Finally, the Fiji Football Association made the obvious: they understood the terrible conditions of the pitch at Subrail Park and decided to postpone the matches of this Saturday to tomorrow. The match that was interrupted in the half-time between Nadi and Rewa will restart from the second half.
Subrail Park view
The muddy Subrail Park just turned even worse with the rain in Labasa. Fiji FA was determined to continue the games that’s why Rewa and Nadi started their game, but it lasted only 45 minutes. Nadi will restart tomorrow with their 1-0 safe thanks to an early goal scored by Vuniuci Tikomaimereke.
Fiji FA’s CEO Mohammed Yusuf will review the decision tomorrow; if the pitch conditions continue as it is – unplayable – the match might get postponed again. The tickets used today will also serve for tomorrow – good news for the supporters.
Apart of the second half of Nadi and Rewa, the another semi-final between Suva and Labasa is set to start just after the completion of the final part of Nadi-Rewa’s clash.
There are no good news for the Suva fans heading for the semi-final clash against Labasa of the 2020 Fiji FACT: two key players will be missing the game according to local sources – Christopher Wasasala and Beniaminio Mateinaqara. Another three players are also confirmed of the decisive match: Laisenia Raura, Kalisito Veikoka and Kelvin Naidu. It is also known the defender Simione Nabenu is on doubts for the clash.
Wasasala and Mateinaqara are out of the semi-finals – Fiji FA Media
Suva will be expecting players such as Sairusi Nalaubu to step up this Saturday at Subrail Park in order to take on the home side Labasa; the Babasiga Lions might come at its full force against the current national champions as no news regarding players’ absence were informed by the team.
ATK Mohun Bagan defeated SC East Bengal by 2-0 in the second matchweek of 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL), the major football league from India. It was the first ever Kolkata Derbyin the league, as SC East Bengal joined ISL this year.
Fijian star Roy Krishna scored the opening goal to become the first scorer of the Kolkata Derby in Indian Super League’s history: “Another historic moment and another three points. Our debut derby win is dedicated to all our fans,” he stated on social media. You can check his great goal against SC East Bengal by clicking here.
Roy Krishna celebrating his goal – ISL Media
With two goals in two matches, Krishna is now focused on ATK Mohun Bagan’s next league match against Odisha FC. You can check the current Indian Super League standings, results and top scorers by clicking here.
Labasa, Nadi, Rewa and Suva are ready for 2020 Fiji FACT semifinals – Fiji FA Media
The group stage of 2020 Fiji FACT is over. Four teams went back home while Labasa, Nadi, Rewa and Suva are still alive to fight for this important title in the last football competition of the current Fijian football season.
After finishing the group stage unbeaten, Rewa will face Nadi in the semifinals. The Delta Tigers scored twelve goals in three matches so far in the tournament and they are the favourites to advance to the final. Rewa’s key players like Inoke Turagalailai and Tevita Waranaivalu have rested in the 7-0 victory over Nasinu to be ready to go all out against Nadi.
On the other hand, Nadi proved themselves as a very competitive side this year, and the Green Machine want to lift Fiji FACT’s trophy for the second straight year. Head coach Kamal Swamy relies on key players like Rusiate Matarerega and Avinesh Suwamy, who scored twice against Navua, to defeat Rewa: “We need to come out with a good plan so that we can counter them,” said Swamy to FBC Sports.
Fiji FACT hosts Labasa will meet Suva in the fight for a spot in the final. After losing the opening match, Labasa bounced back by beating Nasinu and Ba to finish the group stage in the second position. The Babasiga Lions have already won the Inter-District Championship, and lifting Fiji FACT’s trophy at home would be something really special for them, specially for Taniela Waqa who is going to retire from football after this tournament.
Despite the defeat to Lautoka in group stage’s final day, Suva advanced to the semifinals. However, head coach Babs Khan must have to deal with the absence of five players against Labasa: Beniaminio Mateinaqara, Christopher Wasasala, Kalisito Veikoka, Kelvin Naidu and Laisenia Raura. Anyway, Khan relies on powerful forward Sairusi Nalaubu, who is living a blessed season, to win the last tournament of the season.
Both matches are going to be contested at Subrail Park this Saturday. You can check more information about 2020 Fiji FACT by clicking here.
ATK Mohun Bagan and SC East Bengal clashed at Tilak Maidan Stadium in the second matchweek of 2020-21 Indian Super League, the most important football league from India. For the first time in history, the Kolkata Derby was played in the Indian Super League, making this Friday’s clash a historic one.
With a nice shot from outside the box, Roy Krishna also wrote his name in history. The 33-year-old forward from Fiji opened the scoreboard for ATK Mohun Bagan in the 49th minute, which makes him the first scorer of the Kolkata Derby in Indian Super League’s history. The Fijian star played 90 minutes until he was replaced by Bradden Inman in the stoppage time. You can check more details about Krishna’s performance by clicking here.
Krishna (in the middle) celebrating his goal
The second goal of the match was netted by Manvir Singh after a good assist by Prabir Das. At the final whistle, ATK Mohun Bagan defeated their rivals by 2-0 to remain unbeaten in the season with two victories in two matches. You can check more information about 2020-21 Indian Super League by clicking here.
Labasa bounced back in the season; winning the Inter-District Championship made the fans forget the bad campaign at Vodafone Premier League. Now the team is seeking to repeat what they did in 2019: win two major tournaments in a year in Fiji.
After a bad start suffering a harsh 4-0 defeat against Rewa in the group stage of Fiji FACT, the team returned home to play Nasinu and Ba and grabbed two very important wins to proceed to the decisive stage of the competition.
Labasa’s boss Ronil Lal thanked the fans for believing in the players and the work done by the staff; “We are thanking all the Fans for having faith and believing in the team“, said Lal in a social media – “come out in numbers to support our boys tomorrow“, said the coach urging the fans for the decisive clash ahead against Suva.
Labasa players after wininng Ba – Ronil Lal
Labasa displayed confident football against Ba and Nasinu despite the bad conditions of the pitch in Subrail Park. It is expected the conditions for the this weekend are better – something that is going to help Labasa in its style of football commonly played.
One more very interesting fact happened this week in Fiji as the experienced goalkeeper Simione Tamanisau entered in the second half of the match of his side Rewa against Nasinu that were playing their final pool match of the 2020 edition of the Fiji FACT. The game was already 4-0 in favour of Rewa when Tamanisau replaced the attacker Samuela Nabenia. He was using the number 1 jersey – in fact it was Anish Khem‘s number 7 that was modified with a white tape to appear to be a number one. Tamanisau could not use a different number in the tournament because he was registered with the number 1.
Nasinu was already completely out of the match and the Rewa attackers started to try to find Tamanisau in the area to make history happen; first he almost scored, but a defender cleared the ball in the goalline – but his teammate Sailosi Rayaqona got the rebound and scored. Two minutes later, finally, Tamanisau received the ball in the area and fired a powerful shot to score his goal and the 6th of his team in the clash. You can see the event by clicking here.
Simione Tamanisau – FBC News
Tamanisau still managed to assist for the seventh goal of the match, he got the ball, passed one defender and assisted for the goal scored by Shavnil Prasad. The final result of the match was 7-0 in favour of Rewa, qualifying Tamanisau’s side for the semi-finals of the 2020 Fiji FACT.
It is really not expected to see a striker playing in a very different position than usual; imagine if he is forced to play as a goalkeeper in an emergency. The striker Sanaila Waqanicakau played all games of the most recent Fiji FACT group stage as a goalkeeper for his team Ba – this is really not a great achievement for Fijian football as this proves the level of competition is still far from full-professionalism. Currently, players are even more focused and turned into specialists of certain positions of the game – it is not expected a central striker such as Waqanicakau to play as a goalkeeper.
The very tall player already played as a goalkeeper in the past, but he proved to be a good weapon for Ba in the season scoring important goals for the team: but so, why he was forced to be his team goalkeeper?
Important names such as Misiwani Nairube and Isikeli Sevanaia were left out of the tournament due injuries and the team was missing a goalkeeper to trust; as the head coach Ronil Kumar was not confident to bring a very young goalkeeper for such important tournament as Fiji FACT, he decided to give Sanaila Waqanicakau the spot: he is experienced, already played in this position in the start of his career and is almost 200cm tall.
Sanaila Waqanicakau against Labasa – Fiji FA Media
Sanaila was not only the goalkeeper for the last the match against Labasa, but he also served as team captain for the decisive match that unfortunately for him and his team did not go their way.
But, the truth – believe it or not – is that Waqanicakau proved to be in the level required even in a so weird scenario; the giant did not commit serious mistakes – despite scoring an own goal in his team only win in the competition against Nasinu – that influnced in the outcome of the results.
The 30-year-old is still a better striker than a goalkeeper; then when Nairube and Sevanaia can return it is natural both of them can retake their spot. What is necessary to be posted here is that due the circumstances, the striker-goalkeeper played an important role and even made impressive stops throughout the tournament.
Ba did not make it to the semis, but this is certainly a detail that is interesting to be adressed by the football fans of Oceania. But, if possible, coaches and officials, please avoid doing such decisions as this – Oceanian football is already seen as a place ‘where weirdness happens’, making this even more often is not going to help the status either the development of the game in the region.
This Thursday marked the start of the third matchday of football in Port Vila’s top-tier league in Vanuatu. Yatel FC celebrated their first victory in the league this season as they surpassed the newcomers in the top-tier Seveners United by the scoreline of 3-1; the match was played at Port Vila Municipal Stadium.
All goals of the match were scored in the second half; the talented Frank Ruben opened the score for Yatel and Mansen Avock doubled for the team in white and blue. Seveners was able to reduce the margin, but Avock scored another in order to confirm his side win by 3-1.
Yatel FC – PVFA Media
Seveners lost all matches of the season so far; the win give Yatel a chance to regroup and go stronger for their next encounters in the league. The fixtures will continue this weekend in Port Vila having Galaxy FC vs Erakor Golden Star FC as one of the most exciting matches to watch. Check here the standings and latest results of the league!
The still only 17-year-old Solomon Islands football star Raphael Le’aireached an impressive milestone in the past weekend when his side Henderson Eels draw against Central Coast by 1-1: the teenager scored his 50 goals a senior player.
The youngster got recognition in Oceania after guiding his country to their first ever appearance in a FIFA football tournament last year. Le’ai was the golden boot and best players of the 2018 U16 OFC Championship competition which his country ended up as runners-up after suffering a defeat in the penalty shootout against New Zealand.
Raphael Le’ai – TSL Media
The youngster that played for Marist FC and Henderson Eels in Solomon Islands’ top-tier league Telekom S-League recorded the mark of 48 goals in the national league since 2018. Currently, Le’ai is the joint top-goalscorer of the present edition of the national alongside his teammate Joses Nawo. The other two goals scored by Le’ai at senior level were in Vanuatu when defending Eels at 2020 OFC Champions League – he scored one beautiful against Lae City from Papua New Guinea in his team debut and helped Eels to overcome Lautoka from Fiji with another goal scored.
This is another impressive achievement in the career of the 17-year-old striker; Le’ai already trialled with an Argentinian professional club in the past and also trained with New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix for a year when in a scholarship at Wellington’s Scotts College. He also had a stint with Australian’s top-side Melbourne Victory this year.
Oceania Football Center 