{"id":599805,"date":"2026-09-14T06:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599805\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:38:14","slug":"new-zealand-made-to-work-hard-to-take-title-at-ofc-u-19-mens-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599805\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand made to work hard to take title at OFC U-19 Men’s Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand have won their tenth OFC U-19 Men\u2019s Championship crown, beating Tahiti 2-0 at the Samoa Football HQ in Apia.<\/p>\n

The Junior All Whites were made to work hard to get their hands back on the trophy, finding the initial breakthrough just before half-time, and then sealing victory late with a strike from Harley Hill.<\/p>\n

It was a far cry from the 8-0 win that New Zealand enjoyed when the two nations met 12 days earlier in the knockout stage, and a far more competitive contest between OFC\u2019s two representatives at next year\u2019s FIFA U-20 Men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

Main photo: New Zealand \u2026 retained their OFC U-19 Men\u2019s Championship title. Photo credit: OFC Media \/ Phototek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tahiti worked hard to keep the New Zealand attack at bay for almost all of the first half, despite losing Bradley Ruiz to injury early, one of three players in the squad with experience playing in the OFC Pro League for Tahiti United.<\/p>\n

Just as it looked like they would hold the Junior All Whites scoreless through to half-time, disaster struck.<\/p>\n

Dejaun Naidoo powered a dangerous low delivery into the box, which defender Malo Dieugard could only put in the back of his own net under pressure from Victor Barbosa.<\/p>\n

Oscar Grosso missed two big chances in quick succession to add to New Zealand\u2019s lead in the second half, forcing back-to-back saves from Nihuau Firiapu, whilst Keahinui Brown came close for Tahiti with a long-range effort that curled inches wide of finding the top-left corner of the net.<\/p>\n

Substitute Harley Hill provided the finishing touch for New Zealand in the 79th minute, drawing level with Solomon Islands captain Jayroll Patty atop the Golden Boot standings with his fifth goal of the tournament and New Zealand\u2019s second of the afternoon.<\/p>\n

He came close to claiming the Golden Boot outright as well, having a goal ruled out for offside, before having a late spot kick saved by Firiapu.<\/p>\n

The two goals were enough for the Kiwis to extend their unbeaten run in the tournament to 35 matches, and to hold onto the title for the fifth successive edition.<\/p>\n

\"\"Solomon Islands \u2026 took bronze at the tournament. Photo credit: OFC Media \/ Phototek<\/a>.
\nThird-place finish goes to Solomon Islands<\/p>\n

The Solomon Islands took the tournament\u2019s bronze medal after beating New Caledonia 1-0 in the third-place play-off.<\/p>\n

Like the two finalists, these two nations had already met at the group stage, and the Solomon Islands replicated their earlier 3-1 success at Samoa Football HQ to finish their OFC U-19 Men\u2019s Championship 2026 campaign on a high.<\/p>\n

Seltia Blake scored the only goal of the game in the 73rd minute, after having the ball laid off for him in the penalty box by player of the match Michael Horikura.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second edition in a row, and the fourth time overall that the Solomon Islands have finished third at the championship, as well as the seventh consecutive time that New Caledonia have finished inside the top four.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgement<\/p>\n

We thank OFC Media for providing information for this story.<\/p>\n

Results<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games played on Monday September 14, 2026<\/p>\n

Play-off for 3rd<\/p>\n

Solomon Islands 1 (Seltia Blake 73\u2032)
New Caledonia 0<\/p>\n

Final<\/p>\n

Tahiti 0
New Zealand 2 (own goal 45+4\u2032, Harley Hill 79\u2032)<\/p>\n

This story was first published on September 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have won their tenth OFC U-19 Men\u2019s Championship crown, beating Tahiti 2-0 at the Samoa Football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[210152,111,43,139,69,284092],"class_list":["post-599805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-fifa-u-20-mens-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ofc-u-19-mens-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}