Maritzburg United won their first game of the season in the KZN Derby against Golden Arrows in the Harry Gwala Stadium, the goal of Daylon Claasen and a late own goal gave the win for the home side. Micah Lea’alafa and Daniel Morgan started for the team coached by Erik Tinkler.
Lea’alafa defending Maritzburg colours – MU Media
Micah Lea’alafa was once again a starter for Maritzburg in this match and just in the start of the game he created a good opportunity to score, but one of his teammates lost a golden opportunity.
Despite playing at home, it was Golden Arrows who took the lead with a goal of Danny Venter still in the first half. In the second half the New Zealander Daniel Morgan was subbed in the 46th minute and the Solomon Islander Lea’alafa gave place to Bongokuhle Hlongwane at the 63th minute of play.
With the two Oceanians out of the game, Daylon Claasen find the nets for Maritzburg as he levelled the game at the at the 86th minute of the game. Maritzburg with some luck got their winner after an own goal of Nkosinathi Sibisi to give final numbers to the scoreline: 2-1.
It was the 10th match of the season for Lea’alafa while Daniel Morgan already played 16 times for the South African side. The other New Zealander of the team – Jeremy Brockie – kept on the bench as an unused substitution.
Despite Lea’alafa not scoring yet for his new team, the Oceanians fans can be happy with his team performance since they are now at the 5th position in the league with 21 points – just three behind the 3th spot that gives qualification for the CAF Confederation Cup, the second most important club competition of African continent.
ATK will have their first challenge of the year on this Saturday against Mumbai City. Fijian forward Roy Krishna and his team mates have can retake the lead of 2019-20 Indian Super League if they beat Mumbai.
Currently in the third position with 18 points, ATK can reach 21 – the same number of points than current league leaders FC Goa – if they win. FC Goa lost to Bengaluru by 2-1 yesterday. Howver ATk have a better goal debit so a win would take them to the first position.
In the first round of the season ATK received Mumbai City at Salt Lake Stadium and the final score was 2-2 with a late goal scored by Roy Krishna in the 96th minute.
Batram Suri is back to Galaxy FC! The 48 years old Suri is one of the greatest footballers of all time in Solomon Islands and he started his career as a football head coach this decade.
Suri is not new in Galaxy – he already has some history inside the club. His partnership with Moise Poida already brought great results for the Ni-Vanuatu team. They were working together when Galaxy won 2019 Port Vila Premier League Top Four to qualify for 2020 OFC Champions League.
Poida (left) and Suri (right)
Suri was away for some months to get his OFC Senior B Licence. He also coached Solomon Islands U23 in OFC Olympic Qualifier during this time away – taking his country to the final where they lost to New Zealand.
Now he is back to Galaxy for 2020 OFC Champions League and people can expect good things from Suri and Poida working together.
The Solomon Islands international Micah Lea’alafa is set to be part of the first game of the season of his club Maritzburg United in the top-tier of football in South Africa. The Solomon Islander will have by his side the former All Whites international Jeremy Brockie and the former Auckland City fullback Daniel Morgan in its first challenge of 2020.
Lea’alafa (blue) playing for Maritzburg United – MU Media
Maritzburg United is having a decent season so far, losing in the grand final match of Telkom Knockout Cup – South African Cup – and currently sitting in the 8th position of the ABSA Premiership. On this Friday (03/01) they will be playing Golden Arrows at home in Harry Gwala Stadium.
Lea’alafa played nine matches so far for his new club in South Africa combining the League and Cup and he is still to score a goal for the South African side. Maritzburg United is the first full-professional team of the Solomon Islands international forward.
Every tournament has its history; their historical teams, players, the trophies won by each club and certainly those who write the most important moments of each competition will be remembered for history. When it comes to a continental club championship, as the OFC Champions League, it is vital to remember the past achievements to set new goals for the upcoming editions of the tournament.
When we mention the records of the revamped OFC Champions League – that had its first edition in 2005 – a specific Solomon Islander steps upfront to show his importance for the competition: Benjamin Totori.
Totori playing for Waitakere United
The Solomon Islands international represented teams from his homeland, Fiji and New Zealand in the OFC Champions League – being the top goalscorer of the 2006 edition when playing for New Zealand side YoungHeart Manawatu. In the 2007/08 edition Totori reached the peak of Oceania football when he and his side Waitakere United won Kossa in the final matches to be crowned champions of the continental tournament – in 2018 he and Lautoka lost for Team Wellington in the decision of OFC Champions League ending as runners-up.
What gives a perfect impression of the quality of the player are his stats in the competition: he scored 27 goals in 54 matches played since he first appeared in the OFC Champions League. He is the all-time top goalscorer of the competition and also the player who most matches played in the tournament – a true legend for Oceania football.
Totori will certainly play the next edition of the OFC Champions League, but it is still unknown which club he will represent. In this season, he helped the Fijian side Lautoka to end 2nd in the Vodafone Premier League table to qualify for the competition and then returned home to play for Solomon Warriors. Warriors is about to win the Telekom S-League title – just needing a draw in their final game to win the league – and is also already qualified for the next edition of the tournament.
The history Benjamin Totori has in the competition makes him a player to watch in the next Champions League. The now 33-year old striker is still a very important footballer of the region and some clubs might be interest to have his services for the most important club tournament of the South Pacific.
Govind Park is one of the most important football stadiums in Fiji. Officialy opened in 1976, it is Ba FA’s home. In 2016 the stadium suffered major damages due to Tropical Cyclone Winston and since then it is being rebuilt.
After a long delay in the works, Govind Park is finally getting ready to come back to life once the works are currently in the final stages. You can check it in the video below that was recorded in last September:
Talo is more known for being a fantastic futsal goalkeeper. He helped Solomon Islands to win 2019 OFC Futsal Nations Cup and he also played for Kooline in 2019 OFC Futsal Champions League. He was taking part of Henderson Eels squad in 2019-20 Telekom S-League.
Timothy Filiga Cahill, more known as Tim Cahill is one of the greatest Australian players of all time. However he also has Samoan roots and he represented Samoa at youth level in the 90s.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Tim Cahill and his brother Sean (goalkeeper) were invited by Football Federation Samoa to play 1994 OFC U-20 Championship for them. Cahill was just 14 years old by that time – “They asked if I would take part, even though I was only 14 at the time and it was an under-20 tournament. I saw it simply as a chance to go on holiday because my grandmother was ill at the time in Samoa. I turned up for a couple of training sessions and never attended any of the team meetings.” he said. Tim also has a younger brother called Chris that capped 15 times for Samoa National Football Team.
Chris, Tim and Sean Cahill
He played two matches in the tournament. He came from the bench in the 3-0 loss against New Zealand and played in the 3-0 loss against Vanuatu.
These two caps for Samoa U-20 made him ineligible to represent Australia until 2004 when FIFA changed its eligibility rules, allowing players capped at junior levels to switch international allegiance, meaning that Cahill was then able to play for England, Ireland, Australia or Samoa. He chose to represent the country of his birth and became a legend.
Tim Cahill
He debuted for Australia National Team in a friendly against South Africa on 30 March 2004. Despite debuting for National Team at 25 years old, Cahill managed to score 50 goals for Socceroos and he helped his country to play four World Cups – 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.
Port Vila is the capital and most important city of Vanuatu – when someone ask us to mention a city in the country, most of the times we will think about Port Vila. The capital is also the land of the most important football clubs in the country, as Galaxy, Tafea, Erakor Golden Star and historical side Amicale.
But there is not only football in the capital: recently Nalkutan – a club based in Tanna, Tafea province – represented the country in an OFC Champions League edition, after winning the VFF National Super League in 2016. But Nalkutan is not the most succesful club outside Port Vila in Vanuatu: Malampa Revivors, the current national champions, takes part in the National Super League for several years and in the last edition won Galaxy in the final match in Port Vila to give them first ever national title for the club.
Malampa Revivors celebrates their success – Yumi ToktokStret News
The club was created in 2010 by Elder Shem Dahmassing, as a youth ministry within the Youth Fellowship program of Centenary Presbyterian Church, at Sarakata in Luganville – in the Espiritu Santo island.
Since then their history of success is plenty: they played in the National Soccer League in its all previous editions and reached very positive results. In 2014 they lost to Amicale in the semi-finals and in the following year the same Amicale beat them, but this time in the final match.
In 2018 they qualified once again for the grand final against Erakor Golden Star, but were denied the title after losing in the penalty shooutout. But their lucky changed when they played the might Galaxy FC in the 2019 edition of the National Super League and beat the team coached by Moise Poida by 3-1.
Malampa Revivors celebrates winning goal against Galaxy – Vanuatu Sport
The club already played in two editions of the OFC Champions League: 2017 and 2019. In their first appareance in the most important club tournament of the region, they lost all matches in a group that had Auckland City, Western Unied and Lae City FC. In 2019, they played against Hienghène Sport, AS Tefana and Lae City – just drawing one match against Tefana in their final group match.
Malampa Revivors in 2019 OFC Champions League – OFC Media
After playing six games in the continental tournament and just collecting one point, the team in blue and white will have the opportunity to win their first ever game in the Champions League in front of their home crowd.
With the success of the team, many players of the club represented Vanuatu internationally – both at youth and senior levels. The striker Andre Batick was in the last squad that represented Vanuatu in the Pacific Games 2019 held in Samoa. In the last OFC U23 Olympic Qualifiers Malampa Revivors had Tasso Jeffrey, Claude Aru and Armando Ravo called up to defend the national colours.
The club also dominates the football in the local league – Luganville Premier League – being the current title holders of the 2019 edition of the league. The new season in Luganville (2019/20) already started and Malampa Revivors won their both starting two matches of the competition to be at the top of the table.
The success seems to continue for Malampa at regional and national level, but will they expand it to the continental level? The OFC Champions League is coming and this tournament will give us an idea of how it goes.
After the release of the report, many football fans got excited with the news expecting the defender could also represent Vanuatu internationally in the upcoming tournaments the Ni-Vanuatu side will play.
Nelson Sale (right) in a match for Solomon Islands – Zimbio
Unfortunately for the Ni-Vanuatu fans, the only good news are only for Galaxy that will get free a slot for an international player in the next Champions League. Nelson Sale already played 35 times for his home country Solomon Islands – including the last two OFC Nations Cup editions. According to FIFA regulations, a player can only represent one country internationally at senior level – once the player featured in an official international match – FIFA or OFC tournaments – he can not play for any other national team in the future.
The experienced defender is being key for Galaxy in the Port Vila Premier League after ten years playing in Vanuatu. He also played his club football in New Zealand and also in homeland Solomon Islands.
