23 Jan 2015

Sport: Tahiti U17 footballers seal top spot

1:52 pm on 23 January 2015

Tahiti sealed top spot in Group B with a 2-0 victory over Vanuatu at the Oceania Under 17 Football Championship, to set up a semi final against Group A runners-up New Caledonia.

The French Polynesian island won all four of their pool matches in Pago Pago, scoring 29 unanswered goals, to set up a semi final clash with their francophone rivals on Saturday local time.

Tahiti coach Ludovic Graugnard was happy with the result, but says there's still plenty of room for imrovement.

"Our first half [was] not very good. Lot of difficulty to take the ball [and] to do some movement. After the second half it was better and now I'm very happy for my players, it is good for the confidence of my team. Now there is a semi final to prepare [for]. We don't know anything about New Caledonia for the moment [but] tonight and tomorrow we watch some video of New Caledonia".

Defending champions New Zealand will play Vanuatu in the other semi, with the overall winner to represent Oceania at the Under 17 World Cup in Chile later this year.

Meanwhile Solomon Islands ended their tournament in a flourish, beating co-hosts American Samoa 13-0.