The Tonga Under-19 Women’s Soccer team is attracting attention for having the youngest player, Napa Talasinga (15), at the OFC U19 Women’s Championship 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Talasinga, who plays as a midfielder for Veitongo, has participated in all of Tonga’s three games so far at the OFC U19 Championship.

The Tonga U19s lost to Papua New Guinea (1 - 4) yesterday. In their other fixtures, Tonga U19s drew with Samoa (1- 1) and lost to Fiji (0 - 4).

“I might be little but I know I’m capable of so many things” said Talasinga in an interview with OFC media.

She added “I don’t notice how young I am when I’m on the field. When I’m on the field I tell myself I can be like anyone I come up against. We all have two hands and two feet, I can do everything the same as them.”

Last year, Talasinga played for the Tonga Under-17 women’s team and later this year will play for the Under-16’s team at a competition in Samoa.

She described her selection to the U19s squad, “I was very, very excited because I didn’t think they would want me in the team because I was so young. I thought I might just have to wait for the U-16 team going to Samoa. I was so excited when my name was called on the radio.”

Talasinga stated that her team had not reached its full potential and were learning from the tournament.

“I don’t think we have played our best football yet. It’s been ok but we’re still striving to reach our best. We know we’re not going to qualify but we’re still doing our best,”

“After every game, we go back and solve all the mistakes we’ve been making on the field. We have to learn from it for the next game. The other teams are really competitive and really good but I just want to say, my team is the best one.”

Tonga U19s last game is will be against New Zealand next week. The New Zealanders are so far undefeated in the competition and have whopped of their opponents including Fiji (9 – 1), New Caledonia (12 – 0) and Papua New Guinea (12 – 0).

Despite the odds, Talasinga believes that her team was capable of beating New Zealand.

 “I know sometimes it is impossible for people to think that we can win against New Zealand but if we say we can win it, and all of us want to win it, then we’re going to win it.