For the third straight match of the South African side Maritzburg United, the Solomon Islands international Micah Lea’alafa is left out of the matchday squad of the team coached by Eric Tinkler. Lea’alafa played already 11 matches for the club he signed last year, but could make his path to the first team being dropped recently by his coach.
Lea’alafa defending Maritzburg colours – MU Media
For the clash against Baroka, that ended with a defeat of Maritzburg by 1-0, only one of the three Oceanian players of the club took part in the match. The former Auckland City defender Dan Morgan played the entire game, while both Jeremy Brockie and Lea’alafa were left even out of the bench options for the technical staff.
After the Solomon Islander left the pitch at the 38th minute of play with no aparent injury four matches back, he was note even calleup for any of the following matches Maritzburg United had. The fans start asking questions when the player will be back to the team or if he is out of Eric Tinkler’s plans after being dropped for so long time.
Raphael Le’ai and Leon Kofana are ready to come back to New Zealand after playing for Henderson Eels on their vacations. They will take a flight to New Zealand on January 28 (tomorrow).
Both players still have one more year to play for Scots College. Their flights are being paid by Wellington Phoenix that holds a partnership wits Scots College.
Le’ai (left) and Kofana (right) playing for Henderson Eels. Source: SIFF Media
Le’ai is the current top scorer of 2019-20 Telekom S-League with 24 goals and Leon Kofana played an important role on Eels’ defense to qualify the team for 2020 OFC Champions League.
There are some rumours that both players might come back to play Champions League for Eels. However there is no official communication between Henderson Eels, Scots College and Wellington Phoenix.
Recently Galaxy FC won Port Vila squad by 5-0 in a friendly held in Port Vila, Vanuatu as part of their preparation for 2020 OFC Champions League. Malampa Revivors did something similar this weekend by facing Luganville squad.
Luganville squad was made of important players from some local teams like Vaum United, Santos and Sia-Raga Santo.
Malampa Revivors starting eleven against Luganville squad
Malampa Revivors smashed Luganville squad by 9-1. Forward Azariah Soromon scored a hat-trick in his debut for Revivors. Merge Damelip scored a consolation goal for Luganville.
Revivors is drawn in the 2020 OFC Champions League Group B alongside with Lae City (Papua New Guinea), Lautoka (Fiji) and Henderson Eels (Solomon Islands).
Cameron Hogg keeps improving in his career. The 25 years old goalkeeper is the newest player of Umeå FC from Swedish second tier.
Cameron Hogg
He moves up to the second tier after having a good season playing for Nyköpings BIS from the Swedish third tier. He arrived in Sweden in 2019 after playing some years in the United States.
Oceania Football Center wish him good luck in his new club.
The 2019-20 Telekom S-League is amost over. Kossa will face Real Kakamora on Wednesday in the last match of the season. However the league champions are already decided. Scroll down and check what happened in the last weekend of Telekom S-League.
Henderson Eels still had small chances to win the league. They needed to beat Real Kakamora by 13 or more goals and cheer for a Solomon Warriors loss against Guadalcanal. Eels took it seriously and smashed Real Kakamora by 19-0. Wonderkid Raphael Lea’i scored 11 goals and he is the current league top scorer with 24 goals in seven matches.
There is another exciting race that is not over yet. Isabel United and Kossa are still fighting for the third position and both teams won this weekend. Isabel came from behind to beat Laugu United by 2-1 while Kossa won Marist by 4-1.
Kossa are two points behind Isabel but they still have a chance to finish the season in the third position as they will face bottom placed Real Kakamora on Wednesday. You can check the current standings and top scorers by clicking here.
The Solomon Warriors are the Solomon Islands national football champions for the sixth time! They were crowned champions after winning Guadalcanal by default.
Warriors finish on top of the standings with 41 points ahead of Henderson Eels that finished in the second position with 38 points. They had a powerful attack led by Ni-Vanuatu striker Tony Kaltak that scored 19 goals in the competition.
The Warriors are drawn in 2020 OFC Champions League Group C alongside AS Magenta (New Caledonia), AS Tiare Tahiti (Tahiti) and qualifying stage runner-up.
According to local sources the 2020 Vanuatu National League Championship is cancelled. The tournament was scheduled to begin this week.
VFF logo
It would be the first edition of the tournament that would count on nine teams, including Galaxy FC and Malampa Revivors that will play 2020 OFC Champions League. There is no exact news about cancellation’s reasons.
Oceania Football Center keep investigating it in order to bring accurate information about it.
It was a thrilling weekend of Papua New Guinea National Soccer League action, as the top four teams all played each other, with newcomers Vitiaz United securing an unlikely victory over reigning champions Lae City, allowing Hekari United to pull clear at the top of the league after a late winner against Tusbab Stallions.
Kicking off at 1pm local time in Lae, five-time reigning champions Lae City even enjoyed home advantage, with their opponents, debutants Vitiaz United, having to travel north from Port Moresby ahead of the match.
Lae were boosted before kick-off when they received confirmation that one of their Ecuadorian imports, Gustine Icaza, was cleared to play. The South American actually started the game for the champions before being replaced by Obert Bika shortly before half-time.
However, it was a new kid on the block for Vitiaz United who stole the show: 24-year-old Joel Tiampo, recruited from Eastern Stars, scored either side of half-time to put the visitors into a shock 2-0 lead with half an hour to play. Tiampo plays his regional football with Maclaren in the Port Moresby Soccer Association, and represented Erema FC in the 2017 FFPNG National Premier League.
With time ticking away, Lae’s veteran striker Raymond Gunemba pulled one back for the hosts, but the reigning champions were unable to break the firm Vitiaz resistance in the final moments, giving the debutants a priceless victory, and allowing arch-rivals Hekari United a chance to open up a lead at the top of the division.
Hekari players celebrate after their last-minute winner against Tusbab Stallions. Photo: PNGFA
However, it was not an easy ride for the eight-time former champions either. Hekari, who had home advantage against a Tusbab Stallions side who had won their previous three matches, scored an early goal to settle some nerves through Patrick Aisa in the 11th minute, but after influential midfielder David Muta limped off with an injury before half-time, the youngsters from Madang began to grow into the game.
Once again, Stahl Gubag was a crucial piece of the Stallions puzzle, and after the side ramped up the pressure on the Hekari goalmouth, the 20-year-old leading NSL scorer buried his sixth goal of the season to level the scores at 1-1.
From that moment, the visitors looked on top, with Hekari seemingly bereft of ideas now that the heartbeat of their team had succumbed to injury. However, Stallions were unable to make a breakthrough, and for a while it looked as if they had managed to secure a memorable draw against the former OFC Champions.
Hekari’s victory and Lae’s defeat gives the eight-time champions a three-point lead at the top of the table, while Vitiaz draw level on points with the champions, with Stallions still occupying a playoff spot despite their defeat.
However, deep into injury time, Stallions conceded a free-kick just outside the penalty area. Up stepped stand-in captain Koriak Upaiga, who whipped the ball around the wall and into the corner of the goal, beyond the outstretched arms of Stallions goalkeeper Leehan Manasseh.
Fans of both clubs after the game praised the fight and desire of the Stallions youngsters, and indeed, questions must be asked of Hekari’s future: the core of the side are either close to or over 30 years old: Upaiga and Muta are 32, Michael Foster is 34, Langarap Samol is 30, while Daniel Joe will turn 30 this year. That’s almost half of their starting eleven reaching their peak years or, arguably, already past them. For how much longer will they be able to rely on tried and tested veterans?
Morobe Wawens picked up their second win of the season to go level on points with their opponents FC Bougainville. Photo: FC Bougainville
In the early kick-off, Morobe Wawens picked up their second win of the season, winning a five-goal thriller in Lae 3-2 against FC Bougainville. Wawens opened up a two goal lead thanks to goals from Sombo Goro and Teddy Tommy in the 16th and 36th minutes respectively, before Daniel Vetali pulled one back for the visitors two minutes later.
Wawens forward Barthy Kerobin pounced on some sloppy Bougainville passing play from the kick-off at the start of the second half to increase their lead to 3-1 and score his second goal of the season, and the side looked comfortable for the remainder of the match. Abel Redenut clawed one back for the visitors on 85 minutes, but it was not enough to give them a way back into the game, Wawens eventually running out 3-2 victors.
Star Mountain (yellow) and Gulf Komara (black) players tussle for the ball in Port Moresby. Photo: PNGFA
Elsewhere, both Morobe United and Gulf Komara picked up their first wins of the season: Jeremy Yasasa scored the only goal of the game as Morobe United defeated FC Kutubu in Lae, while goals from Numa Kila and Jordan Kaven were enough to see Komara win 2-1 against Star Mountain, who scored through Tau Winnie.
Results
Morobe Wawens 3-2 FC Bougainville Gulf Komara 2-1 Star Mountain Lae City 1-2 Vitiaz United Hekari United 2-1 Tusbab Stallions Morobe United 1-0 FC Kutubu
Galaxy will one of the two representatives of Vanuatu in the upcoming edition of the 2020 OFC Champions League. The club created in 2014 has a big economic power in terms of the region and decided to make a big investment to represent well the country in the regional competition.
The English striker Terence Carter is the most important signing of Galaxy for their first appearance in the OFC Champions League. The 26-year old player has experience of playing in Australia and in the United States and his goalscoring skills are being proven in his first three matches for his new club: Carter netted four goals in two friendly matches of Galaxy – against Port Vila squad and Erakor Golden Star and most recently bagged a brace in his first competitive match at PVFA Opening Cup against Sia-Raga.
Carter in Galaxy colours – Vanautu Sport
The Englishman scored a total of six goals in three matches played in his new team and proves he has what it takes to help Galaxy to do well in their biggest challenge of the season in the OFC Champions League.
The season opener in Fiji was decided in style with a unlikely hero; the 27-year old striker Ratu Anare scored a brace to give Labasa the Champion vs Champion series trophy against the stellar squad of Ba.
Labasa ended the first half infront of the Men in Black with the first goal of Anare in the match. The Ratu Cakobau Park seemed more supportive to Labasa that pushed strong in the first 45 minutes. In the second half, Ba pursued an equalizer and they have founded in the 57th minute of play when the Ni-Vanuatu international Micah Tommy scored for Ba.
The starting eleven of the winning side – FFA Media
Labasa, despite suffering an equalizer and to be dealing with great quality players as Benjamin Totori and Samuela Drudru, found the winner at the 92nd minute of play again through the efforts of Ratu Anare.
The game ended in favour of the Babasiga Lions that proudly kicks-off the season in style winning the first trophy in contest. You can check the highlights by clicking here.
Babasiga Lions receive the awards for the win – Labasa Media
Ba will need to recover rapidly from this defeat in order to prepare themselves for the upcoming 2020 OFC Champions League – the club recently announced the signing of the former New Zealand national team coach Ricki Herbert to guide the team in the continental competition. While Ba needs to fix their mistakes, Labasa staff and fans have a lot to celebrate expecting 2020 will be a year full of victories as 2019 was.
