Trio to join U19s at OFC championship

THREE Under-19 soccer players will now join the team in Auckland, New Zealand after sorting out their travel documents this week.
Coach Rachel Wadunah told The National from Auckland that Alison Paulus, Gorethy Poafa and Amatha Mistera could not travel with the team earlier because their visas were not ready on time.
“The three girls did not travel with the team because of the complications in the process of getting their passports on time in order to lodge for their visas,” Wadunah said.
She said the trio were now cleared and would join the girls in New Zealand. They left yesterday and should arrive in time for the games against Fiji on Friday and Samoa on Monday.
Wadunah said she was pleased with the performance of the girls in the last three outings.  However, for the match against Tonga, she gave credit to the opponents stating that they put a strong challenge.
“Tonga’s performance was good. They held the ball, they passed the ball and they combined well to finish off that goal. It was a fantastic goal,” she said.
“The opposition were very tough. They wanted tofocus to sit back and defend. That made my girls struggle a little bit but at half time I told them they needed to go in and try and play as hard as they could and they really came back.”
PNG upped the pressure after conceding, creating several opportunities up front. The Tonga backline managed to hold them out until the 26th minute when a perfect through ball from Ramona Padio set up Selina Unamba in front of goal.
Padio found the net herself in the last minutes of the half, sending the ball past Mele Akolo after the keeper dived to punch away Padio’s first attempt at goal.
Six minutes after returning to the field for the second half Padio found herself with a brace as she once again followed up a clearance from Akolo. Nicollete Ageva got the final goal for PNG, positioning herself perfectly to receive a ball from Padio who had weaved through the midfield to meet Akolo in a one-on-one.
Padio tapped the ball right to an unmarked Ageva, who calmly slotted the ball into the goal.
Down the other end of the field, Tonga’s Seini Lutu was unlucky not to score after having several attempts blocked by goalkeeper Faith Kasiray.