Sunday 17 November 2024
Vanuatu’s hope for a place in the semi-finals of the OFC FIFA World Cup Qualifying Tournament is still alive as we prepare and look forward to the final group show down against Tahiti on Monday 18 November in Auckland.
The match against New Zealand All Whites is now behind us, and our focus remains on reaching the semi-finals. Obviously New Zealand have secured the top position of Group B from their two wins out of two matches.
Coach Juliano Schmeling says the team are on the same understanding that the match against All Whites are behind and they are focused on the Tahiti match on Monday.
Tahiti’s 3-0 win (over Samoa) in their second group match on Friday 15 November and Vanuatu’s 1-8 loss to New Zealand on the same day has brought both island teams level on 3 points. This means the winning team on Monday would finish second in the group.
Meanwhile New Caledonia have finished top in Group A following the 1-all draw with Fiji in Port Moresby today. Fiji Coach Mick Byrne said after the match that he was not happy because his team have not really played according to their game plan. Coach Byrne said he hoped his boys would be ready when they enter the semi-finals.
Fiji will play winners of Group B, who are most likely to be New Zealand. New Caledonia will play the runners up of Group B, which will be determined after the Vanuatu vs Tahiti match on Monday.
In another perspective in the Vanuatu match on Friday, we may have lost; but we had scored a goal against a all professional New Zealand side. The “wonder goal” by Jordy Tassip against the New Zealand All Whites, was an eyebrow raising achievement….a good enough goal to reflect on our ongoing development of football in Vanuatu.
We have said that we have two main hopes in the tournament – to win, and to get the attention of professional club scouting agents for our players. We may not have players playing at the level most All Whites are play in, but we believe our ongoing development programs have produced players good enough to play at the level Brian Kaltak and Roy Krishna are currently in.
Vanuatu must win to make it through while a draw would be enough for Tahiti.
