The 1996 OFC Nations Cup Final was an association football match played over two-legs between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and Tahiti. It was the final match of the

1996 OFC Nations Cup The 1996 OFC Nations Cup was not held as a cohesive tournament, but consisted of semi-finals and a final played on a two-legged basis, stretched out between November 1995 and November 1996. The four participating teams were Australia and New Zea ...

which was the third edition of the OFC Nations Cup, a competition for national teams in the

Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...

. This final was a repeat of the 1980 final in which Australia defeated Tahiti 4–2. Australia and Tahiti each qualified through to the final by playing in a semi-final over two legs. Australia defeating New Zealand 3–0 in their semi-final while Tahiti defeated

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

3–1 in the other semi-final. The first leg was played on the 27 October at the Olympic Stadium in Papeete and saw Australia defeat Tahiti 6–0 with four goals coming from Kris Trajanovski. Australia would score five more goals in the second leg at the Bruce Stadium in Canberra on the 1 November to win 11–0 on aggregate and get the right to play in the

1997 FIFA Confederations Cup The 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup was the first Confederations Cup to be organised by FIFA. The tournament had previously been played in 1992 and 1995 as the King Fahd Cup. This edition of the tournament was hosted by Saudi Arabia, as with the previ ...

as the representative from the OFC.

Background

Australia and Tahiti played two matches to reach the final with the semi-finals being played over two legs. For Australia, they didn't need to qualify to the main draw for the

as one of the two automatic teams to qualify teams to get through to the final round. In the semi-final, they took on New Zealand in their semi-final. In the first-leg played at Christchurch, they held New Zealand to a scrappy nil-all draw with the Australians squandering three opportunities to score including one which hit the crossbar. In the second leg played at Newcastle, Australia would get a 3–0 victory over New Zealand to take home the

Trans-Tasman Cup The Trans-Tasman Cup was an association football competition played between Australia and New Zealand. Six editions were played between 1983 and 1995 after the OFC Nations Cup was discontinued. It was considered the most important Oceanian tourn ...

as goals from Damian Mori,

Paul Wade Paul Wade (born 20 March 1962) is an Australian retired soccer player, who is best known for his long-term role as captain of the Socceroos, Australia's national soccer team. Club career Born in Cheshire, England, Wade moved to Australia w ...

and Joe Spiteri secured the spot into the final. After Tahiti won the

1994 Polynesia Cup The Polynesia Cup 1994 was the first Polynesia-wide tournament ever held. It took place in Western Samoa (later known as Samoa) and four teams participated: Tahiti, Western Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga and served for the first time as Oceania N ...

which was held in Samoa, Tahiti qualified for the semi-finals to take on Fiji who won the

1994 Melanesia Cup The Melanesia Cup 1994 was the fifth Melanesia-wide tournament ever held. It took place in Solomon Islands and five teams participated: Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu and server for the first time as Oceania Nat ...

. In the first-leg, a goal to Jean-Loup Rousseau in the 72nd minute secured Tahiti's 1-0 win at Honaira. The second-leg which was played at

Papeete Papeete (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Papeete'', pronounced ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the France, French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The Communes of France, commune of Papeete is located on the isl ...

saw Jean-Loup Rousseau score the opening goal in the 46th minute before the Solomon Islands hit back in the 81st minute off the back of

Robert Seni The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

. Macha Gatien scored the match winner in the 88th minute to give Tahiti the win.

Match

First leg

The first leg of the final was played at the Olympic Stadium in

. After being brought on in the last minute before the match, Kris Trajanovski scored four consecutive goals to secure the Socceroos a 6-0 win. Before the four goals from Trajanovski,

Ernie Tapai Ernie Tapai (born 14 February 1967) is an Australian former professional soccer player who spent the majority of his career in the Australian National Soccer League (NSL). He also had stints in England, Portugal and Singapore. Tapai played 52 ...

opened the scoring in the fifth minute after picking up a rebound off the Tahitian keeper.

Paul Trimboli Paolo "Paul" Vincenzo Trimboli (born 25 February 1969) is a former Australian international football (soccer) player. Trimboli is of Italian ancestry and attended Xavier College, where he was a member of the First XI, and was captained by his ...

was the other scorer for the Australians scoring in the 20th minute of play.

Second leg

The second leg was played at Bruce Stadium in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. The match would be very similar to the first-leg with a hat-trick from Kris Trajanovski securing an 5–0 win for the Australians as

played his last international match for the Socceroos.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1996 Ofc Nations Cup Final OFC Nations Cup finals OFC Tahiti national football team matches October 1996 sports events in Australia November 1996 sports events in Australia