Already the six group stage matches played out over three match days have excited, surprised and entertained crowds as teams from three confederations – OFC, AFC and CONCACAF – compete against each other for the first time in Oceania.
Reigning regional club champions Auckland City may have beaten Vanuatu rivals Amicale FC to qualify for next month’s FIFA Club World Cup, but that has left Oceania’s runners-up with plenty to prove going into tomorrow’s final.
Much has changed for both sides with Auckland City bringing in several new players, including former Amicale defender Marko Dordevic and Nigerian striker Sanni Issa. Both players are yet to make an appearance at this tournament but will jump at the chance to take on their former teammates.
For their part Amicale have brought in several new players since they last encountered Auckland City. Alongside local talents Francois Sakama, Fenedy Masauvakalo and Dominique Fred is former All White Ian Hogg as well as Australian imports Panagiotis Nikas, Adrian Ucchino and Michele Grazia.
While Amicale are going through rebuilding phase the ease in which they beat professional Bahraini club Busaiteen to qualify for the final indicates they’re on the right path and Auckland should be ready for a challenge.
Newcomer Hogg says while it’s taken some time to get used to each other’s patterns of play, the side is coming together well.
“Everyone is there for one goal and that’s to win,” he says. “When you have everyone sort of pushing for a starting place it’s good competition.
“I think some of the Amicale boys were hoping it would be Auckland City in the final so they could get some revenge for the loss in the Champions League final last season. I’m really looking forward to it as I’ve still got a few friends there and it should be a good match,” the former City man says.
For the level-headed Ramon Tribulietx the OFC President’s Cup final is welcome preparation for his side ahead of Morocco.
“It’s a big game. We know they’re very good, they have a few new players in there – or quite a lot of new players, a new team. But they’ve kept the island players that are very good technically,” Tribulietx says.
“They are very motivated and that’s what we saw when they played Busaiteen, they are motivated to win. It will be a tough one, a very difficult match, but we hope to recover well and be competitive on Sunday.”
Leading up to Sunday’s final at 7pm are two interesting matches that will see Fiji U-20 take on Cayman Islands club Bodden Town at 1pm in the 5th/6th place play-off before Singapore U-23 play Busaiteen from Bahrain for third place at 4pm.
Both Fiji U-20 and Bodden Town have plenty to prove after they were thoroughly undone 7-1 by Busaiteen and 9-0 by Auckland City respectively during Friday’ nights final group matches.
The young Fijians are preparing for next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup as the first team from that nation to qualify for a FIFA tournament – and the weight of that pressure hit them hard against the professional Bahraini club.
Retaliation saw two Fiji players, striker Saula Waqa and defender Tony Tuivuna, shown red and coach Ravinesh Kumar will have to approach the next encounter minus this duo’s services.
“They should control themselves in situations like this, playing against professional players, and this has let us down,” Kumar says of going down to nine men.
“I would say hats off to the boys that played in the second half, they resisted and sustained them from going up for a good period of time with only nine men. Regarding the next game, we will go back and talk about before making any decisions.
“The players are still 18, 19 years old and will make mistakes, but this is the time for them to learn and improve for next time.”
For Bodden Town captain and keeper Ramon Sealy to go down 9-0 isn’t the lasting memory he or his side want to take home from this tournament.
“We knew that if we played to the best of our abilities we could come away with something but that just didn’t happen for us today and that’s football. We’ll use this and move onto the game on Sunday and hopefully we’ll get a better result,” he says.
“Whoever we play we’re coming to beat them, it doesn’t matter who it is. We’re wounded after this and whenever we’re wounded we come back hard so we can get the result we want.”
After their shock loss to Amicale in their opening match here in Auckland, Busaiteen came out firing against the World Cup-bound Fijians with much improved performance.
With pride on the line for the competitions only fully professional outfit the Bahraini’s are out to stamp their mark on the final podium place up for grabs when they take on Singapore U-23.
Mohamed Ajaj put himself in the running for tournament Golden Boot with his hat-trick against Fiji U-20 and he’s keen to add to that tally while helping his side to a final victory in Auckland.
“We watched Singapore U-23 play against Auckland City and we hope we can give the same performance as Friday in order to win,” he says.
Meanwhile Singapore U-23 will want to end their own campaign on a high after their disappointing group stage results.
“We have no preference about who we play, we are prepared to play any team and are just looking forward to our next match,” says Singapore U-23 coach Subrami Shunmugham.
“This has been a good development experience for my side over the past two games. They’re in different conditions against difficult opponents, stronger opponents, and they’ve learned something from those two games that will hopefully benefit them in their coming matches.”
EXTRA INFORMATION
Bodden Town [CAY] vs. Fiji U-20 [FIJ]
The Trusts Arena, Auckland
Sunday 23 November 2014
Kickoff: 1pm
Referee: Nelson SOGO [SOL]
Bodden Town
Squad list: 1. Ramon SEALY [GK], 3. Maynor RODRIGUEZ, 4. Yefry ARZU CALDERON, 5. Santangelo BUSH, 6. Wesley ROBINSON, 7. Thomas BUSH JR, 8. Kareem JAMES, 9. Charlo McLEAN, 10. Karl SOLOMON, 11. Theron WOOD, 12. Joshwa CLARKE, 14. Casey McLAUGHLIN, 16. Andra ALLEN, 18. Emmanuel BROWN, 20. Jonathan EBANKS, 21. Mario BERRY, 22. Fabio GALL, 23. Michael GOURZONG [GK]
Coach: Elbert McLEAN [CAY]
Fiji U-20
Squad list: 1. Misiwani NAIRUBE [GK], 2. Praneel NAIDU, 3. Garish PRASAD, 4. Jale DRELOA, 6. Mohammed KHAN, 7. Nickel CHAND, 8. Setareki HUGHES, 9. Gabrieili MATANISIGA, 10. Narendra RAO,12. Tevita WARANAIVALU, 13. Mataiasi TOMA, 14. Ravnit CHAND, 16. Jonetani BUKSH, 17. Kolino SIVOKI, 18. Al-taaf SAHIB, 19. Divikesh DEO [GK], 20. Shaneel NAIDU [GK]
Suspended: 5. Tony TUIVUNA, 15. Saula WAQA
Coach: Ravinesh KUMAR [FIJ]
Singapore U-23 [SIN] vs. Busaiteen [BHR]
The Trusts Arena
Sunday 23 November 2014
Kickoff: 4pm
Referee: Nick WALDRON [NZL]
Singapore U-23
Squad list: 1. Syazwan BUHARI [GK], 2. Ali HUDZAIFI, 3. Nur RIDHO, 4. Farhan RAHMAT, 6. Shameer AZIQ, 8. Adam SWANDI, 9. Stanely NG, 10. Sim TECK YI, 11. Daniel SHAFIQ, 12. Suria PRAKASH, 13. Faris AZIENUDDIN, 15. Ammirul EMMRAN, 16. Nur NAIIM, 17. Fadli KAMIS, 18. Rudy KHAIRULLAH [GK], 19. Afiq NOOR, 20. Shamil SHARIF, 21. Taufiq MUQMININ, 22. Nur HIZAMI, 23. Amy RECHA
Coach: Subrami SHUNMUGHAM [SIN]
Busaiteen
Squad list: 1. Mahmood SHARIF [GK], 3. Juliano DE PAULA, 4. Abdulla BUDHAISH, 5. Mohamed SULTAN, 6. Abdelkarim KOUSSI, 8. Hesham NAYEM, 9. Mohamed AJAJ, 11. Abdulraham ALDOSSARI, 12. Hesam ALMANNAE [GK], 14. Abdulla ALAJMI, 16. Mohamed ALQALLAF, 17. Mohamed ALBADAL, 18. Isa ALROOMI, 19. Mujtaba MALEK, 20. Ahmed FALAMRZII, 22. Husain HARAM [GK], 25. Eliel CRUZ, 26. Turki SEYADHEE, 27. Mohamed ASHOOR, 30. Salman ALDAKHEEL
Coach: Khlifa ALZAYANI [BHR]
Auckland City FC [NZL] vs. Amicale FC [VAN]
The Trusts Arena
Sunday 23 November 2014
Kickoff: 7pm
Referee: Ravitesh BEHARI [FIJ]
Auckland City FC
Squad list: 1. Tamati WILLIAMS [GK], 2. Simon ARMS, 3. Takuy
a IWATA, 4. Mario BILEN, 5. Angel BERLANGA, 6. John IRVING, 8. Tim PAYNE, 9. Darren WHITE, 10. Ryan DE VRIES, 11. Cameron LINDSAY, 14. Sanni ISSA, 15. Ivan VICELICH, 16. Dae Wook KIM, 17. Marko DORDEVIC, 20. Emiliano TADE, 21. Kohei MATSUMOTO 22. Andrew MILNE, 23. Sam BURFOOT, 24. Jacob SPOONLEY [GK]
Suspended: 25. Fabrizio TAVANO
Coach: Ramon TRIBULIETX [ESP]
Amicale FC
Squad list: 1. Chikau MANSALE [GK], 2. Ian HOGG, 3. Chanel OBED, 4. Brian KALTACK, 5. Michele GRAZIA, 6. Adrian UCCHINO, 8. Dominique FRED, 9. Panagiotis NIKAS, 10. Manuel BRIGHENTI, 11. Fenedy MASAUVAKALO, 12. Laitia TUILAU, 13. Francois SAKAMA, 15. Osea VAKATALESAU, 16. Amani MAKOE, 17. Alphonse BONGNAIM, 18. Sailas NAMATAK, 19. Esava NAQELECA, 21. Goshen DONA, 25. Dalong DAMALIP
Coach: Jean-Robert YELOU [VAN]
Broadcast details:
OFC TV will provide exclusive coverage from The Trusts Arena in Auckland with live streaming of all six matches from the group stage plus the play-offs and final on 23 November. The streaming will be available via www.oceaniafootball.com with low-resolution and high-resolution options to cater for different internet speeds.
Several broadcasters from around the region have come on board including VBTC in Vanuatu, EMTV and Kundu 2 in Papua New Guinea, FBC TV and Fiji TV in Fiji, Solomon Telekom in Solomon Islands as well as MediaCorp in Singapore and Cayman (27) in the Cayman Islands.
Live radio broadcast of selected matches includes coverage provided by APNA 990, Radio Tarana, Ethnic Media 360, Humm FM, VBTC Vanuatu with Radio Live Sport in New Zealand covering preview and reviews of the event.
Full live stream details
Sunday 23 November
1pm: Play-off for 5th/6th – Live stream link here
4pm: Play-off for 3rd/4th – Live stream link here
7pm: OFC President’s Cup Final – Live stream link here