Kapuls run down

PAPUA New Guinea’s hopes of advancing past the pool stage of the World Cup soccer qualifiers took a blow yesterday when they lost to Tahiti 3-1 at home.
The Kapuls now face the daunting prospect of travelling to Papeete to try and salvage their qualification hopes.
Flemming Serritslev’s men will have to better Tahiti on goal aggregate  if they are to erase the deficit next Monday.
In front of a small crowd of fans, the Kapuls looked every bit the regional contenders they appeared to be at last year’s Nations Cup in Port Moresby.
The only question was how long they could hold it up.
Having good possession in the first-half, the home side looked sharp after Kapuls striker David Browne was sent off with a red card for elbowing a Tahitian player.
Coach Serristlev said being a man down threw off their game plan but they needed to recover quickly and set their contingency plan in motion.
He lamented the fact that his side could not retain possession for any concentrated period.
Serritslev also said the red card given to David Browne was dubious and he wasn’t happy with the decision.
“Even though we lost, I still credit my players for playing on till the end,” Serristlev said.
In an aggressive first-half, where play was stopped when players jostled and pushed after Browne bloodied the face of a Tahitian with a vigorous challenge, Nigel Dabinyaba took advantage of the Tahitian’s emotion’s to score.
That goal gave the home fans something to cheer about and for a while it looked as if PNG could manage a 1-0 lead with 10 men — but then reality struck.
Keeping the heat on the PNG defence from the opening whistle of the second 45 minutes saw the French Polynesians level  the scores through Sylvain Graglia in the 59th minute.
As the home side ran out of steam, Graglia nailed his second goal in the 85th minute, silencing the home crowd.  Teaonui Tehau put the icing on the cake for the visitors three minutes into injury time, sending the home crowd packing.
Serristlev said losing the game at home was heart-breaking but he would ensure they regrouped for the second match on Tuesday in Papeete.