Fiji had their vocal fans on the edge of their seats as they fought back from a 2-0 deficit at half time to defeat Vanuatu 3-2 in the first match while the Young All Whites earned a comfortable 5-0 win over Papua New Guinea.
The wins of each team send a message to the three other nations also battling to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013 as they edge to the top of the standings.
Vanuatu quickly opened the scoring in the first match when Dalong Damalip controlled a long ball before firing home from inside the box in the fifth minute to give his side a 1-0 lead. That advantage was soon extended when Zica Manuhi got his foot to a cross and poked the ball past Fiji goalkeeper Tevita Koroi on 23 minutes. Vanuatu continued to dominate first-half proceedings with Fiji struggling to find the finishing touch they needed to get themselves back in the game.
An inspiring speech in the changing shed at half-time combined with the arrival of the country’s Junior Footballer of the Year Rusiate Matarerega off the bench roused the home side, who came out firing in the second spell.
They were soon rewarded when Narendra Rao fired a shot from the edge of the area which was deflected in to the back of the net 58 minutes in. Just ten minutes later, Fiji equalised when Napolioni Qasevakatini headed home a Praneel Naidu free kick. With only six minutes of regulation time left, substitute Matarerega proved he is worthy of the accolades when he rose above the Vanuatu defence to head home and give his side the lead for the first time.
Fiji coach Ravinesh Kumar said when his team went two goals behind in the first half they started to panic, especially in defence.
“But in the changing rooms at half-time we asked them to play their hearts out, be courageous and fight for their country. That’s what they did, they fought back really well and managed to win,” Kumar said. “I told them that if they scored one goal they would go on to win 3-2 and that’s exactly what happened.”
For Vanuatu the loss was a huge disappointment considering they lost the comfortable two-goal cushion they had earned in the first half.
“The second half was very disappointing because the boys started to make mistakes. They beat us playing lots of aerial balls because they are a big, tall side,” Vanuatu coach Moise Poida said.
“I told my players to push up but they were afraid to leave the space behind so they pushed us back. It’s disappointing but we have to accept the result, we will look to correct our mistakes for the next game.”
The second match of the day ended with defending champions New Zealand disposing of Papua New Guinea in relatively predictable fashion.
The first of their goals came in the opening five minutes after Papua New Guinea defender John Ray committed a foul in the box to earn himself a caution and gift New Zealand a penalty which midfielder Louis Fenton calmly converted.
Fenton was soon back on the scoreboard after latching on to a low pass, which cut through the Papua New Guinea defence, and slotting the ball in the bottom right corner on 11 minutes. New Zealand’s third came just one minute ahead of half-time when striker Hamish Watson connected with a Fenton corner. The fourth goal was scored by substitute Dale Higham in the 79th minute before Wellington Phoenix striker Tyler Boyd converted a penalty to round out the scoring with nine minutes remaining.
Papua New Guinea largely had goalkeeper Charles Lepani’s outstanding performance to thank for the punishment not being a lot worse.
“I was very pleased with our goalkeeper and I thought he was the best performer on our team today,” coach Wesley Waiwai said.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted and we will now have to sit down and work out where we went wrong. I think we need to improve in our defensive shape and in getting our links between defence and attack going so we can go forward more effectively.”
New Zealand coach Chris Milicich said he was pleased to get an early win and agreed Lepani was one of the stand-out players of the match.
“The boys earned the win and scored some good goals, their keeper has had an absolute blinder and if he hadn’t played so well it could’ve been a lot more,” Milicich said. “I thought some of our movement in and around the box was outstanding, it just needs a clinical finishing edge which we’ll work on a bit tomorrow.”
The OFC U-20 Championship returns on Saturday with Vanuatu taking on New Zealand at 2pm and New Caledonia facing hosts Fiji at 4.30pm while Papua New Guinea have the bye.
Match Summary Fiji – Vanuatu click here
Match Summary Papua New Guinea – New Zealand click here
Competition Summary click here
Disciplinary Summary click here

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