Jonathan Spokeyjack: “Vanuatu was prepared for New Zealand”

Since Australia left the Oceania Football Confederation in 2006, New Zealand took the spot as top team in the region and turned into the big task of all other 10 countries to challenge their clubs and national teams at the Confederation tournaments. So on, just twice clubs from outside New Zealand won the OFC Champions League – Hekari United and Hienghène Sport – and once the OFC Nations Cup – Tahiti.

In the last OFC Olympic Qualifiers, of course, the strong U23 New Zealand side named by the coach Des Buckingham was the team to be beaten and Jonathan Spokeyjack was aware of it: “We could stop New Zealand, we draw against them in Pacific Games in Samoa, but unfortunately we could not face them in final”.

The frustration of the 20-year old winger is clear: they have done a fantastic group stage winning all of their matches, but were stopped by a brave Solomon Islands team in the semifinals, being defeated by 1-0.

“We controlled the entire game. We lost the opportunities we had to score while they had one chance and scored – to be reducted to ten men also decreased a lot our chances”, says the Ni-Vanuatu International.

Vanuatu brought the best of young tallent they had to the competition: well-known names Jason Thomas, Ronaldo Wilkins and Bong Kalo starred for the team. It makes us remember the amazing time Vanuatu football had in 2017, when they qualified for South Korea 2017 World Cup – where Jonathan Spokeyjack had the chance to play: “It was very challenging. It was also my first experience playing against full professional players – a great atmosphere at the stadiums”.

Vanuatu played against Venezuela, Mexico and Germany and could surely come home happy with their results: despite a massive 7-0 defeat against Venezuela – that ended up the competition at the 2nd place -, they lost by 3-2 in the following games against Mexico and Germany. Spokeyjack remembers: “We fought till the end. We were happy because we scored goals and It was the first time in a FIFA tournament for a small nation like ours”. Vanuatu almost hold Mexico to a 2-2 draw, but a last minute winner could not make the Pacific Islanders to make their history even brighter.

Despite not being able to reach their goal – to face New Zealand at the grand final of the tourmanent – the Ifira Black Bird player was positive about his team performance: “We did very well in attack with good combinations. We were able to beat Fiji twice at their home and also finish in the 3rd position. We made a top tournament, we lost just one match and conceded only two goals”. The winger also added that “Etienne Mermer is the best coach in Vanuatu currently” and agreed with Oceania Football Center when mentioned the team seemed very well organized in pitch and well suited.

Spokeyjack dreams with an opportunity to turn professional overseas and hopes his work will get recognized: “We need media exposure, actually people can not see our hardwork here in Vanuatu. There are not football agents, so only VFF – Vanuatu Football Federation – is the one that can arrange trials and other chances for us. If we could get better media exposure we would attract some teams with our tallent.“

Spokeyjack club in Port Villa Premier League started the 2019/20 season with one win and one draw – he hopes with a good season and lots of hardwork he can manage to have better football opportunites to him all good talents Ni-Vanuatu football have. With already good experience from a FIFA U20 World Cup, him and the good generation of Vanuatu – that comes majorly from this great experience at U20 World Cup – Jonathan Spokeyjack hopes to shine even brighter.

Oceania Football Center is working to showcase the tallent all over Oceania and we hope to continue – and suceed – our job to make the football world connected with the best we have in the Pacific region.