{"id":43614,"date":"2014-07-29T04:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T18:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=43614"},"modified":"2014-07-29T04:00:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T18:00:54","slug":"blue-ayuyus-share-glory-historic-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/blue-ayuyus-share-glory-historic-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Ayuyus share glory of historic win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CNMI<\/a>
CNMI players pay their respect to the CNMI flag during the singing of the Commonwealth anthem before their game against Macau in the Preliminary Round 1 of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup last week at the Guam Football Association Training Centre in Harmon. (Guam Football Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe glory of the CNMI Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s historic win in the Preliminary Round 1 of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup in Guam belonged not only to the squad, but also to all the supporters of football in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe win is not only for the players who played against Macau, but also to all the people who have been supporting CNMI soccer since 2005,\u201d coach Kiyoshi Sekuguchi said.<\/p>\n

The coach is talking of Northern Mariana Islands Football Association officials and staffs, coaches, players\u2019 parents, referees, heads of private companies, and other individuals who are doing their part in promoting the sport in the CNMI. Even those who cheered for the Blue Ayuyus from their home, sending good luck messages via Facebook, or those who went to Guam to watch the games were part of the squad\u2019s recent triumph.<\/p>\n

The CNMI defeated Macau in the EAFF-sanctioned event last Wednesday, 2-1, to bag its first victory in an international tournament. It was recorded after the Blue Ayuyus came from a 0-4 loss to Mongolia. Some of the Commonwealth players were in disarray on defense against Mongolia, but after their debut loss, they got back into their groove and pulled off the upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met after the game against Mongolia and made sure we know how to play our offense and defense in our next game (versus Macau). The players followed the instructions and we\u2019re able to get the win,\u201d Sekiguchi said.<\/p>\n

Just the beginning<\/strong>
\nThe victory was unexpected, according to NMIFA president Jerry Tan, since Macau has a strong team and even forced eventual winner Guam to a scoreless draw a few days before the CNMI dueled the former Portuguese colony.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuam could not beat Macau so we never expected our team to win. However we did it and it goes to show that the ball is round, anything can happen,\u201d said Tan, who compared the Blue Ayuyus to World Cup champion Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany won the World Cup without star players. We don\u2019t have star players\u2014individuals who really stand out\u2014 but we have a group with excellent teamwork. They played very well together and watched each other\u2019s back. The team capitalized on the opportunity presented to them and never gave up even though Macau scored first,\u201d Tan added.<\/p>\n

Macau scored in the 14th minute, but failed to hang on to the lead, as Nick Swaim and Kirk Schuler delivered for the CNMI.<\/p>\n

The upset against Macau is just a beginning of more good things for CNMI football, according to Tan and a proof that the Commonwealth is doing the right thing as far as the development of the sport is concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re progressing slowly and gradually. We\u2019re definitely moving forward and I am very proud of what we accomplished in nine years. Our neighbors and other countries have between 50 to 80 years of football history, while Hong Kong just celebrated its 100 years. We\u2019re only on our ninth year and still a baby , but we\u2019ve come a long way. This is just the beginning and we will strive harder to improve our players and our program,\u201d the NMIFA head said.<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s program is focused on the youth and both Tan and Sekiguchi acknowledged its significance to the recent success of the CNMI Men\u2019s National Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNMI will become an even stronger team because of its grassroots and youth development programs,\u201d Sekiguchi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to take note that several players who suited up for out men\u2019s team are products of our youth league\/youth program, so we have to continue strengthening our youth development program to get more good results in future international competitions,\u201d said Tan, who thanked Sekiguchi for steering the Blue Ayuyus to the historic win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The glory of the CNMI Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s historic win in the Preliminary Round 1…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":43616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1062,26,51,529],"class_list":["post-43614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-blue-ayuyus","tag-cnmi","tag-guam","tag-macau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}