hanks, boys. We
are proud of you!”
That was the
message the staff of
Tahiti’s national team,
led by coach Samuel
Garcia, left on the blackboard at the
team hotel following their semi-final
defeat to New Zealand in the Oceania
qualifiers. They had been just two
matches away from a spot among
the 32 World Cup finalists.
Yet, it had been a strange mini-
tournament. Tahiti hadn’t played a
single game in almost three years,
mainly because of the pandemic. Both
the Cook Islands and Vanuatu withdrew
from the competition due to COVID-19
outbreaks, and so, without a single win,
Tahiti progressed to the last four in
Doha, Qatar, where the qualifiers
had been shifted to because of
travel restrictions in Oceania.
After the1-0 defeat against the All
Whites, some of the players enjoyedTahiti
looking east
United States may offer hope of progression for
the tiny Pacific Islanders after their semi-final
finish in the Oceania World Cup qualifiers“T
a drink at the hotel’s sports bar. In his
room,repletewithtactical line-ups,
shirtsandsome cigarettes, coach
Garcia, at the end of his contract with
the Tahitian Football Federation (FTF),
pondered the past, the present and
the future. In the1990s, the former
defender, with a spell at Girondins de
Bordeaux under his belt, had moved to
Tahiti to finish his career with AS Venus
before pursuing a coaching career.
Today, Garcia’s former club AS
Venus, as well as AS Dragon, AS
Tefana and AS Pirae, the defending
champions who participated in the
recent Club World Cup, are the top
clubs in the local top flight, an amateur
league. The other eight clubs can’t
compete, according to Garcia. Without
a strong league, there can’t be a strong
national team. He says: “The country,
the communes no longer have the
resources to invest, they don’t invest
as much as in the past for economic
reasons. The level of the league hasdropped. It’s not balanced. That
is not favourable for progress.”
The old, almost insurmountable
problems of geography and isolation- Tahiti is a six-hour flight from New
Zealand and seven hours from the
United States – as well as the
amateurism at club level won’t go
away. Players spend the whole day at
work before it’s time to train. Even the
national team captain Teaonui Tehau
works at a plastic factory. Alongside his
cousins, the twin brothers Lorenzo and
Alvin Tehau, he featured for Tahiti in
the 2009 Under-20 World Cup in
Egypt. In Group B they played Spain,
Nigeria and Venezuela, conceding
21 goals in the process.
Tahiti
SAMINDRA KUNTIClub World Cup...Tahitian club side AS Pirae celebrate scoring against AlJazira of UAEWorld Cup
qualifying...Tahiti
lost1-0toNew
Zealand in Qatar