Match Report: South Island United 2-1 Vanuatu United

South Island United secured their first ever victory in a tight clash with Vanuatu United, beating them 2-1 at North Harbour Stadium.

The Southerners started off sharply, pressing the Vanuatu defense into a few mistakes early on.

Just over three minutes in, Ollie Van Rijssel popped a lovely through ball over the top towards Ryan Feutz, who coolly slotted the ball home to score the first goal in South Island United history!

They weren't done there. A few minutes later, Christian Gray knocked a long ball forward, which was chested down beautifully from Ry McLeod towards David Yoo, who tapped it into the path of Haris Zeb to pick out the top left corner. 2-0 up inside ten minutes for Rob Sherman's men.

Vanuatu United began to cause the South Island defence a few issues late in the half. William Cardona's long-range strike forced a good save from Steven Van Dijk.

The Chiefs made four substitutes at half time, and the impact was instant. Vanuatu were causing a lot of issues with some dangerous crosses into the box, with substitute Alex Saniel the prime target.

Ryan Feutz had a chance to wrap things up, a curling effort towards the bottom corner just too close to Matt Acton in net.

Eventually, Vanuatu got a goal back through Alex Saniel, captain Michel Coulon whipping in a lovely left-footed cross for their no.7 to head home past Van Dijk.

Late in the game, Vanuatu thought they had netted a crucial equaliser through Kiwi substitute Owen Smith, but the subsequent VAR check revealed a foul on South Island United captain Christian Gray in the build up to the goal.

It wasn't always pretty, but South Island earnt themselves a crucial three points in their final game of the Auckland round, as they head to Papa New Guinea in less than a week, where they will face South Melbourne in their opening game.

‍