Freddie Kini: Eels is ready for Lautoka

Two matches and two draws: this is the record of the Telekom S-League runners-up Henderson Eels in the current edition of the OFC Champions League. One match is remaining for the Solomon Islanders and they are ready for the challenge against the Fijian side of Lautoka, as the team captain Freddie Kini says: “As a captain, I will encourage all players to play better against Lautoka, to work hard to qualify for the next stage“.

The 27-year-old defender that is already capped 11 times for Solomon Islands national team has the responsibility to lead a very young squad: Eels has alongside Kini in defense the 17-year-old players Derrick Taebo and Leon Kofana and in attack the prolific Raphael Lea’i of only 16-years-old – just to name few very young members of this Henderson Eels’ squad. Kini knows his duties: “As a captain, I have to encourage our young players to perform better – to keep developing. It is a challenging role to be a captain”, said the central defender.

Eels was close to collect all points from their clash against Malampa Revivors – with a brace of Joses Nawo – but suffered a late goal to deny the victory for the Solomon Islands side: “Joses was instrumental for us, unfortunately we had mistake in the defensive line and the opponent scored the late goal. We also thought it was an offsided goal“, said the player. Now, Eels need to win their final match against the Fijians to proceed to the knock-out stage: “Lautoka is going to come tough for this match, they are going to try to beat us because they also need a win to qualify“, mentions Kini.

Kini also analyses about his team peformance and what he feels about their opponent for the next clash: “Our team performance is quite slow we need to step up more. I know very well some Lautoka players, they are not so strong as they were in the previous editions of the tournament“, explains the Eels’ captain.

The answer for which sides will grab the two spots for the next stage of the competition will come after the referee’s final whistle in Soccer City Stadium in Luganville, Vanuatu – and Freddie Kini is hopeful his Henderson Eels will proceed to the decisive stage of the tournament for the second time in a row.