Vanuatu remain proud despite a 7-0 thrashing by Venezuela in their latest match at the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Korea.
The Wantoks held the South Americans to two first half goals in Daejeon, from Williams Velasquez and Sergio Cordova, but were unable to match their second half revival against Mexico on Saturday.
The Oceania newcomers managed only 32 percent possession as Venezuela piled on 26 shots to 8.
Sergio Cordova added a second for the match to go top of the tournament goalscoring chart while goalkeeper Wuilker Farinez even managed to convert from the penalty spot just before the hour mark.
Vanuatu were no match for Venezuela. Photo: Twitter / FIFA
The President of the Vanuatu Football Federation, Lambert Maltock, said their opening 3-2 defeat against Mexico was very encouraging but acknowledged they were outclassed last night.
"We know where we are now in the world map of football so this is our aim: we take game by game," he said.
"The first one we already did really well so we are really proud and that's what we wanted to do for Oceania and Vanuatu."
"We knew already the South American football is very difficult...they're really good in improvisation," said Maltock.
"Sometimes they don't play the plan that they wanted to - they create a new plan, and every time a new player comes in they change the game completely.
"And they're very good individual skill and that makes the difference."
"We had a plan to try to play the first half with a strategy that we tried to hold them not to score at the beginning, so we did that well but we made two mistakes in the two corners and we conceded two goals.
"Second half when we came back we tried to apply the same system that we played Mexico (in the opening round) but they denied a lot of possessions of ball...because they know that Vanuatu, if you give them opportunities to possess more balls, they can create chances to score."
Lambert Maltock said Venezuela also targeted Vanuatu's right flank during the second half, where the Melanesians were weaker after some players went off injured.
Mexico's goalless draw against Germany on Tuesday also ended Vanuatu's hopes of reaching the Round of 16.
Their final group match is against Germany in on Friday in Jeju.
