We miss out here and Fiji
By HENRY MORABANG
PAPUA New Guinea women and the U23 men soccer teams failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games over the weekend in their respective soccer tournaments.
In Fiji, PNG finished fourth after losing two games and winning two in the five-team U23 Olympic qualifier. PNG lost to the Solomon Islands 6-0, Fiji (7-0) and New Zealand 5-2 and beat the Cook Island 6-1 and Vanuatu 7-2.
At Lloyd Robson Oval in Port Moresby, New Zealand booked the ticket to Beijing Olympics after seeing off a determined Papua New Guinea side 2-0 in front of a vivacious crowd of 3000 spectators.
The result was inevitable according to New Zealand coach John Herdman but the game told a different story as New Zealand struggled to break down a resolute Papua New Guinea backline in the first half.
It took 55 minutes before they were able to break the deadlock when Renee Leotta was first to react to a scrappy clearance in the PNG box and coolly smashed the ball into the bottom corner to give goalkeeper Linda Bunaga no chance.
Kirsty Yallop made sure of things in the 81st minute when she found time and space in the PNG six yard box to calmly slot the ball into the right corner.
But the real story of the day was the spirited, gutsy performance of the Papua New Guinea side which had the crowd on their feet from start to finish with their inspirational performance.
The match marked the first ever live broadcast of Women’s soccer in PNG – through EMTV - and combined with falling on International Women’s day proved a very inspirational day for the women of the PNG squad.
Captain Miriam Lanta - named best defender of the match by sponsors Toyota – led by example and was emotional when she said that the match was one that she will remember for the rest of her life.
“I am proud of my team. Last time we played New Zealand we lost 7-0 and today was a great improvement. It was a good day.”
Coach Francis Moyap was equally proud of his team.
“We knew that New Zealand had a big size advantage and were good with the long ball. I told our girls that it needed to be a team performance to compete and that’s what they gave me. Today’s (Saturday) performance came from the heart.”
New Zealand coach John Herdman admitted that his side looked tired after a grueling schedule over the last week.
“We just had three games in six day’s in Australia leading into this one, and combined with only having one day to acclimatize made it very tough on the girls.
“But they dug in mentally and battled well through the immense heat.”
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