{"id":17987,"date":"2026-07-23T05:47:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17987"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:47:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:47:46","slug":"junior-bula-boys-reach-ofc-u-16-final-seal-u-17-world-cup-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17987","title":{"rendered":"Junior Bula Boys reach OFC U-16 final, seal U-17 World Cup berth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"news_reader\" class=\"fv-article-body news_reader mb-4\">\n<div>The Junior Bula Boys have booked their place in the final of the OFC U-16 Men&#8217;s Championship and secured qualification for the 2027 FIFA U-17 World Cup after defeating Solomon Islands 4-2 in a dramatic penalty shootout.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The semi-final remained goalless after regulation time, forcing the match into penalties, where Fiji held their nerve to claim victory and continue their impressive campaign.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fiji remain unbeatable in this tournament.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The result marks the third consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cup qualification for Fiji.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Captain Jone Loga, was named Player of the Match, credited the entire team for the achievement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He says the credit goes to all the players as they never lost hope, and this is a big and happy moment for them.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He also thanked Fiji&#8217;s supporters for their encouragement and well wishes throughout the tournament.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fiji will now face the winner of the second semi-final between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, scheduled for 9:30pm.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The final will be played at 9:30pm on Saturday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fv-ad-bottom my-4\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Junior Bula Boys have booked their place in the final of the OFC U-16 Men&#8217;s Championship and secured qualification for the 2027 FIFA U-17 World Cup after defeating Solomon Islands 4-2 in a dramatic penalty shootout. The semi-final remained goalless after regulation time, forcing the match into penalties, where Fiji held their nerve to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17989,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17987\/revisions\/17989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}