The weekend of football is huge in Oceania in this mid-december, with the decisive clash of Solomon Warriors and Henderson Eels in the Solomon Islands, Auckland City facing the current New Zealand champions Eastern Suburbs and the so awaited kick-off of PNG National Soccer League – and much more.
The ISPS Handa Premiership, the top-tier of football in New Zealand will have Cantebury United facing the Wellington Phoenix reserves as the opening match of the weekend in the league. The current leaders of the table expect to continue their good run: Auckland City faces Eastern Suburbs in Kiwitea Street for the city derby. Eastern Suburbs comes with a harsh defeat against Team Welligton while Auckland City tops the table with the prolific goalscorer Myer Bevan in form.
Hawke’s Bay United faces at home Waitakere United. Both sides hope to continue their impressive run in the competiton, while Team Wellington and Southern will also have a clash of two sides in very good form at David Farrington Park. The final clash of the matchweek will see two sides who currently battle in the bottom of the table in Nelson: Tasman United and Hamilton Wanderers. The team coached by Jess Ibrom hopes to find their way back to wins and Hamilton will expect to end their nightmare start of season.
In the A-League, Wellington Phoenix will travel to Melbourne to play for the second time in the season against Melbourne Victory. Phoenix comes from three wins in a row and expect to stop the Swedish prolific striker Ola Toivonen in order to achieve another good result. Ulises Dávila can turn himself into the first Phoenix player ever to score in five consecutive matches if he finds the nets once again at AAMI Park.
Four matches will make the weekend lively at Lawson Tama Stadium for the final rounds of Telekom S-League. The first match of the Saturday will be the most important of the weekend in Solomon Islands: Henderson Eels, the 2nd placed team, will battle for the top first spot against Solomon Warriors, the current title holders and leader of the standings. Eels will hope they will not miss the likes of Joses Nawo and Patrick Taroga for the match and expect a good run of the wonderkid Raphael Lea’i in order to grab a very important win. In the other side of the pitch, Solomon Warriors will count with the experience of players as Benjamin Totori, John Alick and Dennis Ifunaoa.
Laugu United will face the bottom ranked side Real Kakamora in the second match of the Saturday. The Sunday will have important matches for 3rd place battle of the ladder, Guadalcanal will play against Isabel United that comes with three matches in a row without a defeat and the final match of the weekend in the Solomon Islands top-tier will see Kossa playing against Malaita Kings.
The start of the new season in Tahiti comes strong and this weekened very important matches will entertaining the fans of the beautiful sport in the French overseas territory top-tier, the Ligue 1 Vini. The bottom ranked side Manu Ura will face at home the former national champions Central Sport, hoping their goalkeeper Jonathan Torohia can help to bounce back in the tournament.
Olympic Mahina suffered a very harsh defeat against Pirae in their last match and will hope to recover from a 11-1 defeat against the powerhouse Tefana in Mahina. The most important clash of the weekend will see the both Tahitian teams qualified for OFC Champions League 2020, AS Vénus and Tiare Tahiti – the strikers Teaonui Tehau and Sandro Tau, the two best goalscorers of the last season in Tahiti, will have a hard encounter to see who wins this important clash.
The round will be complete with the clashes between AS Dragon and AS Taravao and the Pirae of the Tehau brothers Alvin and Jonathan facing the Mickael Roche’s side AS Jeunes Tahitiens.
The so awaited kick-off of the season of PNG National Soccer League will take place this weekend – Oceania Football Center made a complete preview about the season. The league in Papua New Guinea will entertain fans all over the country – Port Moresby, Goroka, Morobe and Lae are represented in the competition.
The first matchday games will see the title holders Lae City playing against Tusbab Stallions in Laiwaden Oval, Madang while Hekari United faces Star Mountain in the first game of the season for the former OFC Champions League winners.
The other three clashes of the weekend in Papua New Guinea will see Gulf Komara playing against Bougainville in the first game of the entire season in Port Moresby, while Morobe United play at Sir Ignatius Kilage against the newcomers Vitiaz United. In Goroka, the first timers in the league Kutubu will receive Morobe Wawens to complete the round.
Oceania Football Center 