Solomon vs Vanuatu for 3rd and 4th Playoff at the OFC 17

The Katukatus, the Solomon Islands' national U-17 team, have qualified for the 3rd/4th play-off match of the OFC U-17 Championship with a 4-1 win over Cook Islands at North Harbour Stadium today.

Group B rivals New Caledonia also had hopes of progressing to the play-off and gave themselves every chance with a 17-0 win over Tonga but even that wasn’t enough to deny Solomon Islands their spot.

Coach Chris Asipara and his Solomon charges needed a victory to make sure they would finish second in the group behind winners Tahiti - whose top placing qualifies them for a grand final meeting with New Zealand on Wednesday – and began as if those thoughts were at the forefront of their minds.

It took just 24 minutes for the Katukatus to get on the scoresheet when Solo Kuki found the net with a strike from the edge of the area but any hopes they had of a comfortable afternoon were quickly put to rest.

Tamaiva Smith pounced just before half time to draw Cook Islands level and give them a fighting chance to add to their sole win at the tournament, a 6-2 triumph over Tonga.

On the other side of the stadium, New Caledonia were 3-0 up at the same stage and looking as if they had every chance of scoring the raft of goals it would have taken to overhaul Solomon Islands’ goal difference and snatch second place from their grasp.

Had they known what was happening in that match, Asipara and his men might have been concerned about their prospects but they made sure the calculators wouldn’t be needed with a strong second-half showing.

Junior Albert calmed the nerves in the 53rd minute when he re-established the Katukatus’ lead and the points were all but secure when Kuki scored his second to make it 3-1 ten minutes later. Captain Dickson Bua added a fourth in the 73rd minute to make sure of the points and earn his side a meeting with Vanuatu in the 3rd/4th play-off.

Asipara admits the victory was far from straightforward and was relieved to finally confirm a place in the play-off.

“We had a problem at the beginning because Cook Islands were well-organised and they made it hard for us,” he says. “Our passing was not very accurate and we will need to make a lot less mistakes against Vanuatu because they are a good team.”

Cook Islands coach Tuka Tisam thought his team worked hard but struggled to maintain their efforts over the 90 minutes.

“We did very well in the first half and it was good to equalise just before half-time – that’s always a great time to score,” he says. “We gave ourselves a chance to go on and get something from the match but I think the boys ran out of steam in the second half.”

New Caledonia had no such problems during their meeting with Tonga, firing home an amazing 14 goals in the second period as they looked to keep alive their faint hopes of progressing. A 10th minute strike from captain Renaldo Nonmeu and a Neyl Ausu double, his goals coming in the 14th and 36th minutes, had them 3-0 up at the break and the floodgates opened in remarkable fashion after the restart.

Nonmeu went on to score four more times while Ausu added another two to his tally and was joined as a multiple-scorer by Ben Malakai, who also notched a double. Nine different players got their names on the scoresheet as Leon Sakilia, Ricardo Passil, Cedric Decoire, Thomas Buscaglia, Stephane Tein-Padom and Erwan Djamali all got in on the act as well.

Co-coach François Tartas, who has taken the team with Herve Gnipate, could find little fault in today’s performance but believes his side’s earlier efforts were not up to the standards required.

New Caledonia began with a 2-1 loss against Solomon Islands and that setback, coupled with the 3-1 defeat to finalists Tahiti, ultimately denied them a place in the top two.

“I’m not satisfied with our performance overall,” Tartas says. “I think it took some of our players too long to get going in the tournament. We made too many mistakes and that cost us in the end. But our players enjoyed today because so many of them were able to score.”

In the last day of action on Wednesday, Vanuatu will take on Solomon Islands in the 3rd/4th play-off at 1.30pm before the grand final showdown between New Zealand and Tahiti at 4pm. Both games take place on North Harbour Stadium’s outer oval.

Source:oceaniafootball.com