Team Vanuatu showed their superior skills against Tonga yesterday in the OFC Under-17 Soccer Championship, Group B, taking place here in American Samoa. Vanuatu took the lead early on when Sylvain Worworbu scored within the first minute of the game.

Worworbu also added goals in minutes 31 and 65, as Vanuatu cruised past a valiant Tongan team with a score of 9-0. Vanuatu teammate Abednigo Sau also had three goals (50, 64 and 67 minutes), which helped to lead his team to victory.

Samoa News will have the American Samoa versus Tahiti game results on line later today with a full roundup in Tuesday’s edition.

In Group A in Samoa, powerhouse and tournament favorite New Zealand showed their strength by overwhelming host nation Samoa this past Wednesday. It did not help Team Samoa any when they scored the first goal of the game in their own goal in the 4th minute of the game.

New Zealand was not complaining, because soon after, they scored eight unanswered goals for themselves that led to a 9-1 victory over Samoa.

Leading scorer for New Zealand was Logan Rogerson who had goals at the 63, 70 and 87 minute marks. It was not a total loss for Samoa though, as they did manage to score when their captain Frank Mariner put one goal in toward the end of the match.

Also in Group A this past Wednesday, New Caledonia was able to show their strength and could be a real threat to New Zealand. On Wednesday, the New Caledonians took care of business when they downed the Cook Islands. The New Caledonians were led by leading scorers Etienne Poanoui who scored at the 4 and 55-minute marks, while teammate Henri Boucheron had goals in at the 29 and 90-minute marks en-route to an 8-1 victory over the Cook Islanders.

The next set of games in Group B will be tomorrow (Saturday) at the Pago Pago Soccer Stadium. At that time, Tonga will be taking on Tahiti with a scheduled starting time of 1:00 p.m. as Vanuatu will be facing the Solomon Islands with a scheduled starting time of 3:30 p.m.

Times and schedules of games are subject to change without notice. The Football Federation of American Samoa invites the public out to all of the games in this year’s OFC Under-17 Soccer Championship.