Donkers, Supyk and Karunaratne all look brilliant. Manuel great as always in the centre of the park
Cook Islands goalkeeper was exceptional. Ngereine Maro, only 17 but already starting GK for Western Suburbs in the Central League. Would have easily been double digits with someone else in goal
…or travel issues. Some of these island teams don’t have the money to arrive the week before. At an OFC tournament a couple years back one team arrived on morning of their first match. Apparently to save on costs. With airlines rescheduling and pulling flights like they do these days, and those two teams likely taking the same route, it’s possible they got bumped if they had plans to arrive only day before
Good to see Darren Bazeley rotating majority of the players in the tough conditions. Only players to keep their spot from the other day is captain Surman , Conchie and Manuel.
One of the worst refereeing performances I've ever seen. Not unexpected, but I never cease to be blown away by the mindlessness of some of these decisions. I understand a few grumps reading this might think “we won, didn’t we?”, but regardless of the big win we shouldn’t settle for this as the standard for international football.
Referees playing some sort of self-imposed "mercy rule" I'll never understand. Combine the two wrongly disallowed goals and the five or six ignored penalties with all the open goal misses we're guilty of screwing up, and the score could nearly well be twenty
9-0 win though - hard to be upset with that! Donkers is mad good - very cultured, good burst of pace, great first touch and certainly has the body for men's senior footy. Soup, Beale, Fay and Manuel also acquitted themselves well
…or travel issues. Some of these island teams don’t have the money to arrive the week before. At an OFC tournament a couple years back one team arrived on morning of their first match. Apparently to save on costs. With airlines rescheduling and pulling flights like they do these days, and those two teams likely taking the same route, it’s possible they got bumped if they had plans to arrive only day before
Vanuatu's facebook page said they had issues getting visas to travel.
Press Release
Re: Vanuatu U19 Team misses match from the Vanuatu vs New Caledonia match
The Under 19 team could not travel as initially scheduled on the 3rd of September 2022 due to NZ travel visas. The only visas received were the Visas for Tahiti. The New Zealand Visas did not arrive.
A rescheduled flight was made for 7th September, however, the flight could not be boarded due to no NZ visas.
VFF’s main problem for not being able to play or not arriving in Tahiti is due to reasons beyond the control of VFF;
a) Passports were applied for but only arrived on Thursday 1st September 2022. Currently, there is a issue of passports since the opening of borders in July 2022. This is well understood.
b) Visas for Tahiti were ready on the 2nd of September 2022.
c) NZ visas did not arrive for the Saturday 3rd September 2022 flight.
d) NZ visas arrived on Wednesday 7th September however after the flight time of 7 am in Port Vila.
VFF did attempt to check for further alternatives to the point of enquiring about a possible charter with Air Vanuatu to connect overseas ports to avoid visa issues.
Now that the NZ Visas have arrived, the team is scheduled to travel on Saturday 10th September, and to arrive on the 10th also in Papeete for the match on the 11th September 2022 against Samoa.
The Under19 team still has a chance to the quarter-finals if they win their next match with Samoa.
Vanuatuans very critical of the team for always being last-minute and disorganised, so it doesn't seem like this is a new issue at all for these nations - just the time that they've happened to be caught out.
Aaaaand it's happened again. This confederation is an absolute abomination. Stunning levels of incompetence going on somewhere in this chain. Embarrassing.
A little off topic but the passport system in Peru is currently a shambles. You need to go to the Airport passport office 48 hours before you fly, stand in a long queue basically all day to be given a new passport by days end (or even that night)!! Go home grab some sleep, return to the Airport to fly the following day.
Otherwise you won't get a new passport until 2023! All a hangover from Covid, and govt processes currently broken down.
So not totally surprising in a country like Vanuatu there are also issues getting new passports issued for a bunch of young U19 year olds, who have obviously never needed one before.
Could it end up that some of the easy beat teams now like Cooks, American Samoa or Tonga get a free pass into quarterfinals??
Immigration NZ must use the same fax machine as NZF to issue transit visas !!! Using the initials VFF might not have helped either.
To top it all off, as Vanuatu only had 3 in their group, their -6 goal difference (assuming two 0-3 walkover losses) will be better than whoever is 3rd in group A, either American Samoa (-15 goal difference) and Cook Islands (-11 goal difference), so Vanuatu could still go through to the quarters as one of the two best 3rd place teams. (assuming results against 4th placed team are ignored for purposes of determining two best 3rds)
You apply for a NZeTA Visa (transit visa) online through the NZ Immigration website. Basically issued within an hour from memory, and copy of the visa sent to applicant via email.
I'd say the Vanuatu FA have screwed up here more than any fault of NZ. Though is also an onus on the Airline's booking system to have received details of the NZeTA, before they will let you board the plane. Basically Vanuatu left this all very last minute to sort out.
I think the Solomon Islands will definitely put up more of a fight than the Cook Islands and American Samoa in today's game but should still be a comfortable win. Predicting a 4 or 5-1 NZ win, don't want to jinx anything though ha ha.
The result means Tahiti win Group B on goal difference and they will face either the Cook Islands or Vanuatu in the quarter-finals. Fiji will face Samoa, with both games taking place on Sunday, September 18.
The final Group B game between Papua New Guinea and Tonga takes place tomorrow, Thursday, September 18 at 3.00pm local time.
Cannot wait to hear the utterly ridiculous reason this happened. Oceania Football Clownfederation does it again.
That should mean it goes down as a Papua New Guinea victory, in which case they'll qualify for the quarterfinals as a third placed team, despite not playing any of their scheduled three group stage matches.
Vanuatu will also advance missing both of their games, as the two walkover losses means both teams' goal difference is -6, as the other third place team, Cook Islands, have a GD of -11 (results against bottom placed teams are discounted due to the uneven number of teams).
