HONIARA, Solomon Islands—The CNMI Men’s National Soccer Team recorded its first win in the Pacific Games and in the Oceania region after they defeated American Samoa, 4-0, yesterday morning at the SIFF 2.
Team captain Jireh Yobech set the tone for the team as he notched a goal via penalty kick in the 21st minute. The rest of the first half was quiet as American Samoa’s defense tightened up, but a slack in the second half allowed NMI strikers Ruben Guerrero and Nolan Ngewakl to follow their leader and tack more goals on the scoreboard.
Guerrero went on to fire at the net not once but twice, to make it 3-0 by the 70th minute—much to the delight of the Blue Ayuyus and NMI’s supporters in the stands.
Toward the end of the match in the 90th minute, the youngest player on the team, Nolan Ngewakl caught a quick break and scored the fourth and final goal after just a few seconds of being subbed into the match.
To top it off, Merrick Toves, the team’s main goalie, recorded his first international clean sheet—meaning he did not concede a single goal in the match.
Yobech said after the match that it went according to plan—which was to score goals from the side as they had identified it as American Samoa’s weakness. They defended strong centrally, so NMI’s strikers moved the ball down the line, created some crossings, and pushed to score their goals.
On his goal, he said, “It’s my first senior men’s goal. The moment they called for penalty, I knew it was going to be me and I knew exactly where I was going to put it and I put it there. I’m satisfied with that.”
As for their team’s first win in Oceania, he said that playing here was a new environment against new opponents, and they faced a lot of unknowns. “I think the fact that we came here—we had a good showing against Tahiti—and had great results today (yesterday)—it shows that we’re competitive in Oceania. Hopefully that means the sky’s the limit for us in Asia as well as we are part of the [Asian Football Confederation].”
Toves, for his part on not conceding a goal, said “It’s a blessing. I thank my team for their hard work on the field defending and my coach Jersh [Angeles] for coaching us here, and Chris Aninzo for telling me what to do and be a better keeper. It’s really a blessing for me and it motivates me.” He also thanked his goalkeeper coach in England, Michal Korbel, who coached him before he came to Solomon.
He added that the team knew they were going to win their match. “We did our best, we came out stronger than American Samoa. We also got better results in our second game against Tahiti than our first against Fiji, then today we won with four goals… It’s a blessing for the team and our country.”
Guerrero was asked how he felt after he scored two goals and said that he just came into the game to do his job as a striker and score goals. “I really wanted to score one goal and fortunately, I scored another one as well, so I was really happy about that. I was happy because not only was it a personal achievement, but it was an achievement for our whole team—and I’m just glad I was able to contribute to the team like that.”
The youngest player, 15-year-old Ngewakl, said his goal was “lucky” as he had just come in to sub for Markus Toves. Brian Lubao passed the ball at the right moment and Ngewakl found an opening quickly to score the fourth goal just before the match ended.
Ngewakl added that he was really surprised because he didn’t know if he’d play, let alone score a goal, but was happy when he ended up doing both.
Head coach Michiteru Mita was all smiles after their win and said, “I’m very happy of our achievement—on what the boys did today. They put so much dedication, hard work, sacrifice, and finally, the boys delivered a good result.”
“We didn’t concede a goal either, so defenders and goalkeeper concentrated in the game until the end, so we could manage the game,” said Mita.
He said they’ll now shift their focus on the next game as the boys are still hungry for another win. “We will prepare as much as we could and we’re going to have a great last game,” he said.
Mita then gave a nod to the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association family and said, “Thank you for your continued support. Win or lose, you always support us. I want to congratulate all NMI soccer family for our achievement made by our soccer team.”
He also thanked NMIFA president Jerry Tan and NMIFA’s executive committee members for their continued support of the men’s and women’s national teams. “We will keep working hard and keep striving to reach a higher level of play,” said Mita.
Coach Konomi Suzuki and player Zhi Xiang Lin couldn’t make it to the match due to illness from the past couple days.
Even without a podium placement this time around, NMI is in the Top 10. They need to beat Tuvalu on Thursday to place ninth.
Published by Saipan Tribune – November 28, 2023