Kennedy Watemae: we played hard until the final whistle blow

Henderson Eels made a historical comeback in their 3-2 win over Lautoka in Soccer City Stadium in Luganville, Vanuatu and a 22-year-old forward was very important for this achievement: Kennedy Watemae. The young player is at his first OFC Champions League appearence and scored the first goal after coming from the bench for his side – later on Raphael Lea’i and Joses Nawo added the another two to complete the comeback and send Eels for the second time in a row to the knock-out stage of the OFC Champions League.

“I’m trying my best for to score goals, I hate to lose and also I trust my teammates that together we can make it“, said the strong forward. Watemae started the previous matches of Henderson Eels, but this time he was used coming from the bench in place of Hudson Felani – and he had a quick impact: “The coach told me to stay high ann put more effort; this helped our team in the comeback”, stated Watemae.

Watamae knows his goals was instrumental for the comeback and the qualification of Henderson Eels to the quarterfinals: “The first goal made our boys to come stronger, made their mind strong to put more effort on the field, so we played very hard until the final whistle blow off“, says the forward. “I was so happy when Joses Nawo scored the 3rd goal to make it a win. I was very happy because I know we were going to win the when I see Joses to put the ball in the nets“, added Watemae.

The competition continues for the Solomon Islanders after this fantastic win over the Fijian side of Lautoka and Watemae expects his first appearece at OFC Champions League keeps being historical: “It will be tough [the knock-out stage] and the coach will tell us which was our failures and we will work on. It will not be easy but we will fight for it“, explains the attacker.

In 2019 edition of the tournament, Henderson Eels was knocked-out at the quarterfinal stage after suffering a harsh defeat against the New Zealand powerhouse Team Wellington. Watamae and his teammates will hope the story will be different in 2020 OFC Champions League – keeping the dream alive.