Tuesday, 11th December – Game #1 v Solomon Islands
A nice day for our 3pm kickoff, sunny and around the 25 °c mark was ideal conditions for us as we took on the highly fancied Soloman Islands, who were expected to progress to the next stage without to many problems.
We got the proceeding underway and it wasn’t too long before the Solomon’s had their first chance, young 16 year old
Taku Samuel was penalised for a trip on Samani who also stepped up to take the freekick, Samani’s shot was wide of the 4 man wall and
Kairua wasn’t forced into a save as he watched it sail out of play.
We had our first chance a couple minutes later when
Maaka moved through the centre of midfield, he was closed down pretty quickly, but a nice sideways pass found
Samania on the right, the fullback surged forward, but again he was closed down around the edge of the box , guarding the ball with his back to goal he crept it down a little further, a nice turn gave him a yard and his hard low cross found
Puroku, he didn’t connect to well on the first time shot, and went wide on the near side, good early chance though
11 minutes on the clock seen
Menapi get a space for them but his shot went into the side netting,
Kairua’s goal kick went long and a nice head on from
Samuel allowed our captain
Puroku to get in on goal when Sasau failed to get their first, from just inside the penalty area he unleashed a fierce shot but it didn’t have the accuracy and sailed over the goals.
This started a goal kick-athon for the next 10 or so minutes which eventually led to the opening goal,
Samani was favoured by a good bounce and his half volley attempt smashed against the woodwork,
Ropiani tried to clear but his attempt was weak and
Menapi found himself with plenty of time and space just outside the box, his shot went to the far side which gave our keeper no chance as he was scrambling to get back into position from the initial shot, 1 down.
It was possession football for some time after that, with both sides just trying to move it around and keep the other team from asserting themselves too much, which led to a lull in proceedings with only the odd 30 to 40 yard shot seen.
With around 10 to play we had a good chance when
Puroku’s layoff just outside the area seen
Samuel hit a low hard drive at goal, it drew an ‘ooooo’ from myself and the bench as well as the crowd as he was only denied by the left upright.
It sparked a good period final period for us and we was rewarded when
Tuka Tisam silenced his critics with his first goal for us, a good strike found the right side of the goals but the credit should go to both
Samuel and
Puroku who set the goal up.
We were caught napping on the restart though and a clumsy tackle around 35 yards from goal seen
David Firisua line up the goals, a stunning strike seen Kairua just watch as it sailed over the wall and into the right side of goals, nothing we could do about that.
Half time seen us come in 2-1 down but we had had enough chances in the first half to suggest we could score another goal, we just needed to tighten up the defence a little so
MacKenzie was brought on for
Ropiani who was having a few problems.
Totori made it 3-1 six minutes into the second half when he got in behind the defence and slotted one under
Kairua and the game looked lost when he scored his second 3 minutes later, [b]Ibe[b]’s pass found him again in space and he took his chance and made it 4-1, Samania was remonstrating with the linesman, he was adamant that it should have been called offside, but its too hard to tell from here whether or not it was or wasn’t.
An interception from centre back
Pareanga on the hour seen him quickly pick out
Tisam who took the ball from just inside our own half straight through the middle of the park, he rounded one defender easily and kept on moving forwards, their other centre back was just trying to force him wide to the right, but wasn’t doing that well of a job, Tisam surprised everyone when he unleashed one from 30 out, the ball went back across the goals and smacked against inside of the left upright beating the keeper, GOAL and it 4-2 on the hour and Tisam had his second of the afternoon.
7 minutes later it 4-3,
Mackenzie found
Martin Samuel streaming down the right he moved past their left back and crossed from the just inside the byline,
Puroku rose above his marker in the six yard box and headed true, his third goal for the Cook Islands which is a record!
The Soloman’s launched a few good attacks but our defending was solid and we had a few good counters, with 77 on the clock and time running out
Conrad Piri was brought on for
Maaka to freshen up the midfield,
Peter Teina also come on for
Mike Lewis who was knackered.
4 minutes later the subs paid off, Puroku’s shot was charged down and the ball went out for a corner, Martin Samuel swung the ball in and sub
Conrad Piri found himself running onto the ball, he connected well and his powerful header found the back of the net and we had just levelled the game at 4-4, what a game!
With 10 minutes to play and the win up for grabs, it was the Solomon’s who pushed for the winner, our players were spent but to their credit they knuckled down and defended well and when the ref blew for full time we had earned ourselves a well earned draw.
You would of thought we had won with the celebrations back in the rooms but I let them go it was a well earned reward for this young playing group, the only concern we had was for Tuka Tisam who had strained his neck during the game, it was touch and go to see if he would play any further part in our remaining games.
Cook Islands 4 – 4 Solomon Islands Match Stats
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Cook IslandsStatsSolomon Islands5Shots Tar545Poss %551Corners 514Fouls92Offsides2</pre>
Goals:
CI: Tisam (44, 59) Puroku (66) Piri (81)
SI: Menapi (21) Firisua (45) Totori (51, 54)
Man of the Match: T Tisam (Cook Is.) 9/15 Pass, 2/2 shots tar, 2 goals, Rating 8.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Player Ratings#PlayerRating1.J Kairua62.V Samania63.M Lewis 5subbed 775.J Pareanga71 assist6.P Ropiani5subbed 457.M Samuel82 assists11.J McDonald718.T Samuel78.B Maaka 6subbed 7710.J Puroku81 goal9.T Tisam 82 goals------------------------------------------------14.P Teina 7on (77) Lewis15.R MacKenzie7on (45) Ropiani22.C Piri71 goal, on (77) Maaka</pre>
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