Europe: Raphael Lea’i displays superb performance and scores in his first friendly match

19-year-old star player from Solomon Islands Raphael Lea’i played his first friendly match this week in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The striker is currently under trials with the FK Velež Mostar, one of the most important clubs of Bosnian football.

This Tuesday (24th Jan) Velež Mostar played the Croatian side NK Neretvanac Opuzen, a team currently played the 3 NL – the fourth tier of football in Croatia. The Bosnian side did not have many problems to surpass their opponents in this friendly – Lea’i started as an option in the bench, but he was introduced by the coach Nedim Jusufbegović during the match and made certainly a huge impact.

Lea’i training in gym in Bosnia

“He scored a goal, had an assist for a penalty, hit the crossbar and another player then scored a goal; also one ball was saved by the goalkeeper and one ball was kicked out of the goal during international club friendly this morning against NK Neretvanac Opuzen” said Wakio Tareina’a, one of the responsible for arranging the trials for Raphael Lea’i. You can watch his highlights of the match here.

The local fans seemed impressed with Lea’i skills: “Raphael is awesome” said a fan in social media; “Raphael is a great player“, said another local fan in the same commentary section. Even an comparison was made due the similarity of players’ names: “Milan has Rafael Leão, we have Raphael Lea’i“, said another fan citing Portuguese star player Rafael Leão that is one of key player for his national team and Italian giants Milan.

Tareina’a, Henderson Eels’ chairman – club that Lea’i was playing back in Solomon Islands – also stated about the chances of Lea’i signing his first professional contract: “We change the plans to secure a contract; the chances of him in Turkey were low so we decided to focus in Velež Mostar. The goal is to make him the first Solomon Islands to play pro in Europe“, said the Eels’ boss, “Adnan [Dizdarević] told me about this idea and I accepted. I also had some assurance from him on securing a contract for him there“, added Tareina’a.

Oceania Football Center will continue following closely the development of Lea’i in his trials to provide updates in the following days.

Four teams, two spots and a dream: the FIFA U-17 World Cup

New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and New Caledonia will play the semifinals of the U-17 OFC Championship on Wednesday – January 25th – in search of their dream of going to Peru to compete at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. New Zealand have played in the tournament numerous times before, New Caledonia will be looking to go for a second time while Tahiti and Fiji are aiming to play the tournament for the first time.

Dylan Hutia and Tiahiti Colombani of Tahiti – OFC Media

Tahiti and New Caledonia meet at 4pm local time: The Tama Ura and the Cagous are set to play a very interesting match. So far these are the two teams that have shown the most attractive football in the tournament. It will be interesting to see the duel of the two stars – Nolhann Alebate and Keanan Faure – who have been the key players for their teams in the championship. Titouan Guillemant and Jean-Yves Saiko could be two other names to keep an eye on. The duel on the bench will also be interesting, both Raiarii Golhen (Tahiti’s coach) and Leonardo Lopez (New Caledonia’s coach) like their teams to have the control of the possession in order to keep the opponents away from their goal.

Fiji and New Zealand face each other at 7pm local time; Fiji the host team will try to make history and impose on New Zealand its first elimination in OFC grassroots tournaments since Australia’s exit from Oceania Football Confederation – denying them a spot at the U-17 World Cup. The Baby Bula Boys rely on the local support to do so and they may need to impose a flawless physical and defensive game against the Kiwis. New Zealand, for their part, have not been playing convincing football in the tournament and struggled to beat New Caledonia and Vanuatu. They will have to be much more creative to break through the Fijian defense, they will need a bit more urgency in their game and to keep their back solid in order not to be exposed to the Fijian counterattacks.

The matches take place tomorrow – 25th Jan – at the ANZ Stadium in Suva, being live streamed by app Eleven Sports.

U-17 OFC Championship: Vanuatu must be proud

Vanuatu was knocked-out of the U-17 OFC Championship by New Zealand this Sunday (22th Jan) ended their dreams to take part in the U-17 World Cup to be held in Peru this year. This would be the second time Vanuatu would take part in a FIFA tournament, but they could fo through the strong New Zealand side in order to play a decisive semifinal match.

But the Ni-Vanuatu has more to celebrate rather to be sad: indeed, they lost, they are not progressing to the semifinals, but as said by head coach Emerson Alcântara after the match: “The most important is the development of the players to their senior team“, said the Brazilian coach.

Vanuatu team after 2-1 win over Cook Islands – OFC Media

Vanuatu must be proud of their young boys: they were able to hold New Zealand – counting on players based in European football and Australia – by 92 minutes. The U-17 side of New Zealand was only able to surpass Joseph Nakou after a penalty-kick.

It is important to mention that Augustine Chilia and Romain Luake had clear scoring chances there were wasted in the first half. Yan Chilia was childishly sent off at the starting minutes of the second half, forcing Vanuatu to completely abdicate to attack and only to focus in defense. It worked until the penalty, if it was not for it, the story of the game could end up differently.

Players such as Timothy Arukesa, Albert Timothy and Juniermo Loli were very solid in defense; while Augustine Chilia and especially Romain Luake sparked a lot of creativity upfront and confirmed their are raw diamonds to be cut for the future of Vanuatu football.

Raphael Lea’i close to deal in Europe

The starlet Raphael Lea’i is currently in Europe pursuing his dream to turn into a professional footballer – as reported by Oceania Football Center during the week. It was known the player was set to have a trial in Turkey, as mentioned in interview to Henderson Eels’ chairman, but it was revelead by FK Velež Mostar staff member Adnan Dizdarević that the player is not anymore travelling to Turkey as mentioned before, but indeed the trial is already taking place in the club: “He will not go to Turkey, he came here to agree on a contract and to play. He went to Turkey last summer, but he had problems with his visa” said Dizdarević to Oceania Football Center.

It was reported the player was in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s top-tier side in order to prepare for the trial period in Analyaspor, Turkey, but the info was denied by Dizdarević that confirmed indeed the trial was set out to FK Velež Mostar.

Raphael Lea’i in Bosnia and Herzegovina


“He will go to Turkey with the club (FK VELEŽ MOSTAR) for preparations“, said the staff member, mentioned what possibly caused the misunderstanding. “Raphael is adapting to the time zone, the climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the new way of training. I believe that he will manage to sign the contract“, said Dizdarević that was one of the responsibles to arrange the trials for Lea’i in his club. The words coming from the staff member of Velež Mostar are delighting and prove Lea’i is definitely close to sign his first pro-contract and already in the European continent.

Velež Mostar is one of the most important clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a very traditional team with passionated fans. The club recently celebrated its 100th birthday and its currently ranked 6th in the top-tier league of the country.

Lae City FC wants National Soccer League final to be played in Lae after hooligans attack

This Saturday (21th Jan) saw terrible moments in the field of play in PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby; not a bad football game, but much worse: hooliganism attacks between two factions of supporters enter into fight having the pitch as an wrestle arena. You can see more about by clicking here.

After the decisive matches of this weekend for the National Soccer League, it is confirmed the national forces Hekari United and Lae City will face each other again in the league final. The match is set to be played in the venue the violence actions happened, as it was confirmed by PNGFA in a public statement in their social media account.

Lae City FC line up this Saturday

The situation made Lae City FC issue a public note concern: “The NSL grand final will be played in Port Moresby. After reports and videos about the supporters invading the field and punching each other with no security or police presence, what is the guarantee for a safe grand final? PNGFA should bring the match to Lae where security will not be an issue” stated the club in social media.

It is known there was a real problem in security – the hooligans started to gather in the stands and rapidly entered the field of play with no resistance. It is also reported the violence took over around several minutes to be controlled by police officers.

The Papua New Guinea FA did not issue any public statement on the happenings and just confirmed the final match to be played in the same venue of the hooligans’ attack.

Fiji FA drops Ronil Lal in favour of foreign coach heading to U-20 FIFA World Cup

Last January 11th we learned that the Argentine Rodolfo Zapata will be the head coach of the Fijian national team in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, a normal news until then if the position had not already been held by Ronil Lal, who was the man who led Fiji to secure a spot for the second time in a FIFA tournament – Lal was the head coach in Tahiti for the Junior Bula Boys, where he guided the team to the final match, confirming a spot in the U-20 FIFA World Cup.

Ronil Lal – Fiji FA Media

Ronil Lal is a very well known coach in Fiji; he is a multi-champion with Labasa, in 2019 he achieved the incredible feat of winning three tournaments in the same year winning the Battle of Giants, the Interdistrict Championship and the Champions vs Champions Series. Lal, an OFC Senior B Licence holder, stepped down from Labasa coaching-role in 2021 citing personal problems as he and his family were hit by Tropical Cyclone Ana –
“I need to value my family and give them the time plus let’s see how long it takes but I’ll be back“, said Lal to a local newspaper. He definitely he got back with a massive feat qualifying Fiji for a major international tournament.

In 2014, the first time Fiji qualified for the tournament, the same happened: Ravinesh Kumar led the team to win the OFC U-19 Tournament held in Suva and later Australian football legend Frank Farina was appointed as the head coach for the U-20 World Cup played in New Zealand. But, at that moment, Farina was already in a role in Fiji FA – as technical advisor -, different from what happened this time. Farina was the head coach of Australia national team for seven years, winning a number of OFC Nations Cup editions and also coaching the team at FIFA Confederations Cup.

Zapata, the new head coach for Fiji U-20 side, is also an experienced coach – but certainly is still to get to know the reality of football in Oceania – and he will not have so much time to do so as the FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Indonesia already starts in May. His most important achievement was guiding Township Rollers from Botswana, Africa, to a national title. He also coached in Kenya, South Africa and United States.

The reaction on Zapata’s appoitment was a ‘mix of emotions’ in the passionated football community in Fiji. Some fans got excited to see an Argentinian to coach Fiji in the next U-20 World Cup, but the majority of the fans seemed a bit dissapointed with the departure of Lal from the head coach position after his succesful stint last year.

It is still unknown wheter Lal will be part of the staff of Zapata in next months heading for the FIFA tournament, but it can be already confirmed that he is not going to be the guidor of this young team at their peak.

OFC U-17 Championship: Fiji and New Zealand play decisive semifinal

Fiji and New Zealand will meet at 7 pm local time on January 25th in Suva, the Fijian capital. Both teams have confirmed their favouritism and advanced to the semifinal of the tournament.

FIJI VS COOK ISLANDS

Fiji started the game controlling possession as expected, but the lack of creativity not allowed the hosts to get goalscoring chances.

The 1-0 lead came only in first-half stoppage time when Cook Islands’ goalkeeper failed to clear Watisoni Batirerega shot and Petero Maivalenisau scored the first goal of the match taking the rebound already in the penalty box.

Fijian players celebrating the first goal – OFC Media

At the start of the second half Fiji seemed determined to settle the match, until in the 50th minute Delon Shankar took a free-kick, the ball hit the post and came back to Dwayne Matapo who unfortunately ended up scoring an own goal.

In the 90th minute Petero Maivalenisau scored again with a header to give final numbers to the score. Fiji will be looking to play in the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the first time in their history – but for that they will need to win the semifinal match.

NEW ZEALAND VS VANUATU

New Zealand and Vanuatu match was a fierce duel; the Kiwis were expected to win this game, but the match was indeed very hard for them.

New Zealand struggled to break through the defensive lines of Vanuatu, who had a good performance from goalkeeper Joseph Nakou and also from their defense line.

Vanuatu had a clear chance on Augustine Chilia shot in an one-on-one situation after a counter-attack move led by Jimmy Moso. At the 40th minute Vanuatu had another chance to score with an excellent move by Romain Luake who dribbled three defenders but finished over the goal.

In the second half the situation did not change. New Zealand played very slow and as a result they did not create any danger to the Vanuatu goal.

Things seemed to change when Yan Chilia was red carded after a brawl with New Zealand’s Niko Bruce. New Zealand now had one more man in the pitch now a total control of the match. The goalkeeper Nakou had to make a series of interventions, but New Zealand still struggled to create real chances.

New Zealand’s winning goal only came in the 92th minute, when Luke Supyk took a penalty that himself was awarded after being fouled by goalkeeper Joseph Nakou.

New Zealand players celebrating the goal – OFC Media

For Vanuatu the tournament has ended; they could had player better football in their previous matches, but they put up a great fight against New Zealand showing that this young team has a lot of potential to be explored. The work of Brazilian Emerson Alcantara coach also can be praised especially from these 90 minutes played against New Zealand.

New Zealand now only needs to beat Fiji, the hosts, to confirm a spot in Peru’s U-17 World Cup – but certainly they will need to play better football to surpass the talented Fijian team.

Hekari vs Lae City: once again the two Papua New Guinean giants are finalists of National League

The PNG National Soccer League 2022 is having its final moments in early 2023; the two semifinal matches were played this Saturday (21th Jan) in Port Moresby and Lae. The favourites to be present in the final match made no mistake and granted their spot inthe deciding encounter.

In a match marked terrible moments after the final match at PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby, Hekari United surpassed Gulf Komara with two quick goals in the second half: the talented midfielder Yagi Yasasa opened the scoreline in favour of the David Muta-coached side; Oberth Simon finished the deal for Hekari to confirm their 2-0 win and seal their place in the final match once again. Komara was a harsh opponent for the former OFC Champions League winners as they counted on many important players such as Ishmael Pole, Nigel Dabinyaba and Michael Foster. The team is coached by former Kapuls first choice goalkeeper David Aua.

Oberth Simon celebrates his goal – PNGFA Media

At Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae, the national champions Lae City knew they would need a lot of work to go past the Lae Natives FC’s goalkeeper Jordan Tobem. Still in the first half, the winger Elijah Kamak scored the first in favour of the team coached by Bob Morris.

Lae City held the lead at the break for the first half and needed to work hard in the final 45 minutes; but the national powerhouse was able to deal with the danger and finish the match thanks to a goal scored by Kapuls midfielder Obert Bika. As of Port Moresby, the 2-0 result repeated itself in Lae in favour of Lae City FC.

Lae City players celebrate one oftheir goals – Lae City FC Media

The final match will be played in Port Moresby as stated by PNG Football Association; the decisive encounter of the season is set to be played next weekend.

Laveni Vaka: the greatest women’s football talent of the South Pacific

Tonga is a kingdom in the South Pacific made up of 177 islands of which only 36 are inhabited by just over 106,000 people. With rugby being the most traditional sport, football has always taken a back seat -making it difficulty of revealing great talent in the sport.

The scenario has been changing a bit and Laveni Vaka is an excelent example of this. The 21-year-old defender plays college football in the United States and represented Tonga at the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in Fiji last July.

In the quarterfinals she was named the best player of the match against Papua New Guinea after providing two assists for her twin-sister Daviana to score and then making a beautiful move for Jazmine Loto’aniu to score the second goal. Tonga eventually went out on penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw after extra time, with Laveni converting her spot-kick – but the defeat did not harm her great performance in the match and in the tournament.

Laveni Vaka vs Cook Islands – OFC Media

After representing Tonga for the second time in the Nations Cup, Laveni Vaka returned to the US for the season with BYU Soccer where her team finished the year with 11 wins, three losses and seven draws – BYU Soccer was eliminated by the UNC Tar Heels in the NCAA regional semifinal after a 3-2 loss.

Laveni played all 21 games for BYU in the season tallying 1,834 minutes and one assist. At the end of the season she was named to the NCAA All-West Region First Team and the All-WCC First Team – Laveni even took the WCC 2022 Defender of the Year award!

The Oceania Football Center congratulates Laveni Vaka for her achievements in 2022! It is expected she will represent Tonga again at the Pacific Games in Honiara this year.

Fetuao Belcher: a rising Samoan football star in New Zealand

Fetauo Bechler is one of the great hopes of Samoan football in the coming years, he was a starter for Napier City Rovers in New Zealand’s Central League and the National League in 2022, and also represented Samoa in the OFC U-19 Championship. The 19-year-old defender spoke to Oceania Football Center about his season and his views about the development of Samoan football.

Fetuao Belcher in Napier City colours – Hawke’s Bay App

How was your experience to be a regular starter in a traditional team of New Zealand?

It was good for my confidence by consistently starting I felt an increase in my improvement from when I first started with the club. I became very comfortable with starting every week and learned a lot from teammates. Also I had lots to analysing when looking back in each game.

How was to play the National League against the top players of New Zealand?

It was a goal as a team to make the National League, so it was a positive step in our season and it was also a level higher so it really challenged me in particular. I definitely would see this as another future goal, but overall a great way to end a season in my opinion.

Do you think Samoa could have advanced further in the OFC U-19 Championship last year?

I think that we definitely could have progressed further, it’s just a shame that we hadn’t had much time together as a team and our chemistry between players made it hard to understand tactics. But I think that definitely had the potential to go much further than we ended up.

Do you intend to keep representing Samoa internationally?

Playing for Samoa internationally has been the best experiences I’ve had without a doubt, so I intend on representing Samoa again in the near future.

Are the Pacific Games this year a possibility for you to represent them?

Yes, it’s definitely a possibility that I would be proud to represent them in.

How do you see the football development in Samoa? Do you see it improving in the past years?

I definitely felt like the staff and coaching made the whole experience more professional than previous experiences. Although my experience when I first played for Samoa will be second to none; that I hope to experience in the future; I got to embrace my culture off the field, creating a special bond with every player off the pitch, ultimately fueling everyone to work hard for each other on the field. Although based off my last Samoan experience, in terms of tactics and development for Samoan Football, I think there will be a significant improvement.

The Oceania Football Center thanks Fetauo Bechler for the interview and wishes him success in the course of his career.