Champion versus Champion (CVC) is a football championship contested by two teams: The winner of Vodafone Premier League (Ba) and the winner of Battle of the Giants (Labasa).
Both teams are currently facing some problems with their respective stadiums: Govind Park (Ba) is being remodeled while Subrail Park (Labasa) is currently closed.
CVC is a pair of home-and-away games and they are played as a season opener. See the CVC schedule below:
19 January – Ba vs Labasa (Churchill Park) 26 January – Labasa vs Ba (Ratu Cakobau Park)
Oceania Football Center wish good luck to both teams.
Bairiki National Stadium is the biggest football stadium in Kiribati and it is used by Kiribati National Football Team. However it has never been used for an international match because Kiribati have never played an international football match at home, due to the fact that the pitch surface in the stadium is sand, not grass which is required.
According o local people there is only one football pitch with grass surface in the country – The Mormon Soccer Field. However this field is small and does not match international requirements for football pitches dimensions.
Bairiki National Stadium
This new stadium will solve some problems and it is going to allow Kiribati National Team to play at home. Furthermore it would help them to join FIFA because having a football stadium with a grass pitch is one of the requirements to join the biggest entity of international football.
There is no reliable information about which kind of grass will be used in this new stadium but it seems that it is going to be a grass carpet pitch. Oceania Football Center keeps investigating to bring reliable information about the new football stadium in Kiribati.
Joses Nawo and Atkin Kaua still need help to go to Malta. Netherlands Oceania Support Foundation recently started a fundraising to help Nawo and you can donate by clicking here.
Unfortunately time marches on and their dream is close to be over. Both players need to arrive in Malta to start training with Tarxien Rainbowns until January 8. If they do not manage to arrive until this day, the trial will be cancelled.
Joses Nawo
That is the biggest opportunity ever that Solomon Islands is having at professional football level and it is running down by Solomon Islanders hands. Netherlands Oceania Support Foundation is a serious organization and they are providing a huge opportunity for these two players but they need financial help to fund their flights.
Oceania Football Center recently wrote an article about Terry Stephenson, a 17 years old defender from Papua New Guinea that is playing in England. However Papua New Guinea is not the only country from Oceania with a defender playing at youth level in England – Fiji also counts on a good and promising defender that already played for National Team: Scott Wara.
Wara is 20 years old and he is some steps ahead Stephenson. He is already part of Stoke City U23 squad and plays regularly in the U23 Premier League. The Fijian defender also had the opportunity to play at Senior level for Leek Town in English 6th tier during a one-month loan from Stoke City in 2018.
Scott Wara (in the air) playing for Stoke City. Source: Stoke City Media
Wara received his first opportunity in Fiji National Team in 2018 after being scouted by Christophe Gamel who was Fiji’s head coach by that time. He made his debut on 5 September 2018, in a 1–1 draw against the Solomon Islands, appearing as a half-time substitute for Narendra Rao.
He did not play any other matches for Senior Team but he took part of Fijian squad that played 2019 OFC Olympic Qualifiers. Wara played all five matches and had a good performance in the tournament but he is remembered by his own-goal against New Zealand in the semi finals. He was a key player for Fiji to reach the fourth place in the competition.
Wara is being well treated by Stoke City and it would not be surprising if we see him making the next level in England soon by playing in a professional league there.
As we enter in 2020, it is time to make a recap about the previous year – and the 2019 of Solomon Islands football is surely a year to remember for history. The U17 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil – played in 2019 – was the first ever tournament a Solomon Islands football team played in a FIFA tournament. The likes of Raphael Lea’i, Leon Kofana and Charles Mani shown their talent in South America to represent their homeland and Oceania.
Despite the controversial cases of Chris Satu and Maxwell Keana that almost costed the spot of the Solomon Islanders in the World Cup, the team travelled to Brazil to show the world there is football in Oceania.
Solomon Islands team in the U17 World Cup – FIFA Media
Solomon Islands was in very harsh group: Italy, Paraguay and Mexico. All three sides qualified for the knock-out stage – Mexico reached the final against Brazil and lost by 2-1, while Italians and Paraguayans stopped their campaign in the quarterfinals.
It was clear to everyone: the goal of the Solomon Islanders in the competition was purely to learn from it. The experience gotten from the young talented players can be crucial for the development of their careers.
Solomon Islands started their campaign against Italy. They could hold the European giants for more than 20 minutes, but the deadlock was broken and they went losing by 3-0 in the half time break. In the final part of the game the Oceanians suffered more two goals to finish the match in a 5-0 defeat.
Their second match was against also a very traditional nation from South America – the Paraguayans had players from their most important teams in the country and proved too strong for the Solomon Islanders pulling ahead in the scoreline in the starting minutes of the game. Unfortunately for the Oceania football fans, Solomon Islands young side suffered one more heavy defeat in that match – 7-0.
Raphael Lea’i tried his best for Solomon Islands – FIFA Media
The final match for Solomon Islands was also against a strong side: – that ended the World Cup in the 2nd place losing for the hosts Brazil – Mexico. The Mexicans were in need of a big win to qualify for the knock-out stage and unfortunately for the Solomon Islanders they could really get it. The heaviest defeat of the tournament was suffered by the Oceanians: 8-0. Once again many defensive mistakes happened in the game and another analysis was made by our staff.
Solomon Islands team before the match against Italy
Despite suffering twenty goals in the tournament and coming home with three defeats, a lot of learning can be taken for this historical moment for the Solomon Islands sport.
There are not doubts regarding the technical quality of the players produced in the country: they can compete. But they can compete for only an amount of game time – their physicial conditions are not still able to allow them to hold the match for the entire ninety minutes.
The physical condiotining was a crucial problem for the Solomon Islanders, but their tactical system and organization in the pitch also let them very vulnerable to the experience attacks they played against in the U17 World Cup. Another problem to take is the mental area of the game – after conceding a goal, usually Solomon Islands suffered another and losing the control of the game – the lapses of concentration and lack of attention allowed the opponents to score many goals.
It is a rare opportunity to have this international exposure – especially at world stage. It allows to see how is the real level of football played in Oceania and in which areas are necessary to focus looking for improvement. Solomon Islands had their chance and now the work need to keep going forward in order to prepare this generation for the upcoming challenges the country will have in football.
Galaxy FC keep looking for a striker to play 2020 OFC Champions League once Senegalese striker Waliou Ndoye is not going to play for them. According to reliable sources, there are some options being discussed by Galaxy’s management and the new striker will be revealed soon.
However there will be a problem for Galaxy coaching staff: They are going to have five foreign players but OFC Champions League rules only allow four foreign players for each team. This could be a bigger problem for Galaxy if Solomon Islands’ defender Nelson Sale Kilifa did not get the Ni-Vanuatu citizenship.
Nelson Sale Kilifa will not count as a foreign player for OFC Champions League
Roberson, Diego Máximo, James Naka and Gagame Feni are the current Galaxy foreign players. Oceania Football Center will keep investigating to bring accurate information about the case.
Every nation has their key figures in the sport; football is not an individual game and it is very important to have a strong and organized team to make the difference inside the pitch, but the decisive players, those who make the difference in the game – defensively or offensively – make their path to history.
The goal is the most celebrated moment of football, when we look to Europe and see the best players of the world we can recognize many outstanding players, real goal scorers. For Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo already scored 99 times, for England Wayne Rooney netted 53 times and for Germany Miroslav Klose scored 71 goals. In South America, Lionel Messi scored 70 times for his country, Luis Suárez has 59 goals for Uruguay and the Brazilian and worldwide legend Pelé is the Brazilian all-time topscorer with 77 goals.
In the other side of the planet, Fiji certainly has its talent. Roy Krishna continues to spread his talent – first in Oceania and now in Asia – and is the current captain of the Fiji national football team. Many fans of the sport in the country feel Krishna as the best player ever produced in Fiji, but some may still remember the quality of another player that made his career in Australia and gave lots of joy to the Fijian football fan: Esala Masi.
The Fijian football legend Esala Masi
Striker Esala Masi also captained Fiji for several years – most of his club football career was in Australia where he defended teams as Newcastle Jets and Wollogong Wolves in the former National Soccer League – which was the top-tier of football in the country in that time. Masi turned into a respected striker in Australia after scoring more than 40 goals during his time in the country – playing in the National Soccer League and other leagues in the nation.
Masi scored 32 goals in 52 matches for Fiji – the now 45-year old coach is the all-time top scorer of Fijian football, but his countryman Krishna is not far away from him.
When Masi last played for the Bula Boys in 2005, Roy Krishna was still a young talented player – just 17 years old in that time. But it did not take much time for the Fijian to catch the attention of foreign clubs after his good performances in Labasa. During his years in Waitakere United, Auckland City and Wellington Phoenix the striker scored 107 goals, making his name to become a legend.
For his national team, Krishna scored 29 goals in 41 appearances – his last goal was in the bronze medal contest at Pacific Games 2019 held in Samoa.
Krishna against Germany in Olympic Games
Krishna has also made history for Fiji by scoring the first ever goal in the Olympics Men’s Football Tournament – when he scored against Mexico in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
The now 32-year old striker is currently playing in India – in their most important league, the Indian Super League – and he is having a very good start for his new club ATK.
Krishna is just three goals away to tie the mark of Esala Masi as the top scorer ever for Fiji national football team. After scoring seven goals in 2019 for his country, he will have the opportunity to pursue Masi’s record in 2020.
Roy may have time to add this honour to his career, since the peak of his career was in 2019 after being the best player of the Australian A-League and top goalscorer of the season. Despite the records, both Masi and Krishna wrote fantastic stories and they are two important figures of the Fijian football that hopes for even better achievements in the next years – it is a pity for football fans that both magnificent goalscorers could not play together for their homeland.
As it was previously reported, Fiji Football Association set a partnership to send young Fijian players to Australia. Five players are going to join Frankston Pine FC in January: Ba midfielder Kishan Sami, Nasinu goalkeeper Mohammed Alzaar Alam, Rewa midfielder Savenaca Baledrokadroka, Lautoka midfielder Shivam Naidu and Nadi striker Tito Vodowaqa. All of them played the OFC Olympic Qualifier this year.
Naidu (number 2), Alam (number 20), Baledrokadroka (number 13), Sami (number 12) and Vodowaqa (number 11)
According to Victorian Multicultural Sports Association president Vishwar Kumar, the players will join the team later in January when their paperwork is done. The five players will sign contracts and work in Melbourne until they can secure professional contracts with A-League teams.
Frankston Pines play in State League Division 3. This club is based in Frankston North, a suburb from Melbourne.
Galaxy FC defender Nelson Sale Kilifa is now a citizen from Vanuatu. The 33 years old defender has been in Vanuatu for ten years married to a Ni-Vanuatu woman so he could ask for the Ni-Vanuatu passport. Nelson arrived in Vanuatu in 2009 to play for Amicale.
It means that Galaxy FC has one more spot available for foreign players in the 2020 OFC Champions League squadlist. According to OFC regulations each team can count on four foreign players. As Kilifa is not considered a foreign player anymore, Galaxy now counts on four foreign players: Gagame Feni, James Naka, Diego Máximo and Roberson.
Nelson Sale Kilifa is going to play OFC Champions League for the 12th time in his career. His first appearence in the continental championship was in 2005 when he played for Makuru FC from Solomon Islands.
When it comes to Papua New Guinean footballers playing in other continents people always think about the Komolong brothers – Felix, currently playing in the USA and Alwin, who last played in Germany third tier.
However there is a very young player from Papua New Guinea that is having a great opportunity in England: Terry Stephenson.
Stephenson was born in Lae, Papua New Guinea on 12 January 2002 but he moved to England very young. He started to play football for Billingham Town before joining Middlesbrough. The 17 years old left back is part of Boro U18 squad. He plays as left back but he can also play as right back and central midfielder.
Despite playing only four matches in 2019-20 U18 Premier League so far, Stephenson already had some great moments playing for the Smoggies. He made his debut for U23 team in 2018 against Port Vale with only 16 years old. Stephenson also had the opportunity to be U18 team captain this year against Derby County.
His biggest moment in his youth career happened in the U18 Premier League Cup semi-final against Derby County in the 2018/19 season when he scored a goal in the extra time to secure a place in the final against Manchester City.
He has never been called for Papua New Guinea youth squads but PNGFA should look at him because his experience at academy level in England is surely something that puts him one step ahead other players from his homeland.
