On the ground the real excitement was Samoa’s 5-1 drilling of Cook Islands which not only wowed the home crowd, but saw them comfortably move into a mid-table position.
After notching some pretty comprehensive losses in the opening two match days of Group A, both Cook Islands and Samoa saw this encounter as an opportunity to claim three points and restore some pride.
Their previous encounter had Samoa losing 2-1 to Cook Islands, which also happened to be at home in Samoa during the 2013 OFC U-17 Preliminary in 2013, adding an element of revenge to this evening’s match-up.
With a vocal and supportive home crowd at their backs, Samoa opened in frenetic fashion, putting Cook Islands goalkeeper Chrismagne Elikana to work immediately. After several impressive stops from the keeper, Mose Sofala finally beat him with a stunning strike to open the scoring in the eighth minute. A further flurry of shots were aimed at the Cook Islands goal with a second goal finally coming in the 24th minute when some confusion between two defenders resulted in the ball rattling the net for an own goal.
Cook Islands never put their heads down and finally that determination paid off when Samuel Koiatu pulled one back 15 minutes from the half. After the break it took just ten minutes for the hosts to hit back yet again as striker David Wensley finished. He notched up his brace in the 66th minute when he took one touch onto his left foot and fired between Elikana and his far post. The fifth and final for Samoa was the icing on the cake for Frank Mariner who raced past the last defender before blasting a shot past the keeper, a well-deserved goal for the Samoan captain who played out of his skin.
“I’m very happy,” an almost speechless Samoa coach Desmond Faai’uaso says.
“First of all I just want to thank God that we won tonight. I’m really happy with the performance of the boys. We had a team talk this morning, my boys they really wanted to win this game so they came and played well and deserved the win.”
It certainly wasn’t the result Cook Islands were expecting, or wanting, and coach Delaney Yaqona had to credit Samoa on their outstanding performance.
“It’s gut-wrenching, the boys were all pumped up for it, as I said it’s a game everyone was looking forward to. Hats off to Samoa, they had their chances and they put them away.
“The fact that we created opportunities was great but again, just too many mistakes and in the game of football you make too many mistakes you’re going to get punished for it.”
New Zealand’s match with Papua New Guinea in the day’s middle slot wasn’t the one-sided affair many thought it might be with the Kiwi’s keeper keeping his side in the lead on several occasions.
The New Zealanders started strong with several driving runs into the Papua New Guinea area in search of some early comfort. However their opponents weren’t having a bar of it as they too eyed up the three points. Just over 20 minutes in Michael Woud was forced into double-time action making two saves in quick succession to deny the opener.
Fortunately for him his teammates were working equally hard on attack and finally found a way through the Papua New Guinea defence in the 32nd minute. The relentless hussle from Sean Skeens saw him recover possession and pick out Jack Anderson who fired past a helpless Jerry Seriba between the posts.
Leading just 1-0 at the half, New Zealand upped the ante in the second period and despite some near misses, finally added a comfortable cushion in the 65th minute. Sarpeet Singh delivered another near perfect corner and this time Benjamin Mata was waiting at the far post to head home. A penalty in the 80th minute was scored by Ben Kiore for New Zealand’s third, but the win was marred in the dying stages as captain William Jones was given his second caution of the match – and thus his marching orders.
Regardless of that, coach Jose Figueira was pleased to come up trumps in a tough match.
“We knew they would be diffuclt, they’re one of the more organised teams and they’ve got great coaching staff so we knew we were going to be up for a tough game.
“I thought we were a little bit slow to get started and that’s a credit to PNG, but I thought second half we really dominated and played the way I wanted the boys to play, possess the ball and look really controlled.”
For Harrison Kameke the loss was hard but there remained plenty of positives to take from his team’s performance.
“It was brilliant from the boys, I was happy with their performance, unfortunately as we all know New Zealand is a better team but overall I was happy.
“We have plenty to work on and hopefully we’ll do better in our coming games.”
The opening match of the day saw New Caledonia, a side in contention to top the group, take on Fiji, a team sitting mid-table with no wins to date.
With New Caledonia the favourites going in, it came as no surprise that they were pressing high in Fiji’s half from the outset. But despite some decent runs on goal, they were unable to get that sought after opener. Instead that honour fell to Fiji as Simeli Batiratu was played on off a lengthy free kick and fired home to claim Fiji’s first goal of the tournament.
New Caledonia hardly looked unsettled by the set back and continued to run rampage through the centre of the pitch. A stunning run from Joris Kenon in the 29th minute saw him dart around three defenders before unleashing past Fiji keeper Waisake Ravuiwasa.
Just before the break Nelson Kai somehow got one through from the tightest of angles before Joseph Hnagone headed home at the back post to give their side a 3-1 advantage.
New Caledonia continued to dominate after the break and finally extended that lead to 4-1 when Marino Akapo finished an impressive period of passing with a goal. Fiji looked close to pulling one back as New Caledonia’s high backline left them exposed on several occasions, but Patrick Nyikeine was in impressive form to deny them time and again. The fifth goal was a disappointing concession for Fiji as a crowded box saw them concede an own goal.
Despite going behind early New Caledonia coach Kamali Fitialeata wasn’t scared for a second.
“We knew that we were playing our game and there was nothing to be scared of. The lads are a little tired, feeling the competition physically, but we didn’t panic and continued to play our game.”
The opening goal was very much a consolation prize for Kamal Swamy who believed his side could have done better.
“We had a lot of chances we couldn’t capitalise on and then I think New Caledonia was a better side. We need to work on possession football, we’re not holding onto the ball as well as we should and losing after one or two passes.”
Match Day 6 takes the action to Pago Pago, American Samoa for Group B before the Group A sides bid for dominance on Match Day 7 in Apia, Samoa at J.S. Blatter Football Complex.
Match Day 7 takes place on Monday 19 January with New Zealand taking on New Caledonia at 2pm. Fiji play Cook Islands at 4.30pm before hosts Samoa play Papua New Guinea at 7pm.

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