In the day's first matchup, the New Zealanders put the controversy of the last week behind them as they shutout the Fijians in Lautoka, 2-0. They scored once in the first half but almost saw their lead vanish when the tournament's top scorer Vakatalesau hit the crossbar. Smeltz buried two goals in the second half off of headers, but both were disallowed due to offsides violations. He broke through onside with under five minutes to go to complete the tally. Both teams' next games are on November 17th.New Zealand coach Herbert commented after the game. He said, "the pleasing thing for me was that we showed some real character. I'm happy with how we ground it out. We talked extensively at the hotel beforehand about how it didn't matter what the performance looked like, we just wanted to get a result... We stuttered along at times and probably didn't get players forward like we wanted to, but at the end of the day I'm delighted for the players because it's three points. That'll give everybody a bit of confidence and it's given us some momentum going into next month's home and away fixtures against Vanuatu."
Sierra Leone held serve at home with a 1-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau. They scored early and then played the final seventy-five minutes out as a scoreless draw. Sierra Leone takes the lead in the aggregate score to leg two on November 17th. After that match, Africa will be down to its final forty-eight teams and ready for the preliminary draw.
Goal scorers:
New Zealand: Vicelich 32; Smeltz 86
Sierra Leone: Kewullay 15
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