New coach heartened by Fijian effort

FIJI – Fiji coach Christophe Gamel remains proud of his players despite two errors gifting New Zealand a 2-0 victory in the FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Lautoka at the weekend.

The All Whites took the lead three minutes into the second half, with Chris Wood converting a penalty after Fiji handled the ball in the box.

Marco Rojas capitalised on a goalkeeping howler seven minutes later to put the result beyond doubt.

Christophe Gamel said those lapses proved costly for the home side.

“We had really good momentum and opportunity to score too,” he said.

“The goalkeeper for New Zealand stopped two very good balls – this is the difference and the gap between professional and amateur – we make two mistakes that cost us the game.

“I remain positive. The most important thing is that the boys enjoyed the game. I need to improve this kind of mentality and most of all that they deserve to play, even against a big team like New Zealand.”

Christophe Gamel only took charge of Fiji at the start of the year and said he was still learning about his players.

“To be honest I don’t know my team in the way that I don’t know the consistency and the regularity of my team,” he said.

“New Zealand, the big difference between them and us they are able to repeat some professional games every week. For us it’s more difficult.

“I have listened to my boys they are really destroyed by the game so let’s see how I can succeed and most of all if they can perform again. This will give me a lot of information in my way to work for the future.

“Because of course now the pressure is on our shoulders and New Zealand only need a draw and I need to win in New Zealand and at the same time I need to win at the second best team of Oceania, which is New Caledonia, so it’s near to be impossible.” - Radio NZ