Oceania Football Center

Solomon Warriors challenge AS Magenta for Group C top-spot

The current runners-up of OFC Champions League AS Magenta from New Caledonia will have a tough test when they take on the Solomon Islands champions Solomon Warriors at Stade Numa Daly. The Solomon Islanders need a win to secure the top-spot in the OFC Champions League – Group C to grant a home quarterfinal match in the knock-out stage.

A draw or a win for AS Magenta will secure them the a home quarterfinal in Nouméa, but they will have a strong side upfront to stop if they want to guarantee the 1st place in the pool. The players of Alain Moizan will hope the top-striker Kevin Nemia will be in good form once again as the player scored twice in their 3-2 win over AS Tiare Tahiti in their previous match in the regional tournament.

The likes of Fonzy Ranchain and Didier Simane will also expect to guide their side upfront, linking the front players with quality. The defensive phae of the team of Moizan will hope Damien Wanapopo and Jean-Brice Wadriako have also a strong match to avoid the two silly goals AS Magenta suffered against AS Tiare Tahiti.

Image may contain: 3 people, people playing sports and outdoor — AS Magenta will expect another win – *OFC Media*

Magenta will need to surpass the defensive system led by Solomon Warriors captain and Solomon Islands international Haddis Aengari. The protection of defense will be in charge of the MVP of the last edition of Telekom S-League John Alick – the Vanuatu international will hope to be important in defense and also a good player to start the offensive plays of Warriors.

Gibson Daudau and Dennis Ifunaoa will be the main danger of Solomon Warriors upfront. The former Hekari United players will expect to combine well upfront in order to cause trouble for the defensive players of the New Caledonian side.

Image may contain: 1 person, playing a sport, child and outdoor — John Alick can be key for Solomon Warriors – *OFC Media*

Both sides will be expecting the best outcome for them from this clash: a home quarterfinal-match will be a crucial advatange to proceed to the top-four of the most important club football tournament of Oceania. The match will be very important for New Caledonians and Solomon Islanders and the win is the goal of the two teams.

Ignace Yamak denied a spot in Vanuatu national team

The Vanuatu football community raised lots of questions about the not inclusion of Galaxy FC defender Ignace Yamak in the 54-men provisional list of Vanuatu national team heading for the OFC Nations Cup 2020.

Yamak played all matches of the sucessful campaign of Galaxy FC in Papua New Guinea where the team qualified for the knock-out stage of OFC Champions League after surpassing Hienghène Sport and Hekari United. The 29-year-old defender already represented Vanuatu at U20 stage and senior level, playing five times for his national senior team – being the last appearace in 2016.

In social media the Vanautu football legend Moise Poida shown his thoughts about the absence of Yamak in the provisional squad: “Why Ignace Yamak was not included? He is better than every right-back selected or even better than some of the left-back mentioned in the list“, stated the assistant coach of Galaxy FC.

The discussions will move on – it is not sure if Yamak can be still select to the squad -, but certainly the fans and media will have something to discuss about during the week. You can check the entire list of Vanuatu provisional squad by clicking here.

Solomon Warriors will have to be at its best to beat AS Magenta

The final match of the OFC Champions League – Group C will have the Solomon Islands champions Solomon Warriors facing the New Caledonian powerhouse AS Magenta at Stade Numa Daly to decide which of the both sides will top the group and secure a much needed home quaterfinal-match in the knock-out stage of the regional tournament.

Both sides are already qualified for the second stage of the tournament: Solomon Warriors surpassed the Tahitian side of AS Tiare Tahiti by 1-0, while the New Caledonian side won the same side Tahitian team by 3-2. With the withdrawal of Tupapa Maraerenga from the group stage, Tiare Tahiti did not have any chance to reach any of the both sides in the standings and left the tournament in the group stage – this was their first participation in history at OFC Champions League.

The difference between the teams was of only one goal in each match; now Solomon Warriors and AS Magenta will battle for the first spot in the final group match. A draw will mean AS Magenta will top the group as they have scored more goals than Solomon Warriors in the process: if the Solomon Islanders want to top their group, they will not to impose a defeat to the home side in front of their crowd.

Image may contain: 6 people, people playing sports and outdoor — Solomon Warriors will need to be at its best – *OFC Media*

The captain Haddis Aengari will need to be a rock defensively to stop the important players of AS Magenta attack led by Kevin Nemia, that scored a brace in the previous match of the New Caledonian side.

The likes of Jerry Donga and John Alick will need to step up to in the midfield in a battle that will be interesting to see against Wilsen Poameno and Didier Simane. They will be responsible to protect his team defense and link upfront the always dangerous Gibson Daudau and Dennis Ifunaoa.

Ifunaoa presents himself as the top-striker of Solomon Warriors for this encounter. The former Hekari United and Labasa player scored the winner against Tiare Tahiti that qualified his side for the knock-out stage. Now the attacker will have a harder challenge to break the hearts of the defensive system of Magenta led by Jean-Brice Wadriako.

The outcome of the clash will be very important for the aspirations of both sides in the tournament: AS Magenta wants to confirm their favouritism against the Solomon Islanders, as Solomon Warriors is expected to come hungry to make history in Stade Numa Daly.

Alden Suri follows his young countrymen’s steps in New Zealand

Alden Suri is living a dream. The 15-year-old forward took part of Solomon Islands National Team in the U17 FIFA World Cup last year and now he is in New Zealand studying at Scots College, a college that is linked to Wellington Phoenix Academy.

SEE MORE:
Batram to Alden: the Suri football family

Suri is following the steps of two other players that took part of the U17 squad that travelled to Brazil: Raphael Lea’i and Leon Kofana. Both players represented Scots College last year but now they are in Australia on trials with Melbourne Victory.

The young forward is already training in New Zealand and he scored one goal in a friendly played recently. Alden is son of Batram Suri, one of the most important players of all time in Solomon Islands.

Ba’s Micah Tommy called up for Vanuatu national team

The 21-year-old forward playing currently for the Fijian outfit Ba Micah Tommy was included in the Vanautu provisional squad for the OFC Nations Cup 2020. The player is still to represent his country at senior level and he will have a big chance to impress the Vanuatu national team staff during the preparations for the tournament.

Image may contain: 1 person, beard and outdoor — Micah Tommy during Ba training – *OFC Media*

Tommy is currently in Tahiti defending the Men in Black – and despite the bad performances of the team from Fiji that lost their two matches so far in the process, Tommy has caught the attention of Vanautu technical staff and was included in the 54-men provisional squad. You can check the full squad list by clicking here.

Former Auckland City Ryan De Vries sign European deal

The New Zealand international and former Auckland City striker Ryan de Vries has a new club. De Vries recently was in trials with A-League club Western United, but he did not signed with the Australian outfit as he decided to get an opportunity in European soil.

The player that represented New Zealand internationally once, moved to Ireland top-tier side Sligo Rovers.

Image may contain: 1 person, closeup — De Vries wearing his new team jersey

The player recently stated in his official social media page that he is signing with the Irish side. De Vries last team was FC Gifu in Japanese sencond tier.

Sligo Rovers is currently ranked 10th in Irish League of Ireland Premier Division, the last placed side, and De Vries is there to help the team to perform better in the season – they are still to draw or win any of their matches played.

Ni-Vanuatu Mitch Cooper scores as Hume City win in Australia

The Ni-Vanuatu international Mitch Cooper helped once again his side to win at NPL Victoria. The midfielder scored the first goal of his side 4-2 win away win over Melbourne Knights at Knights Stadium.

Hume City is having a fantastic start of season with four victories in four matches played, being the 1st placed side in the proceess so far. Cooper started all matches of the season, scoring two goals for Hume City in the league.

Image may contain: 1 person, playing a sport and outdoor — Cooper scored the firstr goal of Hume City in the clash – *Hume City Media*

Cooper goal was followed by James Brown and Steven Hewitt in the first half. Hume added another throuh an own goal at the early stages of the second half. The New Zealander Hamish Watson scored the first goal of Melbourne Knights and Caleb Mikulic scored the final goal of the encounter – the fourth victory in a row for Hume by 4-2.

Mitch Cooper was called up by Etienne Mermer for the provisional squad of Vanuatu that will prepare for participating at OFC Nations Cup this June in New Zealand.

Lae City boss set to make huge changes in his team

Ian Chow, owner of Lae City FC, is really not satisfied with this team performances in OFC Champions League this year. After not proceeding to the knock-out stage for the first time since Lae City took part for its first time in the regional tournament, the team boss announced he is set to make huge changes in his franchise.

Hours before their important match against Hekari United counting for PNG National Soccer League 2019/20, Ian Chow stated in his social media: “They were too complacent [Lae City at OFC Champions League] – did not train enough, drinking beer, smoking. Totally unprofessional and deserved to be knocked out“. Chow also added that “they can let the game on Hekari go, or they can prove me wrong. Either way, there will be huge changes“. The transfer window is set to open next week in Papua New Guinea, the perfect chance for the changes Chow expects to do in his team.

Lae City already responded in style in their first match after the regional tournament, in a 8-1 win over FC Kutubu at Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in a game in which they did not count on their captain Raymond Gunemba. Now they are going to have a much more harder challenge against the top-placed Hekari United at the same Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium, Lae.

Brian Kaltak was key for Auckland City win over AS Vénus

The Ni-Vanuatu international Brian Kaltak shown all his capabilities to help his side, the New Zealand powerhose Auckland City, to surpass the home team AS Vénus at Stade de Mahina by the minimum advantage at OFC Champions League – Group D second matchday.

The 26-year-old defender played alongside the experienced Ángel Berlanga and Mario Bilen at the back-three composition selected by the coach José Figueira and helped the goalkeeper Conor Tracey and the defensive system to end up the game with a clean sheet. Kaltak did not made any passing errors in the whole game and was efficient to stop the top-goalscorer of Ligue 1 Vini season in 2019 Teaonui Tehau.

The half time advantage of 1-0 was enough for Auckland City to secure their second win in the process. The goal scored by Myer Bevan proved to be the winning goal of the contest – the strong defensive performance of Auckland prevented AS Vénus to be a real threat for Conor Tracey as the Navy Blues marched on with another important three points in the pool to proceed to the knock-out stage.

Kaltak proved to be key for to hold the advatange and the coach José Figueira is certainly satisfied with the performance of his number 6. This is the seventh time Kaltak plays the OFC Champions League – the first for Auckland City. The defender recently was called up by Etienne Mermer for the Vanuatu national team camp that will start trainings for the OFC Nations Cup this June. The player might travel to Vanuatu when the season in New Zealand ends in order to represent his country at the most important football tournament of Oceania.

Lae and Hekari set for classic clash in Papua New Guinea NSL

The top two sides in the Papua New Guinea National Soccer League will go head-to-head in Lae this weekend in one of the most anticipated matches of the season so far.

Lae City will be without talismanic striker Raymond Gunemba after it was confirmed he received a five-match ban for pushing a referee after the game against Vitiaz United a few weeks ago, but otherwise the two squads will be at full strength for the game, which is the final match in the first round of fixtures in the competition.

Hekari played Lae in last year’s Grand Final, with Lae winning on penalties. Photo: PNGFA

Following Hekari’s 0-0 draw with third-placed Vitiaz United last weekend, the eight-time champions are only one point ahead of the current title-holders, meaning a Lae victory would propel the side to the top of the table. However, if Hekari are victorious, this would give them a four-point cushion going into the second half of the season.

Whatever the result, Vitiaz United have a chance to capitalise. Lae host Hekari in Lae at 3pm local time, while Vitiaz United also travel to Lae to take on the struggling Morobe Wawens at 1pm. A victory for Vitiaz could see them end up in second place at the turn of the season, which is a remarkable achievement for a club just making their debut in the semi-professional domestic competition. In the early kick-off in Lae, Morobe United host Tusbab Stallions, meaning all four of the top four sides will be strutting their stuff at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium on Saturday.

In Port Moresby, fifth-placed FC Bougainville will be hoping to push the pressure on Tusbab Stallions in fourth by winning their match against Star Mountain at 1pm. At 3pm, Gulf Komara will host FC Kutubu in what should be a competitive game.