Oceania Football Center

TBT #04 – When Israel almost made history in Oceania

The year was 1989 and people were starting to get anxious for 1990 World Cup. Which teams are going to qualify to the final stage? Will Argentina win again? Can Germany revenge the loss to Argentina in 1986’s final?

Well, Germany and Argentina really clashed in 1990 World Cup Final just like they did in 1986 but at that time Germany won the championship to become a three-time world champion alongside with Italy (1934, 1938 and 1982) and Brazil (1958, 1962 and 1970). Germany and Argentina would also meet again in 2014 World Cup final.

That is the history everbody knows. But a World Cup is sorrounded by lots of historical things that people just forget and one of these histories took place in Oceania. Do you know what happened in Oceania during 1990 World Cup Qualifiers? No? Oceania Football Center will tell you!

OFC Qualifiers for 1990 World Cup was played between 1988 and 1989. Australia and New Zealand qualified for the second stage after beating Fiji and Chinese Taipei respectively to face Israel for a spot in the OFC-CONMEBOL World Cup play-off.

But… Why was Israel playing with Oceania?

In 1974 Israel was excluded from AFC (Asian Football Confederation) competitions as a result of a proposal by Kuwait which was adopted after a voting. In the 1974 Asian Games, the football competition was marred by the refusal of both North Korea and Kuwait to play second-round matches against Israel. They still played 1978 World Cup qualifiers in Asian Zone, but for 1982 World Cup they played UEFA (European Confederation) qualifier ending the tournament on the bottom of Group 6 with just one win in eight matches.

They played the next two World Cup Qualifiers (1986 and 1990) in Oceanian zone and in 1990 Israel was just one goal from making history.

In April 1989 Israel National Team traveled more than 15000 kilometers to face Australia and New Zealand in the last two matches of Oceanian World Cup Qualifier. After a 2-2 draw against the New Zealanders, the Israeli National Team just needed a draw against Australia to qualify for OFC-CONMEBOL play-off and that was exactly what happened. Israel and Australia match ended drawn by 1-1 and Israel qualified for play-off to face Colombia.

Eli Ohana was one of the best players of Israel in the 80s

After a Colombian win by 1-0 in South America, Israel had the opportunity to decide the play-off at home but they could not score and the second match ended drawn at zero. This result qualified Colombia to World Cup.

In 1991 Israel joined UEFA as a full-time member and they have been playing in European Zone since then. They played only one World Cup in 1970.

Hemaloto Polovili: the key figure of Tongan Football

Football is made by various actors that together can embrace all the football community they are from. Some actors reach the privilege to be worldwide known, others can have a regional or local impact – but their importance is always there to inspire the next generations to commit to football.

This is the case of the 22-year old forward Hemaloto Polovili in his nation, Tonga. The 1,86cm player is one of the most known Tongan players and is certainly an inspiration for locals to make football a sport even more attractive for a country where rugby is the main sport.

Hema, as he is known, had a rare opportunity to take part in an international football academy in his teen years, alongside another current Tonga international Soakai Vea. The players went for trainings in New Zealand in the Asia-Pacific football academy: “It was a great foundation for me in football, it happened when I was very young. It helped me a lot in technical and tactical areas and I wish Tonga can have an academy of that quality in a near future“, says Polovili.

A imagem pode conter: 1 pessoa, praticando um esporte, atividades ao ar livre e natureza — Hemaloto (red) against Fiji in the last OFC U23 Olympic Qualifers – *OFC Media*

Despite being only 22 years old, Hemaloto Polovili is certainly the best gifted techincal player of Tonga – and it can be seem fairly when he plays. The forward always is the first player his teammates are looking for when they recover the possesion of the ball.

Hemaloto already played eight times for Tonga senior national football teams, scoring just once – in the 2017 Pacific Mini Games against Tuvalu. The player also is capped seven times for U17 national team, two for the U20 national team and four for the U23 national team – scoring a total of nine goals for Tonga in youth teams he played.

It is not only football that Hemaloto is commited; he recently played in the first ever Tonga international competition in Futsal in the OFC Futsal Nations Cup held in New Caledonia, where his team faced the powerhouse Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tahiti. “It was a big challenge to be the first Tonga team to play an overseas tournament“, said the player.

Hemaloto Polovili goal against Papua New Guinea in OFC Olympic Qualifiers

The player, that is coached by his father Timote Moleni in the most importnat football club of Tonga Veitongo FC, usually also take part in the OFC Champions League preliminary competitions, but could not still go through the qualifiers and advance to the group stage.

In the 2019 edition of the OFC Champions League, Hemaloto represented Lotoha’apai United in the preliminary stage played in Cook Islands and could show his skills scoring for the team in all the three matches he played. He scored an magnificent goal against Pago Youth in his first game of the 2019 OCL qualifiers.

A imagem pode conter: 2 pessoas, pessoas sorrindo, atividades ao ar livre — Hemaloto Polovili (left) celebrating his goal at OFC U23 Olympic Qualifiers – *OFC Media*

Hema will be once again playing the OFC Champions League preliminarly round in 2020, this time representing his side Veitongo FC. Hemaloto helped his team to end the Tonga Premier League unbeatean – 21 wins in 21 matches – to be crowned champions of the Tongan football top-tier. To add more honours to Hemaloto career, the player was the top goalscorers of the league.

Hemaloto is certainly an inspiration for the upcoming footballers in his country and we expect that Tonga can provide good training for the young generation to produce more players with the quality of their key man.

U15 Championship to be held in New Caledonia

Loyalty International Football Open U15 is a football tournament scheduled to be played in Stade de Hnassé in Lifou, New Caledonia, between 15 and 21 December. Four teams will fight for the trophy in a tournament focused on developing youth soccer in OFC region.

🇳🇨 New Caledonia U15
🇻🇺 Vanuatu U15
🇳🇿 Wellington Phoenix Soccer School
🇦🇺 Melbourne Victory FC

All matches will be livestreamed by FCF TV Web on Youtube.

Galaxy FC signs with Gagame Feni

Galaxy FC (Vanuatu) official facebook account announced that Gagame Feni is their newest player. He is going to Galaxy to strengthen their squad for 2020 OFC Champions League.

Gagame Feni is 27 years old and he has lots of experience in Oceanian Football. He already played in New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. He was playing in Suva (Fiji).

Feni was a key player for Suva in 2019, being the team’s topscorer in the season with 12 goals scored including all official competitions. He was also the topscorer of 2019 FIJI Fact, helping Suva to reach the final match.

Feni receiving the Golden Boot Award of 2019 FIJI FACT

Feni is also an important player in Solomon Islands National Football Team. He scored 10 goals in eight matches for his national team this year.

Galaxy FC now counts on six foreign players: Gabriel, Diego and Roberson from Brazil – James Naka, Gagame Feni and Nelson Sale from Solomon Islands.

Solomon Warriors three points clear in the lead after thrashing Kossa

The young squad of Kossa could not hold the power of players as Benjamin Totori and Dennis Ifunaoa as they suffered a 5-0 defeat against Solomon Warriors in the midweek clash of Telekom S-League.

Kossa had goalscoring chances with the youngsters Barrie Limoki and Charles Mani, but it was Molea Tigi who scored first at the 13th minute of play. The game turned into an equal contest for the rest of the match until the second goal was scored through the effort of Solomon Islands national football team captain Benjamin Totori.

Warriors celebrate their goal – *SIFF Media*

Eighteen minutes later of scoring the second goal of the contest Dennis Ifunaoa scored the third of the leaders of S-League and two quick goals i the 88th and 90th of play scored by Lency Norman and Molea Tigi sealed a confortable 5-0 win by the team in red.

A imagem pode conter: 1 pessoa, praticando um esporte e atividades ao ar livre — Totori is being vital for Warriors since he signed for the team – *SIFF Media*

Solomon Warrios is now three points clear in the leadership of the national league – Henderson Eels comes just behind Warriors in the table and they might be sorry for losing to Isabel United in their last clash in the weekend.

Ricki Hebert leaves head coach role in Hamilton Wanderers

The New Zealand football legend Ricki Herbert, former All Whites coach is no longer the head coach of the ISPS Handa Premiership side Hamilton Wanderers. The start of season is being very harsh to Wanderers that currently sits at 10th position of the league, the last placed team.

In a statement, Hamilton Wanderers chairman Dave Douglas announced the departure of Herbert of the major staff role of the team. “Due to the growth of his Football Development Manager role at our club, the growth of the Ricki Herbert Football Academy, his technical role at Cambridge FC and some outside business opportunities that have presented themselves, Ricki has felt that he needed to reduce his ISPS Handa Premiership Team coaching duties so as to be able to concentrate on his other roles as they continue to expand. This was a very tough decision for Ricki and it’s important to note that Ricki will still be involved in a coaching supporting role for our ISPS Handa Premiership Team until the end of the 2019/2020 season“, stated Douglas.

Image may contain: 2 people, outdoor — Ricki Herbert – *Wanderers Media*

With the departure of Ricki Herbert of the role, It is already known who will be taking the job: “I am pleased to announce that Kale Herbert, our current National Youth League Head Coach and National League Assistant Coach, will be taking over as our Head Coach until the end of this season“, said the chairman.

Despite leaving the spot, Ricki Herbert stated: “whilst it is sad to be moving away from the Head Coaches role in the National League, I’m really looking forward to continuing to support Kale, the coaching staff and players in the background. Likewise the chance to continue to expand on the opportunities and good work done this year in our junior/youth football areas is something that I can’t wait to be able to dedicate even more time too“.

“On behalf of the club, I would like to thank Ricki for his time as Head Coach of our ISPS Handa Premiership team over the last two and a half years, in which he lead us to a club high position of 6th in the 2018/2019 season, having been in the top four for a large part of that season and who introduced players such as Tommy Semmy and Derek Tieku into both our National League and Northern League teams“, said Dave Douglas.

Hamilton Wanderers side will be taking on Waitakere United in the next round of ISPS Handa Premiership, now coached by Ricki’s son, Kale Herbert, at Porrit Stadium.

Kooline’s Anthony Talo: everybody is working hard for the Champions League

Kooline fought hard to win Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) 2019 Futsal League – just overcoming Marist of Elliot Ragomo in the goal difference at the end of the league. The futsal champions of the most important futsal nation in Oceania come as one of the favourite teams to lift the very first OFC Futsal Champions League, to be played this week in Auckland, New Zealand.

The star goalkeeper Anthony Talo says “now every team is working hard for the tournament. It is not easy”. The Kurukuru member sees a lot of good competition coming in the newly launched tournament in the region – “No one is favorite in this tournament”, he adds.

A imagem pode conter: 1 pessoa, praticando um esporte e sapatos — Anthony Talo playing for Solomon Islands – *OFC Media*

The goalkeeper, that has experience of already taking part of FIFA Futsal World Cup for Solomon Islands, was once again voted as the best goalkeeper in the region after his brilliant performances in OFC Futsal Nations Cup leading to another title of his nation: “It was an amazing feeling to win for Kurukuru“, says Talo.

The goalkeeper admits their first game will be against one of the toughest teams in the competitions: “The hardest opponets for us will be the representants of New Zealand and Tahiti – first games are always hard, especially with a good oposition“. The first game of Kooline in the tournament will be against Pirae of Tahiti.

Talo says that the Kurukuru members of Kooline squad for the OFC Futsal Champions League – five in total – will help a lot with their experience in the court to guide the team to another succesful campaign. “It will be a bonus for us to win this competition after OFC Futsal Nations Cup“, stated the star player.

In the next days we may see what will be the fate of Kooline and their opponents in this very interesting tournament that is making all futsal fans in Oceania anxious to watch.

Tonga football season champions are defined

In the last weekend the champions of the two men divisions of Tonga Football and also the women’s league were defined in the Kingdom. Veitongo FC was already champions since the second round of the Tonga Premier League but this weekend sealed their success after they won Longoteme by 4-2; Veitongo won all 21 matches of the season to make a perfect campaign and rule football in the country.

“Despite not training all days in the week, our team got the skills and heart to beat all opponents“, said defender Sione Tuifangaloka of Veitongo. The bad news for the champions is Tuifangaloka will be moving to Australia and will not be able to play for Veitongo in the OFC Champions League qualifiers. Veitongo has various players in the Tonga national team, as Mahe Malafu, Hemaloto Polovili and Kamaliele Papani.

In the Division I, the second tier of football, Nukuhetulu won the grand final of the league after beating Ahau by 2-1 scoreline. Henry Tu’iono was the key man for the champions side as he scored 38 goals in the entire season for Nukuhetulu. The coach Lafaele Moala was also praised by the players and football community for their success. Both Ahau and Nukuhetulu will play in the top-tier of football in the next season.

In the grand final of football in the women’s league, Veitongo saw their dominance broken by Navutoka. The usual dominant team in the sport, lost by 4-3 margin to Navutoka, to seal their first football title in women’s football. Veitongo had won all games in the entire season, just being beaten in the decisive day.

First ever OFC Futsal Champions League will be played this week

Futsal in Oceania now have a new competition; the OFC Futsal Champions League will have its first edition this weekend in New Zealand, counting with national champions of six Oceania Football Confederation members. The confederation made a very important step towards the evolution of the sport in the region.

Some months ago the OFC Futsal Nations Cup – the top tournament of the sport in the South Pacific – was held in New Caledonia and Solomon Islands was once again champions after beating New Zealand in the grand final after penalty shootout. Various players that defended their nations in the Nations Cup will be stepping in the courts once more to play for the best futsal teams of the confederation. You can see the full schedule of the competition by clicking here.

Kooline FC from Solomon Islands in New Zealand – *SIFF Media*

One of the most anticapated teams to watch is the Solomon Islands champion Kooline FC. The team comes from the most important futsal nation in the region and has very important players in their squad – you can see the full Kooline squad here.

Important players from Kurukuru – five in total – will be representing the Solomon Islands champions. The first choice Solomon Islands national team goalkeeper Anthony Talo will be also playing for Kooline in the competition, as another Kurukuru members as Arnold Maeluma and Alwin Hou.

Dylan Manickum will be represent Auckland in the Champions League – *OFC Media*

Despite not winning this year national league in New Zealand, AFF – Auckland Football Federation – team will be hungry to show the power of New Zealand futsal. The Auckland-based side was only 6th in the national championship that ended in the last week. The Futsal Whites almost qualified for their first World Cup in the previous month, but could not win a strong Solomon Islands team.

The squad the Kiwis are bringing for the tournament is really strong and can be seem as one of the strongest of the competition. Dylan Manickum was awarded the best players of the previous OFC Futsal Nations Cup and will be donning the jersey of the Auckland team. Marvin Eakins, the player/coach of the Futsal Whites will be also taking part of the tournament, as well Josh Margetts and the national team first choice goalkeeper Ellias Billeh.

Pirae, the Tahiti representatives, will be counting with one of the most important players of Tahiti Futsal national team, Olivier Hirihiri. The player was the joint top-goalscorer of the previous edition of OFC Futsal Nations Cup, where Tahiti just in the semifinals for New Zealand, but could end up with the bronze medal after beating the home team New Caledonia in the third place match. Matana Bea, another player with international experience, also promises to be key for the Tahitian side.

A imagem pode conter: 3 pessoas, pessoas em pé e atividades ao ar livre — D’York Stret squad before travel to New Zealand – *Vanuatu Sport*

The VFF National Futsal champions, D’York Stret, qualified for the regional tournament after beating Tonga United in the grand final of VFF Futsal Top Four. The team will count with the experience of some players that competed for Vanuatu in the previous OFC Futsal Nations Cup. Jesse Takaro might be the key man for D’York Stret – Takaro has experience of playing his club futsal previously in New Zealand.

Suva’s Setareki Hughes receives honours of national league win – *Fiji Times*

Suva is current Fiji Futsal national league winners and will also count with some important players of the national team that took part in the previous OFC Nations Cup. The national team captain Setareki Hughes might be a key man for the team, alongside another important teammates as Bruce Hughes. Fiji ended up in the 5th position in the last regional national teams tournament.

A imagem pode conter: 12 pessoas, pessoas sorrindo, pessoas praticando esportes e quadra de basquetebol — AS PTT Olympique Nouméa will represent New Caledonia in the Champions League – *PTT Media*

The last side to secure a spot in the regional club tournament was the New Caledonians ide AS PTT Nouméa that recently won the Coupe de Caédonie de Futsal in its nation. The club will count with important players that represented the country in the OFC Nations Cup held in their nation, the national team captain Cédric Humuni will be key for the team alongside Christ Pei.

The tournament will take place in Auckland, New Zealand, starting on 5th December and finishing on 8th December to seal the winners of the first OFC Futsal Champions League ever. There is an expectance to see more natios of the confederation represented in the upcoming editions of the tournament that can increase a lot the interest in the sport in the region.

FASANOC advises Fiji FA to postpone football activities

Fiji National Sports Commission (FASANOC) released a statement advising that all sporting tournaments and competitions should be postponed to 2020 due to the measles outbreak in the country.

Check the full statement:

Fiji would not be the first country to postpone football activities: Samoa already did it and after some days they decided do end the football season.

There are some youth tournaments and women leagues being played in Fiji. The Champion vs Champion series that will be contested between Labasa and Ba may be postponed too. Fiji Football Association has not released anything about it yet but they already postponed 2019 NCC due to measles outbreak. Oceania Football Center keeps an eye on this situation to update in the website.