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Pacific pinnacle event showcases true football passion
Normal rules, of course, do not apply to local VIPs who want to bask in the glory of Vanuatu’s pinnacle event. With every seat already filled, the unannounced late arrival of Ministers with their entourage has been causing some major juggling acts and diplomacy for the local organisers, trying to keep the officials and the paying punters happy.
An estimated 10,000 packed VFF Freshwater Stadium for Vanuatu’s dramatic semi-final win over Fiji, which is a quarter of the population of Port Vila, with thousands more watching from rooftops, car trunks, woodpiles and any other form of elevation.
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Aside from the FIFA-funded Freshwater Stadium, other venues are run by the local government and the pitches are not always their top priority, while the broadleaved island grass makes it difficult to create a smooth surface. The ground staff at Freshwater tried to grow a pitch with thinner grass the players are used to in New Zealand, only to see the local grass to take over in a matter of weeks.
The best training pitch on the main island of Efate turned out to be at the Montmarte School, far in the hills above Port Vila, surrounded by dense tropical bush which can only be reached after some serious off-roading.
The All Whites used Montmarte as their training base, where the support staff got a bit of a fright in their first session, retrieving wayward balls from the bushes and being confronted by huge spiders, allegedly the size of small dogs. As a result, some of the balls were left behind in the bush for the local school kids to retrieve, and the shooting drills were moved to the other goal.
“This is back to basics. Some of these guys haven’t seen a shed like this since they played in the under-14s,” joked one of the Kiwi support staff.
To their credit, the young All Whites squad and their coaches took their new surroundings in their stride without complaints and focused on getting the job done.
Many of the squad had experience football in the islands during previous Under-17 and Under-20 campaigns, and went out there way to engage with the locals, shake hands and pose for selfies wherever they travelled.
Instead of being intimidated, the All Whites seemed to feed off the energy of the raucous crowd, who were only a couple of meters from the playing surface, embracing Vanuatu and its football passion.
Source link : https://footballoceania.com/2024/06/29/pacific-pinnacle-event-showcases-true-football-passion/
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Publish date : 2024-06-29 05:25:22
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