Footballers elated after Kiribati win

I told you they would win babe!, declared national mens team manager Paul Turepu after the Cook Islands won their first Pacific Games soccer game yesterday 3-nil.

Turepu had every confidence that the team would beat Kiribati and just minutes into the game, Cook Islands Australian based striker Taylor Saghabi sent a sweet shot into the back of the net.

Kiribati fought hard and had goal scoring opportunities of their own but fantastic defence by the Cooks kept the scores at 1-0 at half time and right up into the 70th minute.

With 20 minutes left in the game the Cooks lifted their game to score 2 more goals through Saghabi for his second goal and senior player Campbell Best suffered a concussion for his efforts.

Saghabi said he was happy with his game and the overall performance of the team in the match against Kiribati.

We played very good soccer and Kiribati werent that crash hot so we were expected to win, said Saghabi.

Its a great confidence booster before our next game in two days time against Fiji thats going to be a really tough game.

Back at camp the team are recovering and relaxing after a great game with spirits at an all time high although a couple of players are nursing injuries.