New Zealand sealed Oceania's football nomination for the Beijing Olympic Games with a resounding 8-0 win over the Cook Islands in Fiji yesterday.
With the hard work already done thanks to wins over main rival Fiji (2-1) and Solomon Islands (2-0), the Oly-Whites just needed a point from their final match against a Cook Islands side which had lost its four previous matches by an aggregate score of 30-0.
By the time both Steven Old and Jeremy Brockie had scored inside the first twenty minutes the result was always a formality.
Jason Hayne (twice), Sam Messam, Daniel Ellensohn, Costa Barbarouses, and captain Aaron Scott all made the most of some second-half shooting practice to get themselves on the score sheet in New Zealand's fifth win in nine days
The Oly-Whites - who will be allowed to add three over-age players to their squad for Beijing - still require New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) ratification to take their place in the 16-strong men's draw.
A New Zealand Football representative will meet with the NZOC's three-man Olympic selection panel to sell the Olympic merits of the Oly-Whites and Football Ferns, who earned their nomination for the women's draw with Saturday's 2-0 win over Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand was thrown a curveball just before kickoff yesterday, receiving confirmation that five players from its original starting line-up would miss the opening match of the Olympics if they picked up a further yellow card.
But the Oly-Whites adjusted seamlessly to the subsequent line-up change, leading their coach Stu Jacobs to praise the way his players maintained their standards throughout their easiest match of the tournament.
‘‘The pressure was off a bit,' he said.
‘‘We were always going to win this match, it was just a case of how many. But you still have to maintain your professionalism and the lads certainly did that today".
