New Caledonia rejoice historic FIFA U17 World Cup goal despite heavy drubbing by France 

New Caledonia may have been hammered 7-1 in their first match of the FIFA U17 World Cup by colonisers France, but they have reason to celebrate nonetheless, as they have already created history by just playing in the tournament.

Not only that, but they also managed to save a penalty via goalkeeper Kecine Une and a goal scored by defender Sidri Wadenges (first scorer for New Caledonia in the world cup).

“It was a disappointing result but the result was expected, the level of the French team compared to the New Caledonian team is very high,” said Dominique Wacalie, New Caledonia coach, his team suffered a heavy defeat in the form of a 7-1 scoreline in their first ever FIFA World Cup game.

Wacalie went on to mention that from here onwards they will be working harder and will try to minus the gap in quality that is present between his team and other top teams.

He did mention that they had video analysis session of the French team and that he came to know a their strengths during those sessions itself, but the quality difference was so high that they couldn't do much to stop the French from having a cakewalk.

“Focus on the 2nd game and keep working hard,” was his words of advice to his players after the heavy defeat to France.

The coach praised his goal keeper Kecine Une who gave a fine account of his quality in the form of some fine saves and saving that Maxence Caqueret Penalty was also a high point for his team. Scoring one goal and saving a penalty in the first match are some of the positives, the coach wants to bank in on and motivate his players to do better in the upcoming games. He also mentioned that his players should be proud after all as they managed to actually qualify for this mega event and not loose heart over the scoreline which was sort of expected.

“A huge emotional moment for the people of New Caledonia to score and save a penalty in their First world cup match that too against France,” Wacalie.

He did mention that his team learned from their first half mistakes and improved in the second half, which showed in their gameplay as they only conceded one and scored another, compared to the first half where they had conceded six goals.

Speaking about the Guwahati crowd which backed the underdogs for the game and cheered for every New Caledonian pass or move the coach said, “We are happy and thank you, all of them are amateurs and its was nice to see the crowd support a bunch of amateurs, we are happy to have this kind of support.”