The hosts could not support the technical superiority of the Tama Ura: Tahiti displayed excellent football especially in the second half to surpass Fiji and get the third-place finish at the OFC U-17 Championship after an emphatic 3-0 win; Tahit’s top-scorer in the tournament Titouan Guillemant was particularly impressive participating in all three goals of his team in the match.
Tahiti had shown certain difficulties to sustain the pressure from the Fijain team in the start of the game, especially the Australian-based player Ibraheem Afazal was a threat to the Tahitian defensive system – that proved to be a weakest point of the team throught the tournament as well in this match, despite the impressive performance of its goalkeeper Argan Cloudic-Boucher in this match and also the previous games of Tahiti in the competition.
Despite the pressure, the team coached by Sunil Kumar could not take their chances. Tahiti also created some opportunities especially through the efforts of Keanan Faure and Titouan Guillemant; but only after the first-half the Tahitians were able to break the deadlock: at the 51th minute, the French-based Vaitea Seguy scored a fantastic goal from the edge of the box after a play created by Guillemant in the right. Five minutes later it was Guillemant who scored the goal, after a sloppy defensive mistake from Fijian team allowing the Tahitian No. 9 to be found free at the penalty box.
At the 68th minute it was the turn of the substitute Ariiheivarau Tama to score – assisted once again by Guillemant that left Tama free in the box just to tap-it-in. The Tahitians took total control of the match in the final third of the game with a very tired Fijian team on the pitch totally beaten.
Ibraheem Afazil still tried to get some trouble to the Tahitian defense with this runs and also with a set-piece finish, but nothing that really put in the danger the goal guarded by Argan Cloudic-Boucher.
Despite not progressing to the U-17 World Cup, Tahiti finished on a high the tournament showing they have great talent to take for the next years especially on the names of Titouan Guillemant, Argan Cloudic-Boucher, Vaitea Seguy and Keanan Faure.
Oceania Football Center 