In an exciting finish, Nadi Fiji earned the prestigious Pacific Cup at the soccer tournament held at Mt Smart Grounds in Auckland last weekend.
The team emerged successful as the final game, pitched against an invincible Ba Fiji, went into extra time.
Nadi Fiji scored with a penalty kick.
Four District teams from Fiji joined five local teams to provide fans exciting soccer as the tournament went into a nail-biting finish.
New Zealand teams had a hard time to compete with Soccer giants from Ba and Lautoka.
Waitakere displayed good soccer skills from their development side.
Young Harshad Raniga played excellent soccer and it was good to witness a boy from our own community doing so well.
I am sure that Jai Raniga would be proud of his son.
The Australian side also played good soccer on their first game against Ba but somehow as the game progressed, injury became a factor.
Nadi NZ was the only local side besides Waitakere to reach semi-finals.
They now realise that they need to improve their game to progress further in soccer and contest successfully against other professional teams.
The Ba side played to the crowd’s expectation.
Nadi Fiji, Winners of Pacific Cup 2012
Teams Ba against Nadi from Fiji
Pacific Cup Trophy – Soccer in action
Pacific Cup Trophy
Winston Peters presenting the Pacific Cup Trophy to the Nadi goalkeeper
Ba team thrills
This professional and well-balanced team was a pleasure to watch.
Ba fans and supporters were very pleased.
Credit is also due to the Nadi side, as they played well.
I believe that the standards of our referees need improvement.
I know that they did their best in the final game but that was not good enough.
Now that Fiji FA and the Australian (AFSA) and NZFF Inc are all affiliates, we will rely heavily on FIJI FA to assist us in various areas.
The Pacific Cup Tournament held at Mt Smart Grounds in Auckland last weekend was a major success.
People came to watch this event in great numbers.
Such soccer tournaments are a great way of bringing people of Fiji together.
I would like to thank our sponsors and supporters for their patronage.
I hope this is the beginning of greater things to come from NZFF Inc.
Rajesh Jattan is the Chairman of the Pacific Cup Tournament.
