The Fijian Flyer weared the captain armband once again for his side ATK in the Indian Super League as they faced NorthEast United in their latest match in the Indian top-tier football league.
Roy Krishna was the leader of his team as they beat NorthEast United by 1-0 to retain the top-spot in the league, now ATK has 27 points in the run and Krishna and his teammates are surely making the Kolkata fans full of joy.
Krishna was the captain for ATK victory – ISL Media
Krishna had a fantastic 2019 year for his former club Wellington Phoenix, for the Fijian national team and also for ATK, but he is still to score a goal in 2020, despite his good performances for the team. In social media Krishna stated “Not the best performance from us but happy to get all 3 points. Congratulations paaji Balwant Singh on your first goal this season. Congratulations NorthEast United for giving us a tough match. Time to regroup and strategize better for upcoming matches“.
ATK and Krishna will be back to the pitch on 02nd February when they travel to face Jamshedpur.
Legendary Avinesh Suwamy is ready to leave Ba after representing the Men in Black for many years. It was reported by a local media that he applied for release from Ba to join Nadi.
Suwamy playing for Ba
The 33 years old player has a long and victorious career. His last title was the 2019 Vodafone Premier League. He also had a good international career by playing 38 matches in the OFC Champions League and 17 matches for Fiji National Football Team.
The 28-year old Solomon Islands internatinal Michael Boso is set to rejoin Suva for the 2020 season that is set to start 1st February. The central defender stated to Oceania Football Center and informed that he will be flying to the Fijian capital today (29th Jan). Suva also signed two African players for the season recently.
Michael Boso wearing Suva FA jersey – FFA Media
Boso is an experienced defender that already represented his country eight times. He also played in New Zealand clubs Miramar Rangers and Team Wellington, taking part in the 2018 FIFA Clubs World Cup. Boso also reached success with Marist FC in Solomon Islands, reaching the semi-final stage of the 2018 OFC Champions League.
The player represented Suva in the last season, helping the club to reach the finals of Fiji FACT and InterDistrict Championship, also playing for the team in 2019 Pacific Cup held in New Zealand. The defender played the Pacific Games for Solomon Islands also in 2019.
Pijnaker is 20 years old and he was playing for Torslanda from Swedish fourth tier. He made his debut for New Zealand National Football Team last year in a friendly match against Lithuania. You can check his full profile by clicking here.
Samoan team Lupe o le Soaga faced Tupapa Maraerenga from Cook Islands on this Tuesday and the match finished at a 0-0 draw. This result qualified Lupe to the group stage of 2020 OFC Champions League.
The Samoan side had a better performance than Tupapa Maraerenga but they could not find the net. You can check the match highlights by clicking here. Lupe will play OFC Champions League group stage for the fourth time. They first qualified for the main draw of the continental championship in 2014-15, 2017 and 2018.
Lupe o le Soaga and Tupapa Maraerenga draw at nil. Source: OFC Media
Tupapa will face Veitongo on Friday and they still have a chance to finish the preliminary round in the first position. They need to win by 3 or more goals to overtake Lupe o le Soaga.
The winner of the Qualifying Stage will join Group D in the Champions League which includes Auckland City FC (New Zealand), Ba FC (Fiji) and AS Venus (Tahiti). The runner-up will enter Group C featuring AS Magenta (New Caledonia), AS Tiare Tahiti (Tahiti) and the Solomon Warriors (Solomon Islands).
Nous sommes arrivés a le deuxième jour de la deuxième phade de La Ligue 1 Vini. Vendredi soir, les leaders du classement, l’AS Venus, ont facilement gagné contre l’AS JT avec un resultat de 4-0. Les marquers de l’equipe blanc-violet étaient Yann-Pennequin-Le Bras, Tamatoa Tetauira, Ariiura Labaste et, bien sûr, le capitaine Teanoui Tehau, qui a porté son score saisonnier à 15 buts.
Teanoui Tehau (source FTF)
Vendredi également, nous enregistrons la victoire de l’AS Manu Ura qui, avec un but à la 6e minute de François Mu, a battu l’AS Tefana dans un défi de bas rang.
AS Tefana vs AS Manu Ura (source FTF)
Samedi, trois matchs se sont déroulés au Stade Pater de Pirae. Dans le premier, Tiare Tahiti a remporté une très large victoire 7-0 contre l’AS Olympic Mahina, de plus en plus en bas du classement. Comme si le résultat n’était pas suffisant pour dire cette victoire, je souligne que tous les buts sont arrivés en seconde période. Une fois le premier marqué, tous les autres sont arrivés. Je me demande: n’est-ce pas que le problème de l’AS Olympic Mahina est un problème mental et non technique?
As Tiare Tahiti en maillot vert (source FTF)
Samedi, lors du deuxième match, se sont affrontés l’AS Tac et l’AS Central Sport. Le premier a gagné le match 3-2. C’est la séquence des buts: Marcel Tihoni pour AS Tac, égalité de Jess Horoi pour AS Central Sport, but de Steve Horoi 2-1 pour AS Tac juste avant la fin de l’intervalle. Le TAC est allé 3-1 grâce à Jason Punuatua Papaura. Résultat final de 3-2 fixé par le but du capitaine du Central, Fred Tissot.
AS Tac vs AS Central Sport (source FTF)
Le troisième et dernier match de cette deuxième journée de retour a vu l’AS Pirae et l’AS Dragon s’affronter, les équipes s’affrontant pour la troisième place. Les joueurs de Pirae ont eu le dessus sur leurs adversaires assez facilement pour que le match se termine 5-2 pour eux.
AS Pirae vs AS Dragon (source FTF)
AS Venus poursuit son chemin vers la victoire du titre en douceur. La victoire en reprise contre Pirae leur a également permis de garder l’équilibre des affrontements directs de leur côté en cas d’égalité de points face à leurs rivaux habituels qui sont actuellement à 6 points derrière les leaders mais avec 2 matchs encore à récupérer. Reste l’AS Tiare Tahiti qui est sournois à 1 point du sommet et qui procède avec un calme égal. Ce qui est certain, c’est que le championnat de cette année se déroulera jusqu’au bout.
Both players decided to stay in Solomon Islands to play for Henderson Eels – “We want to stay with Henderson Eels for the OFC Champions League,” Le’ai said.
Henderson Eels is in the 2020 OFC Champions League Group B alongside with Malampa Revivors, Lautoka and Lae City.
The Chicago Fire are currently working on their preparation for the next MLS season. They are in Tampa (Florida) for training and their 28-man squad was released on this Monday and there are some interesting news for the fans of Oceanian Football: New Zealander Elliot Collier was named for the preseason squad.
Elliot Collier playing for Chicago Fire in 2018
Collier played the 2019 season for Memphis 901 FC in the USL, a secondary football league in the United States. He is currently on trial with Chicago Fire and he has the possibility to come back to MLS if he have a good preseason with the team.
He is 24 years old and he already played for Fire in 2018 Major League Soccer. He made his debut for New Zealand National Football Team in November 2019 against Ireland.
ATK played a home match against NorthEast United on this Monday in the 14th matchweek of 2019-20 Indian Super League. Fijian forward Roy Krishna was the team captain once again and he played the whole 90 minutes in the 1-0 win.
ATK had a difficult match and they could only find the net in the 95th minute with a goal scored by Balwant Singh after a corner kick taken by Javi Hernández. Krishna played well and had some opportunites but all of them were saved by NorthEast’s goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhary. You can check the highlights by clicking here.
Roy Krishna (right) against NorthEast United. Source: ISL Media
The second match of the 2020 OFC Champions League, in its preliminary stage, will see the debut of the Cook Islands champions Tupapa Maraerenga against the Samoan representative Lupe o le Soaga – the Samoans won their debut match against Veitongo from Tonga to open the competiton in fashion, putting them close to the group stage of the current edition of OFC Champions League.
The Samoan side celebrate their opening goal in the tournament – OFC Media
Two goals in the first half from Matthew Chant and Suivai Ataga were enough to make the 2-0 victory of the favourites in the clash against the Tongan champions. Despite controling the most part of the game, Veitongo make the things harder for Lupe in the second half and deserved at least to score once – what was not a good signal for the team coached by Paul Ualesi. “We need to jell our combinations and everything, we need to work on some of our weaknesses. We need to improve our passing and movement and finishing. Finishing is the main key“, said the coach Ualesi to OFC.
Tupapa, the team that is still to play in the competition, seems prepared for the challenge, couting with experienced players as the Cook Islands international Grover Harmon and Harlem Simiona and the Chilean midfielder André Estay. The player/coach Anthony Samuela said: “I think the team looks fit, looking at the shape of the boys, everybody’s good“, in his pre-match interview for OFC.
If the Samoans do not lose this game, they will play once again the group stage of the OFC Champions League as they did three times already. A draw will be enough to avoid Veitongo to reach them in table, as two of three teams will proceed to the next stage – the possible four-point Lupe will guarantee their spot as they could be reached by a 0-point Veitongo in the moment.
Oceania Football Center 