Fiji are almost certain to make an early exit from the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia after losing 9-0 for a second time in their group.
A classy Canada outfit beat Fiji 9-0 at Estadio Atanasio Girardo in their second appearance at the tournament.
Fiji lost 9-0 to Brazill in their opening fixture.
“It’s another level to this soccer world,” Fiji midfielder Talei Moodie said after the Canada match.
“This is our first appearance here so it was likely we were going to get challenged in this way and face things we hadn’t faced before but it’s a really good learning experience, and I believe it’s going to give us motivation.”
All the damage was done in the opening half with forward Annabelle Chukwu scoring the first hat-trick of the tournament, as the North American side put seven goals past the Fijians.
Despite an attacking onslaught in the second period, Fiji showed resilience, fighting hard and creating a couple of chances off the back of some counterattacks.
Canada pushed hard to add to their tally late on in the match, but like she did against Brazil, 15-year-old goalkeeper Aliana Vakaloloma pulled off some terrific saves to deny their opponents.
Fiji’s head coach Angelina Chua was proud of her team’s “courageous” effort in the second-half and hopes to carry that into their final match of the tournament against France on Saturday.
“We regroup, we want to improve always from the last game,” Chua said.
“We play football to score goals, so that will still remain our objective.”
Oceania’s other representative at the tournament, New Zealand, lost their opening game 7-0 to an impressive Japan.
READ MORE: New Zealand outplayed by impressive Japan at FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup >>>>
Acknowledgement
We thank OFC Media for providing information for this story.
Main photo credit: FIFA / Getty Images.
Watch the highlights
Result
Game played on Wednesday September 4, 2024 (NZT)
Fiji 0
Canada 9 (Olivia Smith 7′, 28′ Annabelle Chukwu 24′, 34′, 41′, Kayla Briggs 32′, 35′, Ella Mcbride 67′, Ella Ottey 54′)
This story was first published on September 5, 2024.
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