Fiji soccer’s off to Rio

 Fiji’S men’s soccer team has made history by being the first Pacific islands country to qualify for the Rio Olympics after edging out Vanuatu 4-3 on penalties last night during the Olympics qualifier and Pacific Games gold medal play-off at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium.

According to an elated coach Carlos Buzzetti, Fiji had become the first island country to qualify for a soccer World Cup.

The match last night was a tight affair and went down to the wire when Vanuatu and Fiji players failed to score for the regulation 90 minutes and the 30 minutes of extra time.

In a tense shoot-out, the teams each scored thrice from their first five players.

 Vanuatu’s Chanel Obed and Fiji’s captain Jale Dreola were called up for the ensuing shots, with Dreola coming out as the hero after Obed failed to score.

It was sweet revenge for Fiji after they failed in the last Olympics qualifier after losing 1-0 to New Zealand.

“What a final, what a final, this win means the world to us, I mean for Fiji and Oceania because this is the first time an island nation qualifies for Olympic qualification,” Buzzetti said.

“And for Fiji we just qualify for a World Cup for the first time in the 76-year history and we’ve done fantastic. I was part of that and now qualifying for this, its two years within which we qualify for two events, its incredible for Fiji,” the 70-year-old coach said.

Buzzetti, who is from Australia and married to a Vanuatu woman, was Vanuatu national coach for seven years.

He  has been Fiji coach for the past four years said their hard work had paid off.

He said nine players from the Under-20 World Cup joined them eight days before they came to Port Moresby for the Pacific Games so their preparation was not that ideal “but I can see during the Games that we’ve been starting to improve and improve”.

Buzzetti said there were two primary agendas for his team and he would sit with Oceania Football Confederation president David Chung as part of his preparations.

“Two things, we got a one-year preparation and the Confederations Cup for the seniors, so we have two things to work on,” he said.

“We want to make sure that when we go to the Olympics, we don’t go just to play and become numbers but we want to make sure we go into the next round,” he said.

Fiji will meet New Caledonia on Wednesday at they advance into the Pacific Games finals.