Went back and looked at that one again and can confirm it was Isaako who got his boot to the ball and into the path of the New Caledonia player. So good call on that one from the officials.
It took us a long time to get into the game and I think we were surprised by the quality of New Caledonia.
I actually believe bar for the final 5 - 10 minutes of the first half that they tended to dominate and we looked to play more direct on the counter as a result. It wasn't until late we actually looked to get some passing going (not helped by how hard the pitch was - very bouncy).
Lualei in the back looked good, but outside of him I was not that impressed. Our goal keeper made a howler (Woud like) and almost cost another goal in the first half trying to do too much. The other two CB's were not great with the ball at their feet and made some poor decisions (including turning into trouble which led to NC's second goal). Midfield was poor, not showing enough, not winning the 50/50s and our strikers struggled to hold the ball.
Our full backs were ok as was the Surpyk (sorry about spelling) who got a hatrick, but was AWOL for large parts of the game and struggled to keep control/retention of the ball under pressure.
I'm sure we will only get better from here, but a very iffy start to say the least.
I thought the centre-back in the middle - number 6 Gardiner - looked the best of the backline. He looked solid and delivered the ball a bit, but it is probably easier having centre-backs either side.
New Caledonia had a bit of action down their right flank in the first half, and then the penalty came from down that side in the second half when Isaako was left a bit exposed with a two-on-one, but also probably didn't need to make the challenge. Have to remember, though, he's a 15 year old kid, you have to live with these kind of things happening.
I was actually a bit let down by Leuluai, especially given there hasn't been many players get more hype prior to even playing NZ U17s. Of course, none of that is his fault, and is a combination of being at a big 'brand-name' club and having a famous NZ sporting last name. His first touch looked a bit heavy and was fortunate not to be dispossessed on the edge of the box by two NCL pressers in the first half. He gave away a few fouls where he just went straight through his man unnecessarily and the passing radar was a bit off. He was solid in the air, and didn't look to be beaten in many aerial duels, and did look to improve in the second half.
We of course have no idea how good NCL are in respect to the other teams, they could be the best team there, but, thinking back, there weren't too many chances and their 'keeper didn't have much to do. All three goals would be ones NCL would look back as avoidable on another day, with small errors, but that might be par for the course in U17 football. A loss would mean nothing, as a win over American Samoa is all that is needed to get to the quarters. It's also worth remembering at the last OFC U17/16 Championship the U17s lost their first game 0-5, so it's no longer a foregone conclusion away in the islands.
It's never nice watching teams beat American Samoa - they need help from Oceania/FIFA. Fair play to them they never give up and kept it somewhat respectable in games. Wasn't overly impressed with our boys celebrating goals excessively - bit more respect needed especially after our poor sportsmanship in game 1.
Samoa looked ok in attack against Fiji the other night but struggled defensively so shouldn't be to much of an issue for us if we meet.
Have managed to watch pieces of all games so far and the pick of the teams for me have been NZ, New Cale, Tahiti. Fiji and Vanuatu will fight all day but look a little off the cuff.
American Samoa has a population of 57,000. That is about New Plymouth or Rotorua in size. There are more people in Porrirua.
It's really a bit of a waste of time FIFA throwing cash at them, Tonga (100,000), Samoa (200,00) or Cook Islands (18,000). Their ability to improve marketedly is so small. That's not even allowing for the rugby codes being the no 1 sports in these countries.
Likes of Solomons & PNG do have some potential upside. There is a football academy now up & running in the Solomons.
That completes the action in Group B, with New Zealand finishing top on six points, with New Caledonia on three and both through to the quarterfinals. For American Samoa, they will be watching on with interest, as their slim hopes of staying in the tournament rely on either the Cook Islands or Tonga suffering heavy losses in the last two group games.
If Fiji are smart they would lose to Tonga by 1-4 goals, finish second in the group and take their chances against Tahiti, Vanuatu, New Caledonia for the second world cup spot.
If they lose by 5-22 they finish third in the group and face NZ in the QF If they draw or beat Tonga they finish first and face NZ in semi-finals.
More evidence of why 3 team groups are a bad idea.
Ummm...I'm sure the first option (losing to Tonga by 1-4 goals) looks attractive to Fiji. That's with both finalists making the WC - so win your semi and you are off to Peru.
But Tonga lost to lowly Samoa 6-0. They are obviously very weak.
Not sure how you lose to them by any margin, without the OFC tourney organisers looking to step in.
Perhaps they need a final game where the losing finalist plays winner of 3rd/4th game. Winner gets the 2nd WC spot. Otherwise is seemingly bad luck for whoever draws NZ in their semi.
What an absolute mess!!! 3 groups...7/8 teams qualifying for playoffs. Only in Oceania.
In saying that i think Fiji could upset NZ - they are fit and strong at the back and have some supper lively boys up top. coochiee
Ummm...I'm sure the first option (losing to Tonga by 1-4 goals) looks attractive to Fiji. That's with both finalists making the WC - so win your semi and you are off to Peru.
But Tonga lost to lowly Samoa 6-0. They are obviously very weak.
Not sure how you lose to them by any margin, without the OFC tourney organisers looking to step in.
Perhaps they need a final game where the losing finalist plays winner of 3rd/4th game. Winner gets the 2nd WC spot. Otherwise is seemingly bad luck for whoever draws NZ in their semi.
hard to make comparisons with teams gone by but I can't recall when any age group fijian team beat NZ. Last time our U17's met them we dominated and won 5-0 (19/02/17). Even if the Fijian's have improved I can't see them having the skillset to deal with anything NZ will throw at them if/when they meet next.
What an absolute mess!!! 3 groups...7/8 teams qualifying for playoffs. Only in Oceania.
In saying that i think Fiji could upset NZ - they are fit and strong at the back and have some supper lively boys up top. coochiee
Ummm...I'm sure the first option (losing to Tonga by 1-4 goals) looks attractive to Fiji. That's with both finalists making the WC - so win your semi and you are off to Peru.
But Tonga lost to lowly Samoa 6-0. They are obviously very weak.
Not sure how you lose to them by any margin, without the OFC tourney organisers looking to step in.
Perhaps they need a final game where the losing finalist plays winner of 3rd/4th game. Winner gets the 2nd WC spot. Otherwise is seemingly bad luck for whoever draws NZ in their semi.
If Fiji are smart they would lose to Tonga by 1-4 goals, finish second in the group and take their chances against Tahiti, Vanuatu, New Caledonia for the second world cup spot.
If they lose by 5-22 they finish third in the group and face NZ in the QF If they draw or beat Tonga they finish first and face NZ in semi-finals.
More evidence of why 3 team groups are a bad idea.
Well none of that was actually true, as the QF draw was randomised with top (iv) drawn blind against bottom (iv)
Not sure what you’re saying here regarding anti-NZ conspiracy. Did you watch the draw via the link posted above? Why do you think it bizarre; as noted earlier by someone, pre-setting the knockouts would have almost certainly been death knell for Fiji before the tournament even started. Always hard with limited teams, but at least this way prior to kick-off, any two teams ‘mathematically’ could have made the final.
Not sure what you’re saying here regarding anti-NZ conspiracy. Did you watch the draw via the link posted above? Why do you think it bizarre; as noted earlier by someone, pre-setting the knockouts would have almost certainly been death knell for Fiji before the tournament even started. Always hard with limited teams, but at least this way prior to kick-off, any two teams ‘mathematically’ could have made the final.
No I didn't watch the live draw, so fair enough it was likely all above board.
But if you are the best team in your pool, shouldn't you be rewarded with an esaier QF. Though I guess Vanuatu were 2nd in their pool (losing to Tahiti).
Just strange NZ gets the hardest QF. All moot I guess as we should still be too good for Vanuatu. Though yesterday's Fiji v Tonga game was played in a torrential downpour. A repeat of that could make any QF a bit of a lottery.
I do think the addition of QFs in the first place is a sly tactic to increase NZ's chances of faltering in a knockout game. Definitely not a conspiratorial take, and something that I could see the powers that be at OFC organising
you do get the genral feeling that NZF is not really liked amogst the other OFC nations, we are clearly the big fish in a small pond. I guess our obvious dominance over the years could be a bit fr=ustrating to the like of Fiji and New Caledonia who are the next cabs off the rank who could well end up in a playoff spot for the next WC.
@Coochie FYI since you didn’t watch: For QF draw, they stuck 3 group winners and best second place team in hat one, others in hat two. Random pick from each hat for each QF We could just as easily got Cook Islands. Luck of the draw. Really can’t see a fairer way given the 9 team tournament.
what a quarter final so far! 0-0 but chances at both ends! Vanuatu with the best chances though! Our goalie has made a massive one on one save.
We look poor at the back tonight. Our captain #14 horrendous. He's getting embarrassed. We look lively up top so we could score i think....but so do they!
our #22 just got their player sent off!! he shouldnt have touched him like that but the vanuatu player has lashed out in reaction. Big moment in the game.
Penalty ensured we got there in the end, but man what an effort from Vanuatu, their defense was pretty damn solid. Glad we didn't have to go to penalties.
91st pen winner!! What was the keeper doing absolute crazy foul! Just saw him get MOM award too. shambles.
Got the job done thats all that matters. Need to sort our defence out...subbing the captain at halftime worked! De Villiars looks an outstanding player!!!
We will beat Fiji...they will be over aroused!! seen it already this tournament. I think it could be a blow out score against 9 men.
Not gonna lie, am a little worried about the Fiji game and prospective final. Yes we annihilated American Samoa but both our games against reasonable opposition (New Caledonia and Vanuatu) were actually pretty close. Really given the players, opportunities and resources available we should be streets ahead of them. Who is the coach?
Thought we dominated largely, but had to be weary of their pace on the counter. I thought their keeper deserved MOM for the game. Made a lot of good saves, came off his line well. The penalty was not a reflection of how he played.
Our biggest problem was our final ball - lots of them were over hit, or too far ahead of the on-running player. Get that right, and we would have been comfortable.
Ref got the two big calls right, but we got very little else.. the amount of throw ins etc which went against us, to little nudges, I thought was poor.
Our captain was poor and could have been given a second yellow in the first half and been sent off.