Solympics up against NZ, Friday
By CROFTON UTUKANA
Solomon Islands national U-23 men’s football team will take on New Zealand tomorrow in their final group A match of the OFC men’s qualifying tournament for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Both Solomon Islands and New Zealand registered six points each after winning their first two matches.
However, New Zealand are leading Pool A with a goal difference of 17 while Solympics had 11 goal difference.
Thus, the match tomorrow will just determine which of the two teams will top Pool A. However, both New Zealand and Solomon Islands have already booked their semi-final spots of the qualifying competition.
The Solympics coach has expressed his excitement for securing their semi-final spot, however clinical finishing is currently hovering his mind in preparation for their final group match against New Zealand.
He reiterated his strikers could score more goals in their first two matches but just wasted many scoring opportunities.
Coach Batram Suri therefore said, for the remaining period before they will take on New Zealand his coaching staff will work on their finishing.
“We wasted too many chances against American Samoa and we have been working on our finishing, we need to put our chances away in this competition so it was good to see the improvement,” coach Suri told OFC Media.
The final group match for Pool A will see American Samoa taking Samoa for final group standing.
Both teams are yet to register any points after losing their first two matches respectively to Solomon Islands and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, in Group B Vanuatu and Fiji has secured their spots for the semifinal of the competition.
