Striker Roy Krishna scored two second-half goals as Fiji beat New Zealand 2-0 yesterday in an Oceania qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup that had no bearing on the Kiwis’ progression to the next round.
The loss was New Zealand’s first in six matches in the final round of the Oceania qualifying. New Zealand will now play the fifth-place team from the Asian confederation in the next stage of qualifying, the winner of which will play in the World Cup in South Africa.
Two early rounds of qualifying left New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to contest the single qualifying spot from the Oceania confederation which New Zealand clinched when they won five home and away matches ahead of yesterday’s match.
The final group match, played in front of a raucous capacity crowd at Churchill Park, Lautoka, was originally due to take place in Auckland on Oct. 13, last year but was postponed when the New Zealand government refused entry to a Fijian player.
New Zealand has applied political sanctions against Fiji since a December, 2006 coup and routinely refuses entry to representatives of the Fiji military or their families. The Fiji goalkeeper selected for the original match was a relative of a Fiji army officer.
The match was initially shifted to a neutral venue — Apia in Samoa — but was able to go ahead yesterday on Fijian soil.
Though no longer able to qualify, Fiji thrilled home fans with a comprehensive win over an “All Whites” team that was reduced to 10 men after the 59th-minute dismissal of goalkeeper Glen Moss.
The Wellington Phoenix keeper was sent from the field after disputing a decision by Vanuatu referee Lencie Fred.
Krishna seized on the opportunity and scored Fiji’s opening goal only four minutes after Moss’s dismissal. He took a neat pass from Pita Bolaitoga, turned the last defender and slipped the ball past Jacob Spoonley, who had replaced Moss in the New Zealand goal.
Krishna, who plays in New Zealand for Waitakere City, sealed the match with his second goal in the 89th minute, taking a cross and deftly working the ball around Macarthur Rams defender Steven Old to blast home from close range.
The only time New Zealand qualified for the World Cup was in 1982. Australia have dominated the Oceania region but switched to the Asian confederation after the last World Cup in search of better competition and direct entry.
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