledonia gets underway at 7.30pm.
Coverage of the matches via live streaming will be available at the official OFC YouTube channel here.
Live text updates will be available at www.oceaniafootball.com, while updates and social media comment are on Twitter @OFCFootball and the official Oceania Football Confederation Facebook page.

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