Friday, 27 May 2016

The big match in PNG

Day -747. WorldCup2018‬

Before one of the Madrid teams wins the money driven Champions League tomorrow evening in Milan, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands will have played their World Cup qualifier in the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It's not worth even considering how completely opposite the financial spectrums are of the players, the fans, the TV deal, the sponsors.

More importantly, when it comes to a footballer achieving their dream, there will be a number of players in Milan who will be in Russia in 2018. On the other hand it is highly unlikely that any players in Port Moresby will be there. In an earlier match New Zealand will beat Fiji, unless there is a football miracle. And it would take an even more unimaginable miracle for New Zealand to not be the team that tops the Oceania qualifying and gets a shot at an intercontinental playoff to qualify for Russia.
 

But the players of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands will play for the dream, as will those of Fiji and New Caledonia and PNG. And at the end of the day, or beginning of the next one for them, they will probably, like the rest of us, think about where they are going to watch the glitzy final in Milan.

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