Surprise Win In

Games Soccer

The largest crowd at any sporting vent of the Games saw French Polynesia defeat New Caledonia by wo goals to nil in the final of the occer competition and so win the old medal. It was a surprise result.

CALEDONIA was easily the more polished of the two jams, and had generally been ex ected to win. Its footwork, passing, all control and team work were all uperior to French Polynesia’s, and had about four-fifths of the play.

Although the scores stood at 0-0 t half-time, it seemed at that stage ) be only a question of how much le New Caledonians would win by, s they had been in attack through ut the game.

But the French Polynesians came ut with a rush after half-time, and ithin four minutes they had two oals on the board. The confident few Caledonians had left their de snces wide open.

From then on, the Tahitian team losed up the game and the New Caledonians were given few oppor mities to catch up.

The two French teams were, un uestionably, the best two in the six :am competition. But a couple of le others gave them a run for their loney—for a while.

For 40 minutes in the first match f the series, the barefooted Solomon landers unbalanced and somewhat ewildered the natty New Cale onians with their speed, gusto, lack f science, and the fantastic saves f their 15-year-old goalkeeper, Jfred Selwyn. Then the Solomon danders crumbled, and the New Caledonians ran out easy winners, ■O.

In the other match of the opening ;ries, P-NG led French Polynesia ■1 at one stage, but lost the game ■3.