The second weekend of football in Honiara for the Telekom S-League had come to and end with two entertaining matches played at Lawson Tama Stadium. The Stanley Waita-coached side Southern United celebrated their first ever win in the national league as James Naka‘s captained-side Kossa could not surpass a fighting Honiara City.
The first match of the day saw Southern United battling hard against Malaita Kingz; the young talented Bradley Irosaea scored the first goal of the match in the first half to give Kingz the lead. In the second half, Stanley Waita speech worked as Southern United equalised through Augustine Halumwane after a beautiful one-two combination with Joachim Waroi. The same Waroi put Southern ahead minutes later for the joy of the fans at Lawson Tama. The advantage of the team in green did not take long: the young Irosaea scored again with a close finish header to put the game leveled again.
Unfortuanately for the team coached by Michael Alafa, in the injury time a penalty was awarded to Southern. The captain Joachim Waroi made no mistake and with a powerful kick gave the first ever win for the new team in the league. This was the second defeat in two games played for Malaita so far.
In the second match of the day Kossa was looking for their second win in the league against Honiara City. Things did not start well for the team coached by Fred Osifelo: Junior Annie scored throught the penalty spot to give the lead for the TSL debutants Honiara. Still in the first half Kossa managed to comeback; first through a well-taken penalty by Barrie Limoki and later from a fantastic solo-effort play by Lore Fonaota.
In the second half Honiara City was able to score again, this time throught the experienced Moffat Kilifa at the 60th minute of play. Honiara was unable to score through a second penalty kick that was awarded to the team – it was defended by Kossa’s backup goalkeeper John Telengea that was introduced in the second half due an injury on first choice Felix Ray. The late stages of the match saw many wasted opportunities from both sides – any of the teams could end up winning the clash – what made the final result to be a 2-2 draw. Kossa has now four points in the table as Honiara got their second draw from two games played so far.
On Wednesday (19th Aug) the current champions Solomon Warriors will debut against Marist FC to complete the second round of matches in the Telekom S-League.
Oceania Football Center 