They need to arrive in Malta until 2nd January 2020 to start training at Maltese Premier League club Tarxien Rainbows. Both Solomon national team players need the sum of $30,000 Solomon Dollar each to have their trial secured. This amount of money is necessary to pay their flights. They will not pay the trial.
Nawo (left) and Kaua (right) still waiting for sponsorship to go to Europe
The fundraising deadline is today at 16:00 (Solomon Islands time). Time marches on and the dream drips down their hands.
The 2019-20 Coupe de Tahiti-Nui’s round of 16 is almost over. Seven matches were recently played and the remaining one will be contested on January 11.
Current champions AS Vénus faced AS-Manu Ura and they had some unexpected difficulties to beat their opponents by 1-0.
The biggest clash of the round was AS Tiare Tahiti 3-3 AS Dragon. Both teams are living good moments in the Ligue 1 – AS Tiare Tahiti is in 2nd while AS Dragon is in 3rd. After a tied match in the normal time, AS Tiare Tahiti won in the shootout by 4-2.
AS Tiare Tahiti players celebrating their win
The seven remaining teams for the quarter finals count on some surprises like AS Mataiea (Ligue 2) and AS Tohie’a (Ligue 2 Moorea). You can check all results in the picture below:
Elias Silva Júnior, also known as Pepeta, is a 31 years old forward from Brazil. He played the last OFC Champions League edition for Erakor Golden Star and he last played for Galaxy FC before coming back to Brazil.
The “2019 Copa Sul” is a tournament held in Espírito Santo, one of the brazilian states. The tournament counted on 14 teams and it was played throughout two months. Pepeta helped Ypiranga FC from Afonso Cláudio town to win the tournament.
Pepeta holding Copa Sul trophy
Pepeta also talked to Oceania Football Center about the 2020 OFC Champions League –“Andrew Leong (President of Galaxy FC) is building a good team to reach the finals. He deserves it because he loves football […] I would love to come back and win the OFC Champions League with them“.
Oceania Football Center congratulates Pepeta for the title.
The CIFA Cups are played in the end of the season and they are contested by the teams that played the league season.
Tupapa won both finals in the shootout. It was the first time ever a team win Premier Men’s League, Senior Women’s League, Premier Men’s Cup and Senior Women’s Cup in the same season.
Tupapa men’s team celebrating the CIFA Cup’s title
Henderson Eels is already qualified for 2020 OFC Champions League and they are still dreaming of the 2019-20 Telekom S-League’s title. However Eels have to make an almost impossible mission to win the league.
With just one remaining match for them in the S-League, Eels are three points behind current leaders Solomon Warriors. If they want to win the league they need to win and cheer for a Warriors’ loss but it is far from being easy.
The goals difference (GD) is the first big problem: Warriors’ GD is 43 while Eels’ GD is 30. So, to start dreaming of the league’s title seriously Eels need to score at least 13 goals in their next match. Click here to check the league stadings.
Warriors (red) and Eels (green) are fighting for 2019-20 S-League’s title
The second problem are the opponents. Henderson Eels is going to face Real Kakamora, the last placed team that did not win a single game in the league and scoring 13 goals might be possible but might not be enough because Solomon Warriors faces Guadalcanal in their last match of the season. Guadalcanal have only three points, they won just one match in the season against Real Kakamora.
Solomon Warriors have S-League title in the bag while Eels wait for a miracle to win the league. Both teams are already qualified for the next OFC Champions League. The S-League winners will be placed in 2020 OFC Champions League Group C while the runner-up will be placed in the Group B. You can check the OFC Champions League draw by clicking here.
Ironman Triathlon is one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world, consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run, raced in that order. It is a very long challenge and the best Ironmen in the world complete it in about eight hours.
A Half Ironman – also called Ironman 70.3 – consists on 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, a 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and a 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run. Each distance of the swim, bike, and run segments is half the distance of that segment in an Ironman Triathlon. The sum of the distances – in miles – is equal to 70.3, that is why it is called Ironman 70.3.
Hamilton Wanderers defender Blake Weston completed a Half Ironman on December 8, a huge accomplishment for a football player that needs to train almost every day to play football in a professional level – “Training for the Half Ironman was a whole new experience for me although I definitely enjoyed it. I would have at least one aspect of triathlon training every day – whether it was swimming, biking or running, and then we would train three evenings a week with Hamilton Wanderers.” explained Weston.
Weston competing in Half Ironman
Blake Weston joined Hamilton Wanderers in July and he is being an important part of the team throughout the matchweeks. He started to train for Half Ironman during the winter with a huge influence from his brother Ryan, that completed a full Ironman in March “I ended up doing a couple of training runs and bikes with him and got hooked on the training so I ended up registering for the December half Ironman!”
Blake Weston (left) and Ryan Weston (right) after completing the Half Ironman
With a life dedicated to sports, Weston still finds time to run his own business – the Weston Design, a company dedicated to improving sport one design at a time with extensive experience in branding and graphic design in the sports industry. They do unique and innovative design services to local clubs and franchises at affordable prices.
An example is the poster below that was made for Andrew Abba‘s birthday.
Managing so many tasks might be something difficult but Weston really enjoys it: “It helped me make sure I was managing my time well!”. A busy life is not a problem for him to keep playing in the ISPS Handa Premiership and he feels that training for Half Ironman really helped him to improve his fitness level to play football: “I have definitely found that the constant cardio training has helped with football. I’ve felt the fittest I ever have and coming into pre-season at Hamilton Wanderers I was feeling great […] I can play the full 90 and not worry about tiring or feeling fatigued in the latter stages of the match.”
After Hekari United stated they would sign foreigners to improve their team, the champions of the last edition of the PNG National Soccer League, Lae City FC, also announced recently, after their last win in the new season of the national league, that they would be sign three foreign players in order to reinforce their team for the OFC Champions League 2020 edition. You can see the groups of both PNG representatives in the competition by clicking here.
According to the team media, the players are South Americans and come from Ecuador. Their profiles were not yet released by the club. The team is also expecting the arrival of the Papua New Guinea experienced internationals Nigel Dabinyaba and Emmanuel Simon to further strengthen the side.
Lae City
The team captain Raymond Gunemba stated to Oceania Football Center he is also still to know about the new foreigners the club is bringing and the news is expected to be in media at the starting of the next month.
Lae City had a good start in the current edition of the PNG National Soccer League with two wins in two matches – against Tusbab Stallions and most recently against Gulf Komara in Port Moresby. See the full standings of the current season here.
The newcomers in OFC Champions League – the winners of Port Vila Top Four – Galaxy FC from Vanuatu signed one more foreigner for their campaign in the OFC Champions League. The Ni-Vanuatu side club owned by influential Andrew Leong, signed the Senegalese striker Waliou Ndoye – a 28-year old strong player with plenty of professional experience.
Ndoye (white) playing against African champions ES Tunis – Mosaiquefm
The 1,75cm tall striker played for important clubs in Africa as the Mali side Stade de Mbour, the Algerian MO Béjaïa and the Tunisian powerhouse CS Sfaxien. Recently Ndoye also had a stint in Saudi Arabian football and his last experience was in his home country league. You can check some highlights of the striker by clicking here.
According to Galaxy FC, the player will join Galaxy in the next 27th December and he will ready to take part in the new tournament created by VFF, the National League Championship. Ndoye will join the Brazilians Robersona and Diego Máximo and also the Solomon Islanders Nelson Sale, James Naka and Gagame Feni in the Galaxy squad that is taking shape for next OFC Champions League.
Ndoye is a high-profile player for the next edition of OFC Champions League and is one of the players to watch in the region.
Galaxy is grouped with the Papua New Guinea powerhouse Hekari United, the current champions of Champions League Hienghène Sport and the New Zealand champions Eastern Suburbs, group to played in Port Moresby. You can see full details here.
Kakasi (black) fights for the ball with Alick (red) – S-League Media
Despite the 19 goals scored in the second for his countrymen Tony Kaltack, it was another Ni-Vanuatu that stepped up to confirm the favouritism of Warriors and let them just one point away to confirm the title in the run against Henderson Eels. Alick scored very early in the first minute of the game, goal that proved to be the winner for his side in a match that ended in a 1-0 victory – it was his sixth goal in the S-League season for his team.
You can check the full standings of S-League 2019/20 season by clicking here.
But there are not good news for Singh: the player received the first red card for his professional career. The player fouled one opponent from behind and the referee decided to send him off. Despite the call of the referee, fans and Singh teammates were not happy with the decision and the play proved to be very controversial. The foul seemed to be only tactical – to stop a counter-attack – but the referees felt the play was too harsh from the New Zealand international. Singh left the pitch early in the 41th minute of play.
Singh sees thre red – Stuff
Despite having only 10-men in the pitch, the young side of Bayern could score first in the match, but conceded later an equalizer. The team sits in the 15th position in the 3. Liga in Germany with 23 points in the standings.
Oceania Football Center 