Goals to Shane Smeltz, Kosta Barbarouses, Chris Killen, Tony Lochhead, Chris Wood and Marco Rojas made it back to back wins in the opening match window for stage three of Oceania qualifying and gave New Zealand a valuable three point lead a third of the way through this phase.
The Solomons lie in second place on three points and could be joined by either Tahiti or New Caledonia when those two teams meet tomorrow night in Papeete at 6pm (NZT) in the last of 40 FIFA World Cup qualifiers happening around the globe in a 24 hour period.
The clinical performance was the biggest win of Ricki Herbert’s 50 match tenure and could have been larger with another Killen effort ruled out for a foul and another shot from the veteran front man rattling the cross bar, while Winston Reid and Mike McGlinchey also went close.
Central United FC's Ivan Vicelich was the sole Auckland Football-based player to feature in Tuesday's match.
Click here for the full match report (NZ Football website).
New Zealand (AFF-based players in bold): 1-Mark PASTON (GK), 2-Winston REID, 3-Tony LOCHHEAD, 5-Tommy SMITH, 6-Ryan NELSEN (capt / 4-Ben SIGMUND 73’), 7-Leo BERTOS, 8-Michael MCGLINCHEY, 9-Shane SMELTZ (20-Chris WOOD 73’), 10-Chris KILLEN, 15-Ivan VICELICH (11-Marco ROJAS 82’), 17-Kosta BARBAROUSES.





























