New Zealand and Vanuatu recorded matching 4-1 victories to start the Oceania Futsal Invitational with a bang on Tuesday night in New Caledonia.
The Futsal Whites thrashed Asian Confederation representatives Malaysia in the opening game, in a nine goal swing from the 7-1 defeat suffered against the same side last year.
New Zealand coach Scott Gilligan says they played a simple game and defended very compactly, labelling the result leaps and bounds ahead of last year's effort.
Malaysia coach Maizal Marzuki believes his team played well, but simply couldn't score, with New Zealand converting their mistakes into goals at the other end.
Vanuatu produced another big turnaround in the later game, scoring in the opening minute en route to victory over Tahiti.
Coach Louis Dominique was elated at the result against a team who beat them 5-3 a year ago.
In the second round of matches hosts New Caledonia get their campaign underway against Tahiti before New Zealand take on Vanuatu in a top of the table clash.
