New Zealand yesterday downed Papua New Guinea 3-0 in their last group match at North Harbour Stadium to progress to the final of the Oceania Under 17 Soccer Championships being played in Auckland..
The win sets them up for a dream final on Wednesday against Tahiti with both teams heading into the showdown with unbeaten records in their bid to secure a place in Under 17 World Cup.
Tahiti booked their place in the finale with Saturday's 3-1 win over New Caledonia in the much-anticipated clash.
New Zealand coach Steve Cain said his team could now look forward to a couple of days' rest before the final.
"The aim was to get to the final and we've done that, comfortably to be honest. We've still got a lot left in us and we'll show that in the final," said Cain. "We set out to score early and settle things down knowing they would have to chase us.
"At halftime we were reasonably comfortable the game was over, we were able to make substitutions.
"Tahiti are a strong team that have won their group very comfortably and we expect a very tough game from them."
The Young All Whites could have won through to the final with a draw against PNG but once they went ahead after just 38 seconds it was apparent they meant business.
Meanwhile, at the Oceania Congress in Pago Pago, American Samoa, Fiji’s Dr Muhammed Shamsud-dean Sahu Khan was returned to the executive committee.
New Zealand's Frank van Hattum and Fred de Jong withdrew their nominations for the presidency, allowing Papua New Guinea's David Chung to be elected unopposed for a four-year term.
De Jong was, however, re-elected to the seven-man executive.
Tahiti and New Caledonia failed to have their representatives elected. They join American Samoa as the only countries without members on the executive.
The elected members are Martin Alufurai (Solomon Islands), de Jong, Lee Harmon (Cook Islands), Sahu Khan (Fiji), Lambert Maltock (Vanuatu), Toetu Petana (Samoa) and Honourable Ve'ehala (Tonga).