For pride and country

Samoa Women were able to win bronze in a 3rd place playoff match set by Oceania Hockey after Women’s World League Round 1. They defeated Vanuatu 2-1 in extra time.

In their previous encounter on Monday, Samoa had convincingly beaten the Ni-Vans 4-1. The Vanuatu Women were striving not to have a repeat of that defeat.

A short corner in the 5th minute was hit over the cross bar by Violina Nofoaiga of Samoa. Another shot a few minutes later by Atogugaaletuitoga Vaiau went wide.Samoa had early chances to open the scoring but weren’t able to finish their moves.

Samoa however was able to score first a minute from half-time with a goal to Tuila Lenora Pereira.

The teams headed into the break with Samoa having a one-point buffer over Vanuatu.

Jubilation came early in the second half for Vanuatu, when in the 40^th minute Iso Poilapa scored their equaliser. With it being the first time Vanuatu were fielding a Women’s side in an OPC tournament, they had never been so close to winning a match, let alone a bronze medal.

Samoa had a chance to take the lead again with 2 short corners consecutively in the 46^th minute but a now fired up Vanuatu defence foiled both attacks.

In the second half Samoa kept play mostly in Vanuatu territory but the Samoans weren’t able to put the right finishing touches to produce points. The superb goal keeping of Vanuatu’s Lisbeth Samel kept the scores level. With only 10 minutes remaining on the clock it became a question of if Vanuatu could hold out the Samoans till the full-time siren and force them to extra time.

In extra time Faapene Malu scored the golden goal securing the bronze for Samoa. The Samoa team were very emotional with the win.

Malu’s mother, Pauline Sulu Paulo who is also playing in the side was very happy especially the huge part her daughter had in it. Amazing fact is that this is their first year ever playing hockey. “I’m very proud of her,” Paulo said.

“Both teams were trying their very best. We did score the 1^st (goal) in the first half and then they (Vanuatu) equalised, Paulo continued. “That score is for our country. You know very well that our country was hit by a cyclone, so this is a win for our country.”

Last Modified on 26/12/2012 10:35

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