Twelve teams are participating in the games, divided into four groups of three. Among the biggest favorites are Fiji or New Caledonia, in any case, only the winner of the group advances to the semi-finals. Football players from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea also wanted to fight for a good position. They were drawn together in Group B with Tuvalu, an outsider.
But one of the key moments came at the very beginning of the tournament. Papua New Guinea attended the match in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. However, the opponent did not arrive. “Due to travel issues for the Tuvalu team, the match has been postponed,” the official Pacific Games website said.
A bizarre and cruel elimination for Papua New Guinea at the Pacific Games. After drawing with Vanuatu they lose out to them on goal difference in their 3-team group because Tuvalu didn’t arrive in time for their game giving them a 3-0 win by default opposed to Vanuatu’s 6-0! pic.twitter.com/GNuWTea3GD
— Paul Watson (@paul_c_watson) November 23, 2023
So Papua New Guinea won without a fight, specifically 3:0. Joy and advantage to the development of the group? Rather not. In the next match, the players of Vanuatu beat Tuvalu 6-0, and before the last match it was clear that in the event of a draw, they would go on thanks to the better score and the higher number of goals scored.
“It’s good to start with a win and now we can look forward to an important game against Papua,” declared coach Emerson Alcantara determinedly. Although Papua New Guinea led 1:0 at halftime of Thursday’s match, Vanuatu managed to equalize in the second half. The 1:1 result means only one thing – the representatives of Vanuatu remain in the game for gold.
“Today was a big test for us, I’m proud of the team. Really good preparation for the semi-finals for us. We have to stay focused, we mustn’t slack off for even one minute. The match was not easy, Papua has a really good team,” said the Brazilian coach.
The pool match between Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea ends in a draw.
Posted by Sol2023 XVII Pacific Games on Wednesday, November 22, 2023
The coach of Papua New Guinea, Warren Moon, did not make excuses for the adversity. He mainly regretted the missed chances in the decisive duel. “We deserved to score, we were the better team in the first half,” he assessed. But then another unfortunate moment occurred. Papua already had a substitution, but one of the players was injured and the team had to finish with ten. “I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t make more substitutions. It was a big turning point. We had chances after that but we couldn’t convert them,” added Moon.
Vanuatu now faces either Fiji or Tahiti. In the second semi-final, the home Solomon Islands will face New Caledonia, or the Cook Islands. The other participants are only waiting for the placement matches.
