Relive The Glory Of 2004

2004 was a historic year for the Solomon Islands. Ask any self respecting Solomon Islander about the significance of 2004 and I'm sure they'll tell you. Here's a hint. It had something to do with our victory over Australia in the last game of Stage 2 of the 2006 Oceania World Cup qualifiers. Did I say victory? Sure, the final score was 2-2 but you could've been forgiven for thinking we had won the World Cup. Celebrations erupted on the field and back home in scenes reminiscent of Australia's win over Uruguay that would follow a year later. On that historic night, we were all proud to be Solomon Islanders.

The result lifted the status of the small island nation. "A football team raising the spirits of a nation". It was one hell of a story.

I have been searching the web for coverage on this event and found two really good sites.

One is FIFA's very own 2006 FIFA World Cup site. It's got everything about everything regarding the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers right up to the Final itself. Included in there are news reports on all of Solomon Island's matches.
Link: FIFA.com

The other one is a gem. It's basically all down to Paul Marcuccitti. Paul, a columnist for the football website planetworldcup.com covered all the games during stage 2 of the Oceania qualifying stages in Australia. Over the course of the matches, he took a fancy to the Solomon national team. Who wouldn't? We were virtually playing up to our nickname, "The Brazilians of the Pacific"! He even went as far as to wearing the national team colours, blue, green and yellow to all the games. Fact! This is truly a must read for all the die-hard fans out there.
Link: planetworldcup.com

More images: