NMI men win 1, draws against Guam

The NMI men’s national football team players called up for the 2024 Marianas Friendlies tourney put their best foot forward against rival Guam and won one and racked up a draw last weekend at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville.

The NMI team wrapped up the tourney with a 2-1 win last Sunday after a 2-2 draw last Saturday.

With a later and much cooler start time at 8pm and a productive meeting beforehand, the NMI team came out onto the pitch with a vengeance and renewed vigor.

Ariel Narvaez Jr. drew first blood in the 6th minute and the NMI team held on to that lead throughout the first half. The intensity on the pitch was palpable as even though it was a friendly match, the rivalry between the islands remained strong.

The NMI came out better and more effective this second time around and didn’t make as many mistakes as they did in the first match. They extended their lead by one more after a goal by Paul Lizama in the 68th minute for a 2-0 game.

Guam tried to make a comeback in the later minutes of the second half, but could only come up with one more goal in the 74th minute by Curtis Harmon. When time ran out, the NMI team and spectators exploded into cheers as they grabbed a victory against their archrivals.

The first game of the tourney ended in a 2-2 tie last Saturday. NMI was up, 1-0, after a goal by Markus Attao-Toves early in the eighth minute. The rest of the first went on without a peep from both teams, then Guam regrouped for a stronger second half.

Erwin Manibusan found an opening in the 48th minute to tie it up, 1-1, then teammate Samuel Stenson followed it up with in the 60th minute for a 2-1 lead. A case of mistaken identity by Guam’s Nicolas Chargalauf gave the NMI team a lucky break in the 71st after he scored in his own goal to tie things up once more, 2-2.

The match ended in the 2-2 draw—with both teams exhausted from a start time with the sun high beaming down on them.

With Attao-Toves, Narvaez Jr., and Lizama in the NMI team were Mark Chavez, Monico Claridades, Cody Shimizu, Ruben Guerrero, Brian Lubao, Anthony Bergancia, Daniell Pablo, Leland Deleon Guerrero, Dev Bachani, Casey Chambers, Edward Arriola III, Tristan Raho, Jerald Aquino, Andrew Sablan, Jonne Navarro, Anthony Austria, and Tyler Omelau.

With Manibusan, Stenson, Harmon, and Chargalauf in the Guam team were Josiah Jones, Jacob Toves, Jace Almandres, Levi Buckwalter, Micah Elwell, Nathaniel Graves, Sean Halehale, Takayuki Kobayashi, Donovan Moss, Malcom Ogo, Beau Perez, Jadyel Rink, CJ Sablan, Andrew Stenson, Shuntaro Suzuki and Gatbo Topasna.

Despite some errors and the hot weather during the first match, NMI head Konomo Suzuki said the team did well and finished with a tie.

As for their win on the last day, she said before their match, they had a team meeting where they discussed their previous mistakes and their new strategy. Afterwards, she said they were all on the same page and did really well with the execution that they discussed during their meeting.

“They were able to improve on their errors from the first game. That was what I was really impressed with. They try to play for the team, not just individually,” she said.

On the level of competition—even with it being just a friendly tournament, Suzuki said that the NMI’s level is not below Guam’s level. “The competition was really high intensity. I feel like we are really improving a lot. I know other country’s levels are higher than us, so we still need to improve and work on a lot of things. We found that a lot of things need to be improved,” said Suzuki.

Even with their win, she said that players told her that they can’t be satisfied with the results because it’s just a friendly match—to which Suzuki agrees. “As it is a friendly match, we need to raise our standards much higher and we need to catch up with other countries,” she said.

As the NMI was the host, she said that they had the home team and home field advantage because a lot of supporters came out, which helped them a lot during the games. Suzuki is appreciative of all the supporters—family and friends of the players, along with the NMIFA football family that came out on both nights to cheer the teams on.

Suzuki, who became a coach for NMIFA last September, thanked her fellow coaches and the players for accepting her into the team. “I have good chemistry with a lot of coaches and the players,” said Suzuki.

For his part, Guam’s head coach, Ross Awa said, “Our guys worked on dominating possessions, we just needed to work more on executions and strong finishes.”

He then commended the NMI men’s team “because even though these are just friendlies, they played with no letup. The intensity was there all throughout the game and they really pushed our guys hard.”

He added, “We have lots of young guys on the team and it’s good to give them more game time experience for future competitions outside Guam.” This year, they will be preparing for the AFC U17 and U20 qualifiers.