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Samoa
New Zealand Match Australia’s Opening Salvo
by Jeremy Ruane
With Australia having begun the Oceania qualifying series for the 1000 Women’s World Cup Finals with a 21-0 hiding of American Samoa in Auckland on October 9, the onus was on host nation New Zealand to match their trans-tasman rivals’ efforts in the later game at Mt. Smart Stadium.
Sure enough, the SWANZ did just that, with Samoa on the wrong end of exactly the same scoreline, 21-0, a result which delighted the many locals among the 600-strong crowd.
It took the SWANZ just 75 seconds to set their sights on goal, Pernille Andersen testing the reflexes of Samoan goalkeeper Tufa Vaigalu with a twenty-yard snapshot. But it took until the ninth minute for the home team to open the scoring, Andersen doing the honours from the penalty spot after Hilda Hellesoe had handled the ball in the penalty area.
This opened the floodgates, with the host nation scoring at regular intervals in the next twenty minutes. Andersen set up Wendi Henderson for a coolly taken second goal in the eleventh minute, while some superb approach play - one of the outstanding features of New Zealand’s display throughout this one-sided encounter - engineered the opening which allowed Sacha Haskell the chance to fire home a fine third goal sixty seconds later.
Henderson hit both the post and crossbar in the sixteenth minute with successive shots, the second of which, much to Amanda Crawford’s delight, allowed the gifted attacker to head home from point-blank range.
Within seconds, Andersen spurned a golden chance to make it 5-0 when looking to be unselfish with just Vaigalu to beat, but she certainly made amends in the eighteenth minute, a rip-snorter of a drive careering past the bewildered goalkeeper from the edge of the penalty area.
The Samoans put through their own net in the 22nd minute, as they attempted to clear a Henderson corner, while Nicky Smith’s searing drive two minutes later found the goalkeeper’s midriff, not the back of the net.
The individual goal of the night came in the 28th minute from the boot of Haskell - a thunderous twenty-five yard volley which sailed into the far corner of the net with venom aplenty. Within three minutes, the SWANZ had hit the frame of the goal as many times, Henderson, Rachel Oliver and Kelly Jarden the unfortunate trio on these occasions.
After a brief respite, the scoring avalanche resumed in the 38th minute, Andersen completing her hat-trick with a stylish finish after weaving past three opponents.
Haskell joined her front-running team-mate in the hat-trick stakes just two minutes later, a flowing left-flank move, in which Oliver and Smith were most prominent, culminating in a lobbed volley from the boot of the vice-captain, the ball arcing sweetly over the head of Vaigalu and under the crossbar.
Right on half-time, double figures were amassed through Andersen, who picked her spot with a gem of a shot following the link-work of Michele Cox and the well-performed Henderson.
The second half began with New Zealand hitting the crossbar three times in as many minutes. Twice Henderson had the misfortune to see her shots ricochet off the woodwork, before it was Andersen’s turn to suffer the same fate, this from the penalty spot after Miti Samau had handled the ball in the area.
The striker went close to making amends within a minute, sending a diving header inches past the post after Cox had weaved her way past three defenders before delivering a pinpoint cross.
The same pair combined in the 52nd minute for the SWANZ eleventh goal of the evening. Cox switched play wide to Andersen on the left, and the striker sliced inside before drilling a shot inside Vaigalu’s near post.
Another flowing move soon after left Henderson wondering if she would ever find the target again in this match, her shot creeping inches past the post on this occasion.
Following a brief lull, another series of attacking forays resulted in almost as many goals. A quick Haskell free-kick was punched away from Andersen by Vaigalu, but only as far as Smith, who smacked home a scorcher from the edge of the penalty area in the 62nd minute.
A further two minutes elapsed before another quality move gained its due reward. Crawford had had a quiet game by her standards, but she exploded down the right on this occasion, and sent over the sort of invitation to score which no striker worth their weight in goals should pass up. Andersen duly obliged - 13-0.
Vaigalu produced a tremendous triple-save a minute later, Andersen, Henderson and Smith denied by the ‘keeper, the save produced to deny the last-mentioned’s thumping drive coming right out of the top drawer.
Henderson’s run of misfortune in front of goal continued in the 66th minute, but her crossbar-striking shot brought joy to the face of her Wairarapa colleague, Smith, who edged out Andersen in the race to notch the fourteenth goal of the night.
Haskell completed her night’s work in style a minute later. Her call for Henderson to deliver the corner to her near the edge of the penalty area was heeded by both the corner-taker and the SWANZ captain, Terry McCahill, who stepped back to allow her deputy to let fly. Another volley found the back of the net, much to Samoa’s frustration.
Jennifer Carlisle, Haskell’s replacement, almost scored with her first touch in the 74th minute, but barely sixty seconds had passed before the SWANZ were celebrating again, with a little more delight than previously. For this time Henderson was accepting the plaudits once again, the executioner of another fine left-flank foray.
To prove it was no fluke, the striker crashed home her hat-trick goal in the 78th minute, and there was a touch of irony to go with it, the ball finding the net via the underside of the crossbar. This made the score 17-0, and a further four goals were added in the next eight minutes.
The first of these was undoubtedly the best team goal of the evening. Jarden and Oliver set the ball rolling in the 82nd minute, and the ball travelled via Smith, Cox, debutant Joanne Evans and Henderson to Maia Jackman, who finished with aplomb aplenty.
It would have been somewhat inappropriate had birthday celebrant Cox not found the net against the country she first appeared for New Zealand against on this ground in an unofficial international eleven years ago. But two strikes - a ten-yarder and a tap-in - in the next ninety seconds meant she had something else to celebrate besides turning thirty.
The latter effort brought up a score of scores for the SWANZ, and one more goal was to come, in the 86th minute. Fittingly, it was Henderson who concluded the scoring, her diving header concluding another fine team goal in a most appropriate manner, 21-0 the final score in Samoa’s first venture in Women’s World Cup soccer.
The result set a new record for New Zealand, their previous best having come about in the 1991 Women’s World Cup qualifying series, when Papua New Guinea were eclipsed 16-0 in Sydney.
Scoring details:
New Zealand 21 (Andersen (6), Haskell (4), Henderson (4), Cox (2), Smith (2), Crawford, Jackman, own goal),
Samoa 0
SWANZ: Howard; Ruscoe, McCahill, Jarden; Crawford (Jackman, 69), Cox, Haskell (Carlisle, 74), Smith, Oliver; Henderson, Andersen (Evans, 66)
Samoa: Vaigalu; Hellesoe, Samau, Liaga, Ropeti; Mumu, Lolo, Talai, Vagaia (Gidlow, 73); Mamea, Patu (Sagatu, 57)
Referee: Tammy Peacock (Australia)
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