Strong finish for NMI Men’s U20

The NMI Men’s U20 National Team’s Richard Steele gets a high-five from teammate Kohtaro Goto after scoring a goal in their game against Guam last Wednesday night at the Guam Football Association National Training Center. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

GUAM—The NMI Men’s U20 National Team capped its training camp here with an impressive 4-1 victory over Guam U17 in their friendly match last Wednesday night at the Guam Football Association National Training Center.

The victory was a big rebound from the visiting squad’s 0-2 loss in their first friendly game last weekend. Dev Bachani, Richard Steele, and Markus Toves scored for the NMI with the latter making twin goals. The last two goals—one each from Steele and Markus Toves—provided the highlights in the match, as the two plays were executed well with goalkeeper Merrick Toves and midfielder Taka Borja feeding their teammates.

Borja was getting ready for the free kick around the right mid and the Guam defense thought he would take the shot, but instead he lobed it over two Guam defenders with the ball landing in front of Markus Toves, who then went for a cross, giving the NMI a 3-1 lead in the 57th minute.

It was Toves’ second straight goal, as he had his first six minutes earlier to open the second half action. As for the NMI’s first goal, Bachani did two things to set up his own goal, as he broke a passing play of Guam and went head-to-head with Guam goalie Jacob Toves, taking the shot before the latter was able to move in and attempt a save.

For the NMI’s last goal, Merrick Toves and Steele teamed up in the nice offensive play. The keeper, who was also credited for several saves in the first and second halves, as he used his long arms to knock off Guam’s lobs, started the play by moving the ball around with his teammates before sending the long pass from around the left defense area to Steele. The ball dropped exactly where Steele was—near right center—and the midfielder took just a couple of dribbles before unloading the shot to pad the NMI’s lead, halfway through the second half.

The visiting team went on to keep its safe lead the rest of the way, as it limited Guam U17 crew’s scoring opportunities and when the hosts did, the shots were either way off the mark or Merrick Toves was there for the save.

Northern Mariana Islands Football Association technical director and men’s head coach Michiteru Mira lauded his players for the strong work in the last game and encouraged them to build up from this achievement.

The NMI Women’s U18 National Team’s Audrey Castro takes the corner kick during their game against Guam last Wednesday night at the Guam Football Association National Training Center. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

“Use this win as a motivation to keep working hard and improving our individual and team skills and tactics. Train hard and consistently so we can execute our plays well and get positive results,” Mita said during their dugout meeting after the game.

“This has been a good training camp and we would like to thank everyone, especially the leadership of both the NMIFA and Guam Football Association for making this happen. We had the opportunity to evaluate our teams and see where we are now and what we have to further work on to improve and close the gap not only with Guam but also with other Asian countries,” the NMIFA technical director added.

NMI Women’s U18 unbeaten
The NMI Women’s U18 National Team battled back from a sluggish first half to also finish strong following a 4-0 shutout win over Guam.
Allyssya Angeles fired two goals for the NMI, while Pia Ngewakl and Kaithlynn Chavez contributed one apiece. The visiting team swept Guam in their U18 friendly, as it defeated the hosts in similar scores last Saturday.

NMI Women’s U18 coach Irish Pagarao was pleased with the pair of wins, but acknowledged more the players’ chance to experience what it’s like to play off-island and challenge competitive teams.

“The camp was a great opportunity for the younger kids. They get to experience what it’s like to play off-island and in a very competitive environment. I know they learned a lot from this training camp and I hope they will take these lessons back home to continue to improve their game,” Pagarao said.

Mita also commented on the shots that the NMI players made, saying that these opportunities happen as players become more observant on what’s transpiring on the pitch.

“We’ve continued practice and built the team with the concept of ‘Intentionally create attacking plays and intentionally gain the ball.’ Both goals are a bit lucky but they observed opponents and attacked their weakness. These goals are intentionally created by players. Also, through these plays, players realized how important it is to play as a team and have a 90-minute game fitness to play in this kind of intense game. You have to play fast and keep pressing and continuously involved attacking and defending at the same time,” Mita said.