After scoring a hat-trick in the 3-0 win against Lae City from Papua New Guinea in the last gameday of 2020 OFC Champions League group B, Malampa Revivors’ forward Andre Batick was contacted by Hekari United’s team manager about the possibility of joining them later this year.
Batick celebrates a goal against Lae City. Source: OFC Media
According to reliable sources there is an agreement between the parts so Batick could join Hekari after the end of OFC Champions League which means that he would be cleared to represent the team in the second part of 2020 Papua New Guinean National Soccer League.
Malampa Revivors have qualified for OFC Champions League’s knockout stage while Hekari United was eliminated in the group stage.
Fijian side Ba announced their final squad for OFC Champions League. They released a 17-men list on social media that will be travelling to Tahiti to play the continental tournament.
Henderson Eels’ squad had its first training session after qualifying for OFC Champions League quarterfinals on this weekend. Head coach Eddie Marahare confirmed that the trainings resumed today at SIFF Academy.
Henderson Eels starting eleven against Lautoka in 2020 OFC Champions League. Source: OFC Media
The Solomon Islands side finished the Group B in the second position and now they are waiting for their opponents in the quarterfinals. The match is scheduled to be played on April 25/26.
The fifth gameweek of 2020 Vodafone Premier League is on! Three matches will be played this weekend and Oceania Football Center brings to you a full preview of these clashes. Scroll down and check it!
First of all, it is important to remember that Ba vs Nadi clash is not going to happen this weekend because Ba will debut on 2020 OFC Champions League on Sunday.
After being eliminated in the Champions League, Lautoka turns its attentions to the Premier League as they receive Labasa at Churchill Park. The Bluez had an amazing start in the season by winning two matches by 6-0. However the current situation is not so good for Lautoka as they were smashed in the continental tournament.
The men led by Anand Sami are going to count on the crowd support to face Labasa that lost in the last two matchweeks. That is a crucial clash for both teams: Lautoka needs to pursue league leaders Rewa while Babasiga Lions need to recover from the bad streak. Let’s see how the Bluez will come to the pitch after the bad performance in the Champions League.
Lautoka did not have a good performance in the 2020 OFC Champions League. Source: OFC Media
Ratu Cakobau Park will host a double header this weekend. The first match will be contested by Nasinu and Suva. The Capital City Boys did not play in the last gameweek while Nasinu was smashed by Nadi by 5-0.
Both teams need to win on Sunday in order to keep up with their goals for this season. Seventh placed Nasinu needs the three points to move away from bottom placed Navua while Suva still thinks about fighting for the title. Christopher Wasasala must play a key role in the team if they really want to win this match as he scored all Suva’s three goals in the tournament
Wasasala is very important to Suva. Source: Fiji FA Media
Current league leaders Rewa will receive Navua at Ratu Cakobau Park aiming up another win. With nine points in four matches, the Delta Tigers do not count on Savenaca Baledrokadroka anymore as he signed for Frankston Pines from Australia. Anyway they still have a very good team and they are favourites to beat recently promoted Navua.
Dans le video de la OFC on se voit que tout le monde est au travail au stade Mahina, Tahiti, parce que tout doit être prêt pour le premier match du groupe D qui aura lieu dimanche à 17h entre Auckland City et Ba FC.
Ici le defenseur Kevin Barbe qui peint le mur – Source OFC
Les joueurs d’AS Venus sont également occupés. Il y a ceux qui peignent les murs, ceux qui réparent les portes et ceux qui contrôlent le terrain de jeu. Une communauté entière travaille pour que cet événement fonctionne au maximum. Cette chose n’est pas banal et n’est pas vue dans le reste de l’Océanie mais est également est tres rare comme meme dans le reste du monde. Un grand applaudissement au peuple tahitien qui se révèle une fois de plus plein d’esprit et et disposé à faire les choses comme il se doit.
Galaxy FC, a club created in 2014, rapidly shown their power in the Port Vila league system, to get promoted to the top-tier of the tournament and to turn the champions of Top Four in the capital city of Vanuatu. The team owned by Andrew Leong already had proven a lot of their power, but their major focus was surely their first appearance at OFC Champions League; their biggest achievement, to qualify for the quarterfinal stage of the regional competition. Among these big achivements, Galaxy reached another interesting milestone that deserves to be noted.
Galaxy celebrates in Port Moresby – OFC Media
New Zealand is certainly the top-football nation in the region – all teams from the other ten OFC members are always hungry to beat any representatives coming from there. Galaxy almost won Eastern Suburbs – the current national champions of New Zealand – but ended up in 2-2 after suffering a heatbreaking goal in the final moments of the clash.
The goals of Terence Carter and Roberson carried Galaxy to achieve an impressing mark for Vanuatu football: they turn into the first team from the country to avoid a defeat from a New Zealander side since 2014, when Amicale won by 1-0 the powerful Auckland City with a goal of the former international Dominique Fred.
The impressive result is not the only thing to notice from Galaxy; they played a really good football, with lots of offensive options and a very good defensive system especially in the historical match against Eastern Suburbs – that they played almost the entire second half with only 10-men. Despite not displaying a so good football in their final match against Hekari United, the 2-1 defeat was still enough to make the team captained by Seiloni Iaruel to proceed to the knock-out stage of the most important club football tournament of the region.
Recently, the Solomon Islands star goalkeeper Anthony Talo talked to Oceania Football Center regarding the next steps of his career in football and futsal. The player who almost represented Hekari United at OFC Champions League 2020, informed he is going to take a break on international duties after the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2020, to be held in Lithuania at the end of the current year: “After this year Futsal World Cup I want to take a break from international duties“, explained the player.
The player also stated he will keep available at club level, but he decides to take a break from representing Solomon Islands in any international competition for a uncertain amount of time: “I am not sure for how long it will be. After the end of the Futsal World Cup I may get to know“, said the goalkeeper.
Athony Talo helped the Kurukuru to qualify for their fourth Futsaa World Cup in a row – OFC Media
“There are lot of things happening in my career life of football that are not good“, explained the former Western United goalkeeper. “But I am not going to retire from international duties, I just want to take break”, mentioned Talo to give a relief to Solomon Islands football fans.
The player also took the opportunity to apologize to Hekari United after the happenings in January: “I want to apologize to Hekari staff and fans for what happened“, said the goalkeeper.
After lots of rumours, four Fijian players arrived in Australia to play for Frankston Pines. Peni Tuigulagula, Asaeli Batikasa, Savenaca Baledrokadroka and Tito Vodowaqa are ready to represent the Australian team.
From left to right: Tuigulagula, Kevin Taylor (head coach), Batikasa, Vodowaqa, Baledrokadroka, Jai Krishna (team manager) and Christopher Hodgson (team captain). Source: Frankston Pines Media
According to Pines’ head coach Kevin Taylor, all four players are going to debut in a practice match tomorrow evening against Beaumaris SC.
Goalkeeper Asaeli Batikasa left Labasa to play in Australia. Tuigulagula and Vodowaqa were representing Nadi in the 2020 Vodafone Premier League while Baledrokadroka was playing for Rewa.
Frankston Pines play in State League Division 3 in Victoria football league system. The club is based in Frankston North, a suburb from Melbourne.
Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) recently announced that four players were suspended from national team duties due to innapropriate behavior: Benjamin Totori, Dennis Ifunaoa, Joses Nawo and Michael Boso.
One of the players involved in this case, Henderson Eels’ forward Joses Nawo made a public statement about the case. He apologized for what happened and expressed his dissatisfaction on how SIFF dealt with the case.
Joses Nawo (left) representing Henderson Eels in the 2019-20 Telekom S-League. Source: SIFF Media
According to Nawo, the players were not formally informed about the case and they knew about the suspension on social media.
Samoa and Fiji will host 2020 OFC youth tournaments
Oceania Football Confederation confirmed that Fiji will host 2020 OFC U16 Championship. The top two teams in the tournament are going to qualify for 2020 FIFA U17 World Cup that is scheduled to be held in Peru.
It is going to be the second time that the U16 Championship will be played in Fiji. They hosted the tournament in 1999 and they finished the competition in the second position as they lost to Australia in the final.
Last year they hosted the OFC Olympic Qualifiers and it was a successful tournament. So people can expect a good tournament to see the newest talents of Oceania.
It was also confirmed that Samoa will host 2020 OFC U19 Championship and there are lots of complains about that due to the Measles Outbreak that ravaged the country recently. However it seems that the country has recovered from this outbreak which means that they are ready to host the tournament just like they did last year when they hosted the Pacific Games.
The top two teams of 2020 OFC U19 Championship are going to represent Oceania in 2021 FIFA U20 World Cup in Indonesia.
