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).
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.
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.
Recently, in order to reinforce their team for the upcoming 2020 OFC Champions League, Hekari United announced the signings of two Brazilian players with experience in regional divisions in the South American country – get to know more about them here.
The players were not the only South American signed by a local Papua New Guinea side, as Lae City recently recruited two players from Ecuador. Both teams had problems to register the players with PNGFA in order to use them in the national league. But there are finally good news for the Hekari fans: the head coach Jerry Allen stated in an interview with local sources that both Brazilians – Erick and VinĂcius – are ready to play for Hekari in their next match in the PNG National Soccer League in Goroka, where they travel to play FC Kutubu next Saturday (2nd Feb).
VinĂciuis Kryzozun (center) and Erick Joe (left) – PNGFA Media
The players are the most important signings of the season for the current runners-up of Papua New Guinea national league. The Brazilian duo is full of expectation from the fans and they hope to watch their performances soon in the Oceanian country.
Allen (center) coordinating his players – PNGFA Media
The coach said to The National, that “a win is a win and we take that but we didn’t play well today (Saturday 25th Jan), we were scruffy and not consistent,” Allen said, “we were lucky to get the win” he added.
The coach who guided Hekari to their continental title in 2010 also stated his concerns about the next OFC Champions League: “If they don’t change the way they play like what they did today (Saturday 25th Jan) then I will make changes. The Champions League is coming up and that is a totally different level of football with best of the best in Oceania. They have to step up because whoever that comes and play for Hekari plays for PNG“.
Hekari will host the Group A at PNG Football Stadium – they are grouped with the current champions Hienghène Sport (NCL), the New Zealand champions Eastern Suburbs and the Ni-Vanuatu poewerhouse Galaxy.
Solomon Islands international Micah Lea’alafa missed the last three Maritzburg United’s matches in South Africa. There was no exact news about his absence and there were lots of speculation about his current situation.
Oceania Football Center got in touch with Lea’alafa to know what is happening exactly. He suffered an ankle injury but according to the player he is already recovered – “Just recovered from another injury […] now it was my ankle but that is fine,” he said.
It was his second injury since he arrived in South Africa. Lea’alafa has already played 11 matches for Maritzburg but he has not scored his first goal yet.
Maritzburg United will play their next match on Friday against Cape Town City in the 2019-20 ABSA Premiership, the top-tier of South African football. Lea’alafa might be called for this match after three weeks off.
The transfer window of Fijian football continues to be very active, since the start of the national league is nearing. After not being succesful in negotiations with Labasa star Siotame Kubu, Suva decided to invest in overseas players to strenghten their squad for the season. Suva signed two Nigerian players for the season: the defender Michael Oyesanya and the striker Jibola Afonja. The team from the capital hope to count with the professional experience of both players to have a good season.
Afonja and Oyesanya
Michael Oyesanya has experience of playing in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and his home country. He represented Nigeria at U17 level and play mainly as a right back, being also possible to be used as center-back.
Jibola Afonja also has a lot of experience in Asia, playing in Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. He is central striker with good goalscoring records. You can see some highlights of Afonja by clicking here.
Both Oyesanya and Afonja played recently the Samoa Premier League for Kiwi FC for a short period, then grabbed this opportunity to represent Suva in Vodafone Premier League and more local tournaments.
Suva also signed local players: Nasinu’s Semi Matalau, Jonetani Buksh (Rewa), Waisake Soga (Tavua), Ravneet Chand (Lami), Manasa Levaci (Lami), Kalistio Bonawai (Lami) Isikeli Ratucava (Nasinu) and Nacanieli Ratu (Tavua).