Harry Chote in action for Samoa in their FIFA World Cup 2026 Oceania Qualifier football match against the All Whites at Go Media Stadium. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Samoa played defensively according to their game plan, as they worked on restricting New Zealand from scoring more than 10 goals, in a game the All Whites won 8-0 at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland on Monday night.
Going in as the underdogs, the Samoans managed to hold New Zealand for 23 minutes in the first spell and in patches throughout the final Group B game, with the team already missing out of any chances to qualify for the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 26 Oceania Qualifiers.
Head coach Jess Ibrom said he was elated to hear the final whistle and added he was proud of the players.
"I actually feel quite elated coming off because we did hold them for quite long periods and when we did not keep our discipline they punished us because they had nice of quality players," he said after the game.
"Immensley proud. We had drilled them with a lot of information and we had chatted about keeping Chris Wood at bay.
"We got to look forward now, three to four years. We have to keep our recruitment drive going, we have to play games."
Ibrom said they just wanted to test the players, with a lot of young players. Including students Luke Tolo-Kent and Luke Salisbury.
All Whites skipper Wood claimed a hat-trick and led New Zealand to an 8-0 win at Mount Smart Stadium on Monday night in the final Group B round-robin game in the
Woods said they wanted to finish the competition on a high and did so in style.
He returns to English Premiership duties this weekend, after scoring five goals during the matches here in New Zealand.
The 8-0 win was the hosts' second in three days, having defeated Vanuatu with the same margin Friday in Hamilton.
The Samoans were brave, and did not allow the hosts to score until the 24th minute, when Callum McCowatt broke the deadlock in front of 5327 fans.
With their defensive game plan in play, the visitors crammed their own halves throughout the game, trying to keep the All Whites marked outside the box.
It worked for them in keeping the scoreline respectable but restricted their own chances of countering to score goals.
The Samoan side is ranked a lowly 186th in the FIFA World Rankings compared to Darren Bazeley's All Whites, who are ranked 91.
While the New Zealanders dominated from the outset against their largely amateur opponents, they found a strong resilient defence difficult to break down.
Marko Stamenic had three shots in the first five minutes that forced goalkeeper Pele Fatu in the Samoan goal to make three tremendous saves.
Samoa were happy with the 3-0 half-time scoreline and it took another 15 minutes after the restart for New Zealand to find their groove again.
Wood scored in the 27th, 34th and the 60th, while Callium McCowatt (24th), Marko Stamenic (61st), Francis De Vries (76th), Elijah Just 87th) and Ben Wane (90th) got the others.
New Zealand will now meet Fiji in a semi-final in March 2025 while New Caledonia and Tahiti will clash in the other.
The winner of the OFC qualifiers will advance straight into the world cup, while the runner-up gets a chance through a repecharge play-off with other teams from the different confederations involved.