Solomon Islands national women’s Futsal team registered its first win in the OFC women’s Futsal nation’s cup after beating Tonga, 2-0, in a much tough encounter, Tuesday.
The match was played at Friendship Hall, East Honiara.
Two goals from captain Ileen Pegi and Madlyn Aekuru in the second half was enough for the home side to walk away with the victory in front of the home crowd.
The two goals came in the early minutes of the second half thanks to skipper Pegi who found the right combination in front of the Tongans’ goal mouth and fired her first goal.
Aekuru then slotted home the second goal to extend their lead until the end of the match.
Head coach Arthur Barko told Star Sport after the match, saying, he was pleased with the girls for their efforts throughout the match despite a slow start in the first half.
“I told the girl after the first half, we have to work more harder in the second half and make use of our scoring opportunities and so the girl return and did what I told them,” Barko said.
Barko said, winning yesterday’s match is important for the team going into their two remaining matches.
“On that note going against New Zealand and Fiji won’t be easy, it will be a challenge.
“But the win today (yesterday) will help motivate as we move towards our second match,” Barko added.
Meanwhile, Tongans’ defeat against the host yesterday marked their third defeat of the competition and left with one match in hand while Solomon Islands has two matches in hand.
Meanwhile, the first match the same day saw New Zealand Ferns put on a commanding 9-1 over Fiji in an entertaining match thriller.
Fiji despite categorized as a team to watch in the OFC women’s Futsal nation’s cup, they went down in the hands of the Kiwis.
New Zealand proved it’s strength and dominance and put on a five star performance in the first leaving the Jerry Sam coach side fail attempts in scoring.
Coming into the second half with renewed strength as Fiji hoping to close the gap while Zealand still aiming for a much comfortable lead.
In the second half the Jerry Sam coached side stepped up with intense performance against the Kiwis and were able to slot one home to close the gap. However, they can’t just make use of their scoring opportunities that hardly cost them at the end.
Kiwis then responded with another four goals in the second half extending the scoreline to 9-1 against the determined Fijians until the final whistle.
Tuesday is rest day for all teams.
All matches will resume Thursday which will see the hosts going against New Zealand at 5pm.
By FLOYD TERRY JNR
Solomon Star, Honiara
