OFC Youth Festival

Amazing experience at Oceania Football Confederation Youth Festival.

Capital Football finished in 4th place at the 20 team (9 countries) OFC Youth Festival in New Caledonia last week.

The OFC tournament is designed to provide an opportunity for cultural exchange and international competition.

After acclimatization and a spot of recreation (at beaches) we experienced a fantastic Cultural Day where we were greeted by local schools and exchanged pleasantries before being given a fabulous tour of the National Museum.

The Opening Ceremony was also very cultural as stars from the France 98 World Cup winning team were on hand to share in the festivities. Local hero and footballing legend Christian Karembeu opened the tournament with stars such as Robert Pires, Bixente Lizarazu and Franck Lebouef present.

The Official tournament draw was also held LIVE through oceaniafootball.com with FIFA rules and regulations taking place.

The Under 12 Youth Festival is played on half fields, penalty area offsides only, one female participant in the 9-aside format with match duration 15 minutes with no halftime means that matches are very quick and fast paced.

We finished Group C as winners having beaten Florence (Solomon Islands) 2-0, AS Magenta (New Caledonia) 4-0, Ecole de Taremen (New Caledonia) 6-1 and a 2-0 loss to Imaki (Vanuatu). It was a matter of getting through the first day unscathed and injury free so we could attack the quarterfinals group stage with maximum effort.

The quarterfinal round robin matches saw us draw with WABAG (Papua New Guinea) 0-0 (6-5pens win), beat Erakor (Vanuatu) 1-0, and drew with eventual champions Ba (Fiji) 1-1 (2-1pens win).

Having won our quarterfinal group we came up against New Zealand rivals Auckland in the semifinal. Unfortunately we conceded two goals to free-kicks and lost 2-0 in what was a fine match played in good spirits. For many players this was the biggest match in their young football careers.

Saturday 31st May was a day everybody will remember for a very long time.

We had the 3rd/4th playoff to contest against our newfound friends from Imaki (Vanuatu). All teams stayed at the same venue and many new friendships were formed.

For the record we drew the match 1-1 and lost the penalty shootout 3-1 that saw us finish the competition in 4th place. Imaki (Vanuatu) were unbeaten throughout the competition and had beaten us earlier in the competition. A joint team photo with Imaki (Vanuatu) after our match was a fantastic showing within the spirits of FIFA fair play and the ultimate climax to a superb tournament.

The OFC experience culminated with a bus trip to Stade Numa Daly to watch France 98 vs Oceania XI for Christian Karembeu testimonial celebrations.

Karembeu was born in New Caledonia and won the World Cup with France in 98, the European Championships in 2000 and UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid in 98 and 2000.

After many a singsong (Wellington Phoenix songs) on our bus, we were presented with our 4th place medals in front of the huge crowd inside the stadium prior to the match.

The France 98 team included FIFA World player of the year and French legend Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djourkaeff and Laurent Blanc. The Oceania team included Wellington Phoenix Vaughan Coveney.

Watching Zidane display his exceptional skills in exhibition fashion was fantastic for the kids as was the carnival atmosphere inside the stadium. The match finished 8-2 to France 98.

Coveney said the memory would last him a lifetime.

Our amazing OFC experience will also last a lifetime and the experience will be invaluable to the next step in ones footballing and personal development.

Besim Balicevac.