
Tafea women celebrate victory. Photo: Charles Hakwa
Tafea won the Port Vila Football Association [PVFA] women’s Super Cup Final last Saturday at Korman Stadium with a 5- 1 victory over Galaxy.
Tafea showed a lot of dominance from the kick off as they were well coordinated from their goal keeper to their defence, midfield and forwards.
This great team work paid off well when Leimata Sinout hit the Galaxy net to put the girls in red in the lead. Tafea kept pressing forward and Sinout met a well timed cross to blast home the second goal, sending the game into half time.
After the break, Galaxy seemed to have pulled things together as they put together a few well timed passes allowing Diana Sine to pull one back for the girls in blue giving their supporters something to cheer for .
However, Tafea was not going to let Galaxy get away with more goals as that goal seemed to have given them a wake up call.
Robert Calvo’s girls continued to press forward and in the 53rd minute were awarded a penalty which Sinout once again made no mistake in placing the ball past the Galaxy keeper who jumped the right direction but a little too late. In the 65th minute Tafea were awarded a corner kick and Sinout surprised the crowd by curling her corner kick right into the Galaxy net as it deflected off a Galaxy player.
Henriette Sangul then ended the game in the 92nd minute as she headed home the 5th goal.
Tafea Coach Robert Calvo told Daily Post Sports that he was so happy with his girls victory as he says they worked so hard and deserve to win.
Vanuatu National women’s teams performed well in the recent OFC womens nations cup losing narrowly 3-2 to eventual champions PNG and holding Tahiti to a 0-0 draw, Calvo believes this has boosted the morale for all girls who play football around Vanuatu.
He feels that we are on the right track with women’s football and he would like to see all women’s teams in Vanuatu come up as well to grow the ladies game.
He sees a good future in women’s football and says that is why he decided to coach the Tafea women’s team after he spent a few years coaching their men’s team.
In the Galaxy coach, Wanga Tamata says the grand final was tough, however Tafea were the better side.
He says they had plenty of injured players which made it hard for the team to give their best performance, but he is glad his girls gave their best effort for the full 90 minutes. In terms of women’s football in general, Tamata feels that women’s football has dropped a lot, and to revive the women’s game, a lot of work needs to be done.
He speaks of the upcoming 2022-23 women’s championship which kicks off on Saturday and says only Galaxy, Tafea and Erakor Golden Star seem to be the only competitive teams.
He feels that other teams must pull up to make the league more competitive.
PVFA Vice President Harry Attison says he really believes in the growth of women’s football and sees a great future for the ladies.
He says the trophy that was meant to be for the men’s province of origin will now be given to the team who wins the the PVFA 2022-23 women’s league. Leimata Sinout received the player of the match award
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SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST