The weekend of football is huge in Oceania in this mid-december, with the decisive clash of Solomon Warriors and Henderson Eels in the Solomon Islands, Auckland City facing the current New Zealand champions Eastern Suburbs and the so awaited kick-off of PNG National Soccer League – and much more.
The ISPS Handa Premiership, the top-tier of football in New Zealand will have Cantebury United facing the Wellington Phoenix reserves as the opening match of the weekend in the league. The current leaders of the table expect to continue their good run: Auckland City faces Eastern Suburbs in Kiwitea Street for the city derby. Eastern Suburbs comes with a harsh defeat against Team Welligton while Auckland City tops the table with the prolific goalscorer Myer Bevan in form.
Myer Bevan is the top-scorer of ISPS Handa Premiersip – ACFC Media
Hawke’s Bay United faces at home Waitakere United. Both sides hope to continue their impressive run in the competiton, while Team Wellington and Southern will also have a clash of two sides in very good form at David Farrington Park. The final clash of the matchweek will see two sides who currently battle in the bottom of the table in Nelson: Tasman United and Hamilton Wanderers. The team coached by Jess Ibrom hopes to find their way back to wins and Hamilton will expect to end their nightmare start of season.
In the A-League, Wellington Phoenix will travel to Melbourne to play for the second time in the season against Melbourne Victory. Phoenix comes from three wins in a row and expect to stop the Swedish prolific striker Ola Toivonen in order to achieve another good result. Ulises Dávila can turn himself into the first Phoenix player ever to score in five consecutive matches if he finds the nets once again at AAMI Park.
Four matches will make the weekend lively at Lawson Tama Stadium for the final rounds of Telekom S-League. The first match of the Saturday will be the most important of the weekend in Solomon Islands: Henderson Eels, the 2nd placed team, will battle for the top first spot against Solomon Warriors, the current title holders and leader of the standings. Eels will hope they will not miss the likes of Joses Nawo and Patrick Taroga for the match and expect a good run of the wonderkid Raphael Lea’i in order to grab a very important win. In the other side of the pitch, Solomon Warriors will count with the experience of players as Benjamin Totori, John Alick and Dennis Ifunaoa.
Solomon Warriors, the current leaders of S-League – SIFF Media
Laugu United will face the bottom ranked side Real Kakamora in the second match of the Saturday. The Sunday will have important matches for 3rd place battle of the ladder, Guadalcanal will play against Isabel United that comes with three matches in a row without a defeat and the final match of the weekend in the Solomon Islands top-tier will see Kossa playing against Malaita Kings.
The start of the new season in Tahiti comes strong and this weekened very important matches will entertaining the fans of the beautiful sport in the French overseas territory top-tier, the Ligue 1 Vini. The bottom ranked side Manu Ura will face at home the former national champions Central Sport, hoping their goalkeeper Jonathan Torohia can help to bounce back in the tournament.
Olympic Mahina suffered a very harsh defeat against Pirae in their last match and will hope to recover from a 11-1 defeat against the powerhouse Tefana in Mahina. The most important clash of the weekend will see the both Tahitian teams qualified for OFC Champions League 2020, AS Vénus and Tiare Tahiti – the strikers Teaonui Tehau and Sandro Tau, the two best goalscorers of the last season in Tahiti, will have a hard encounter to see who wins this important clash.
Teaonui Tehau scored 42 goals in the last season or AS Vénus – FTF Media
The round will be complete with the clashes between AS Dragon and AS Taravao and the Pirae of the Tehau brothers Alvin and Jonathan facing the Mickael Roche’s side AS Jeunes Tahitiens.
The so awaited kick-off of the season of PNG National Soccer League will take place this weekend – Oceania Football Center made a complete preview about the season. The league in Papua New Guinea will entertain fans all over the country – Port Moresby, Goroka, Morobe and Lae are represented in the competition.
The first matchday games will see the title holders Lae City playing against Tusbab Stallions in Laiwaden Oval, Madang while Hekari United faces Star Mountain in the first game of the season for the former OFC Champions League winners.
Lae City and Hekari made the grand final last season – PNGFA Media
The other three clashes of the weekend in Papua New Guinea will see Gulf Komara playing against Bougainville in the first game of the entire season in Port Moresby, while Morobe United play at Sir Ignatius Kilage against the newcomers Vitiaz United. In Goroka, the first timers in the league Kutubu will receive Morobe Wawens to complete the round.
With the Papua New Guinea National Soccer League set to kick off in just two days’ time, we’ve put together a full preview of the ten teams involved, including their previous achievements, current squad news, and a prediction as to where they might finish.
Lae City FC won the previous five editions of the PNG National Soccer League
Thanks to the great social media team that FC Bougainville have put together, we know a great deal about FC Bougainville, and we think their chances this season look good. The side is the semi-pro parent club of Mungkas, a side which won the 2019 National Club Championship, and has won three of the last four Port Moresby Premier Divisions, and while being based in Port Moresby, the side consists predominantly of players hailing from the autonomous island of Bougainville (which, by the way, voted for independence in a landslide result this week). The squad looks good: led by David Passam, the defence is marshalled by Abel Redenut, Basil Jofari dictates the midfield like clockwork, while Gabriel Yanum and Timothy Mali impressed so much last season that they earned call-ups to the Olympic Qualifiers U-23 squad earlier this year. The club have also brought in 19-year-old striker Jonathan Allen, a bright young prospect who may well lead their attack. Expect this side to be one of the better teams behind the big two.
Prediction: 3rd
As the outgoing champions of the FFPNG-sanctioned breakaway National Premier League in 2018, having beaten Hekari United en route to the final, Gulf Komara, rebranded from Erema Gulf at the start of last season, ought to have had high hopes going into last season’s Southern Conference. However, a fairly under-the-radar performance throughout the season saw them finish just sixth out of eight teams in the conference. Coached by former PNG international goalkeeper David Aua, the make-up of this season’s squad is for the most part unknown: the side have only recently relaunched their social media presence ahead of the kick-off this weekend, so they’re a bit of an unknown entity. They will, however, boast former Tusbab Stallions captain Max Sengum, which is something of a scalp for the club. With Aua at the helm, they should keep things fairly tight, and given that this is their fifth consecutive season of competing at the national level, their experience should hold them in good stead.
Prediction: 4th
For how much longer can Hekari United rely on the likes of long-time captain David Muta and Solomon Islander coach Jerry Allen to bring back the glory days of that triumphant OFC Champions League title in 2010? That was almost ten years ago now, but Muta and Allen are still around. That said, the squad remains packed with international talent: Koriak Upaiga is one of the best defenders in the country, while Ishmael Pole is establishing himself as a very competent goalkeeper. The identity of their regular striker this season is, however, thus far unknown, with previous talisman Tommy Semmy having left for Hamilton Wanderers in New Zealand. Can Hekari win back the crown they have surrendered to Lae City for the past five seasons? They will need to have strengthened their squad, but they will certainly not be lacking in desire.
Prediction: 1st
While FC Kutubu is technically a ‘new’ franchise, they’re actually a new parent club of Aporo Mai FC, a debuting club from last season’s competition. Mathew Witu, formerly the assistant coach of Hekari United, coaches both sides, so the home and away fixtures against former boss Jerry Allen will be fascinating to watch. Witu will be keen to retain some of the more impressive players from the Aporo Mai side of last season, but according to the latest reports, he only has two players with any sort of previous NSL experience: last year’s talisman Samuel Kini, a former international, and Andrew Apo, who played for Blue Kumuls last season. Given that Aporo Mai only managed to finish 4th in the Highlands Conference last season, we think it’ll be difficult for FC Kutubu to make a real impact on the competition, but keep an eye on their home games – as the only side in the Highlands, they’ll benefit from tired opponents more so than other clubs, so that might help them out more than you’d think.
Prediction: 7th
The reigning five-time champions have everything to lose and not much to gain: last year they won their fifth consecutive title after a tense and goalless Grand Final against Hekari before eventually triumphing on penalties. They were carried to the final by some of the biggest names in PNG football – including Nigel Dabinyaba, Raymond Gunemba and Emmanuel Simon. Retaining the services of these players will be essential to both their domestic campaign and their OFC Champions League hopes: Simon and Dabinyaba are currently in the Solomon Islands playing for Malaita Kings, while there are rumours Gunemba is looking for a full-time contract outside of the Pacific Islands, having spent three months with Geelong Soccer Club in Australia. All three may yet return in time for the opening weekend, but if they continue to impress, how long will they stick around before they’re poached by bigger and better sides? Coach Peter Gunemba will, as always, play a key role in retaining these men and training up a team to fit alongside them, and while their long-term future may be uncertain, expect Lae City to be right up there once again.
Prediction: 2nd
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride: Morobe United have finished in third place in the National Soccer League on four different occasions, including last season, having made the Grand Final only once, back in the 2009/10 season. That year, they lost 5-0 to a dominant Hekari United side, while last time out, they impressed in the Northern Conference, taking points off eventual winners Lae and qualifying for the playoffs ahead of a resurgent Besta PNG United. This year, they will once again be attempting to break up the domination of the nation’s two top teams, but the squad just doesn’t have the same star quality as the clubs they’re chasing. The side will be captained by ex-Hekari man Jeremy Yasasa, while Alex Kamen was part of the full-strength Pacific Games national team from earlier this year. However, coach Jonathan Jack admitted earlier today that the bulk of his players were new, and that many of last season’s squad had joined new side Vitiaz United. Can Jack lead this side to the playoffs in spite of this exodus?
Prediction: 6th
One thing is clear: Morobe Wawens will want to forget last season. Having earned an impressive qualification for the OFC Champions League in 2018, the club capitulated on the continent, and domestically didn’t do much better, becoming embroiled in the controversy regarding the death of Laiwaden FC goalkeeper Mikes Gewa and finishing just 7th in last year’s Northern Conference. However, it appears we are all change: PNG national team coach Bob Morris is now on board as first team coach alongside manager Jossie Kava, which is a big surprise, while it appears the club also has a new president, Andrew Namuesh, with former president Peter Seske now acting as vice-president. Three of this year’s squad have Champions League experience: defender Ferdallas Namuesh, utility player Kenneth Pilailo, and goalkeeper Jason Bendi, while much of the rest of the squad has come from local trials. The club stated that the previous two seasons have seen them compete without a first team coach – how much of a difference is the addition of Bob Morris going to make?
Prediction: 5th
Several readers may be surprised that Star Mountain are involved in this year’s competition, given their pretty dreadful debut season last time around. The side finished seventh in the Southern Conference, and there may well be a case that others, such as Eastern Stars or Central United, deserved the spot in this year’s league ahead of Star Mountain. However, it’s about which clubs pay the fees, and not about which club has the more illustrious history, so here we are. Not much, if anything, is known about the side, with no social media presence to speak of and very little local media coverage of their squad. In this case, we can only really base our prediction on last season’s performance, and it doesn’t look good.
Prediction: 10th
As we saw last year, just because a club has an excellent social media presence and great branding, that doesn’t mean results will reflect that outward professionalism. Stallions finished dead last in the Northern Conference last season, although signs have been encouraging since then: the club’s feeder side, Tusbab Blue Kumuls, won the Madang Soccer Association competition in September, and several of the players in this season’s NSL squad have been promoted from that title-winning side. The squad actually looks pretty good: newly-elected captain Nigel Malagian has come from Eastern Stars, while young midfielder Stahl Gubag has already represented the country at full international level. The club is well managed and well organised; I’d like to see them do well.
Prediction: 8th
An interesting new inclusion to the NSL, Vitiaz United is a side that has just been promoted to the top division of football in the Port Moresby Soccer Association, having won Division One earlier this year. With the majority of their players having joined from Morobe United, the club could enjoy a decent season despite being newcomers, especially given that several of their players will have previous NSL experience under their belts. However, with not much else known about the side, it’s difficult to see them making much of an impact, at east for the time being.
Henderson Eels player Patrick Taroga is currently out of the team squad due to a lie. Taroga asked for a time far from the team because his mother was sick at his local village. However the team managemend found out that his mother was not sick and he went home to play a local football tournament.
Taroga (number 6) playing for Solomon Islands
Eels’ head coach Eddie Marahare is very angry with the situation and he intends to not count on Taroga anymore but the final decision comes from the team’s owner.
Henderson Eels is currently in the second position in 2019 Telekom S-League just three points behind league leaders Solomon Warriors.
Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) confirmed that Maxwell Keana is suspended from football activities in OFC region for 12 months. Besides that, SIFF also received a NZ$10.000 fine.
Solomon Islands was also excluded from 2020 OFC U16 Championship.
Hienghéne Sport fought hard against Al-Sadd and impressed all the fooball world with a close match against a full-professional side, current the title holders of Qatar first tier.
Hienghène used a defensive formation to avoid spaces for the opposition side. They were succesful until the 26th minute of play when Baghdad Bounedjah found the nets for Al-Sadd for the first, winning Rocky Nyikeine and putting the Xavi Hernández side in front.
Bounedjah celebrates his goal – Latin Football
Al-Sadd kept creating many opportunities to score, in fact they did score a second goal in the match still in the first half but VAR came in aid of the Oceania champions to disallow the 2nd goal of Al-Sadd.
In the beggining of the second half of the match, history was written by the New Caledonian striker Antoine Roine – the same who scored from the middle of the park against AS Magenta in the OFC Champions League grand final. He won the battle with the defender and found the nets of Al-Sheeb to put the 1-1 in the score. A foul was awarded to Al-Sadd by the referee in the play, but VAR stated it was all clear and the goal was finally in the scoreboard.
Antoine Roine scores for Hienghène – FIFA
Al-Sadd after suffering the equalizer seemed to not believe what was happening. The New Caledonians have scored and got morale boost – Joseph Athalé was doing great in the defense to help Hienghène. Al-Sadd had another disallowed goal by VAR in the second half, but created many chances to score, sometimes the Qatari inaccuracy prevented Hienghène to suffer one more goal, but Rocky Nyikeine managed to make various important stops in order to help Hienghène to keep the game equalized.
Something no one expected happened: Hienghène managed to 1-1 draw in the 90 minutes and the game went to extra-time. Al-Sadd kept losing chances, but unfortunately a mistake helped Abdelkarim Hassan to score the second goal of Al-Sadd. Cédric Sansot intercepted a ball that went in direction of Nyikeine, unfortunately the goalkeeper used his hand to grab the ball – a back pass, that made the referee to give a free-kick inside the box for Al-Sadd that was well taken by Hassan.
In the second half of the extra-time, Nyikeine recovered from the error and made decent stops, but Pedro Miguel found the nets once again for Al-Sadd with powerful shot in the edge of the box.
Pedro celebrates his goal – FIFA
The match ended with a 3-1 victory for the home side that will now face Mexican club Monterrey. Hienghène surely made all their people in New Caledonia with a good performance despite the defeat. Football commentators praised Joseph Athalé and Rocky Niykeine for their fantastic match.
Hienghène suffered and got very tired in the final minutes of the game and in the extra-time. The lack physical conditioning of the Oceanians was the crucial part of the game that made them lost to Al-Sadd; maybe the story could be told differently if the New Caledonians did not get so tired in the final moments of the clash.
Hienghène now turns their attentions to the next edition of OFC Champions League that starts in 2020, February for the current title holders that will expect to defend their continental glory.
Despite the invitation, Paul Driessen – the responsible to set the details for both players to have their trials in Europe – urged Kaua and Solomon Islands community to conclude the proceedings, sponsoring the player to reach the European nation and attend to the trials: “Atkin needs to hurry in getting his funds as soon as possible. This is a unique chance which any Pacific Islander should grab. This invitation came quite suddenly but can also be pulled back. It is a very narrow opportunity window. I truly hope that a sponsor steps up in Solomon Islands in the coming days. Those who contribute would automatically be co-responsible to writing football history for their nation“. The page also added that “The clock is now ticking for Atkin Kaua as it is for Joses Nawo. Atkin has to find a sponsor in Solomon Islands within a week in order to cover his trial costs“.
Kaua playing for Solomon Islands – NOSF
The player who has his education in New Zealand also played for the ISPS Handa Premiership side Canterbury United is currently playing at Telekom S-Legue for Laugu United. The midfielder already scored nine goals in the competition and also wears the armband to captain his side in their comeback to the most important league in the nation.
Kaua also took part in the previous competition played by the Solomon Islands national team that took place in Samoa – the Pacific Games. The played also took part in international friendlies, as the 4-3 for Singapore playing in the Asian country.
Atkin Kaua in Laugu United colours – SIFF Media
The Maltese side both Kaua and Nawo will be attending is currently in the bottom of the standings in the top-tier of football in Malta and is hopeful that the Solomon Islands internationals can boost the quality of the team in the fight against relegation.
Oceania Football Center wishes the best for the playes as we thank Netherlands Oceania Support Foundation to keep helping the evolution of the sport in the Pacific.
ATK is ready to sign Mandi Sosa. The 30 years old Spanish midfielder will meet his former teammates Roy Krishna and David Williams. He is expected to arrive in Kolkata this week.
Sosa, Krishna and Williams played together in Wellington Phoenix during 2018-19 Hyundai A-League season, the top tier of Australian football. Sosa’s arrival will be a replacement for Carl McHugh, who suffered an ankle injury against Mumbai City.
Mandi Sosa playing for Wellington Phoenix in 2018-19 Hyundai A-League
Sosa played 24 matches in 2018-19 Hyundai A-League, scoring two goals and delievering four assist. His arrival may boost Krishna and Williams’ performance for current Indian Super League leaders.
The Port Vila Premier League cancelled this weekend matches. Next matchweek is scheduled for January.
It was decided in a meeting between Port Vila Football Association and representants of the teams. All Premier League clubs agreed to stop the league and go for a break. The holidays arrived in a good moment to match with clubs’ complainings about the bad quality of Port Vila Stadium’s pitch.
The bad quality of PV Stadium’s pitch decreases football level in PVFA Premier League
Alex Saniel is the newest player of Franklin United for 2020 season! The 23 years old forward signed with his new club two weeks ago.
Saniel last played for Papatoetoe AFC in Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Conference, helping his former team to get the promotion for NRFL Division 2. He recently won Pacific Cup playing for Lautoka.
Official picture of Saniel’s signing. Source: Franklin United Media
Franklin’s head coach Mark Holt looks very happy with Saniel’s arrival: “He is an exciting player who not only scores goals, but has speed, clever movement and his link play makes him a real handful for any opponent.” he said.
He has represented his country at U17, U20 and Senior level. He made his Senior International debut in November 2017 against Estonia and scored his first goal at that level a month later against New Calendonia.
Sarpreet Singh was one of the called up players for Bayern Münich’s clash against Tottenham in the last match of UEFA Champions League group stage. He remained on the bench during the whole match in the 3-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur.
It is the fourth time that Singh is selected for a Bayern’s first squad match. He was also on the bench in German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund and two other matches against Energie Cottbus (German Cup) anda Hertha Berlin (Bundesliga). However he has not had the opportunity to play for Bayern’s first team yet.
Sarpreet Singh
Nevertheless, Singh is having a great season playing for Bayern II. He scored four goals and delievered six assists in fourteen matches so far in 3.Liga, the third tier of German football.
Oceania Football Center 