Solomon Island import James Naka has helped Fiji club Navua to its first ever back-to-back victory in the Vodafone Fiji FACT knock-out competition.
In a thrilling finish to five days of football, the Solomon Islands beach soccer captain headed home for Navua in the dying minutes of the final to beat Lautoka 2-1 at TFL National Stadium in Suva yesterday.
Naka said he believed all along his team would beat Lautoka.
“I had confidence in my teammates and had told them before the final that we could do it.”
“Navua has a lot of national reps so it was a great feeling to play with them and be part of their winning team” said Naka, who captained the Bilikiki Boys to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Brazil.
Meanwhile Navua vice captain Simione Tamanisau said they dedicated their win to president Anil Sharma who celebrated his wedding anniversary over the weekend.
“This win is for Anil and his family and I am sure the Sharma family will be happy with this gift of ours.”
“We are one big family in Navua and the entire sporting family will come together to celebrate this win” said the Naisaomua native from Tailevu.
Lautoka football coach Dennis Singh attributed their loss at the hands of a strong Navua side to fatigue saying that his team did not cope well with three games in less than 20 hours.
“We played a really hard game but it was fatigue that lost us the game,” said the Blues coach.
Lautoka won through to the final by beating Rewa 4-3 in the semi-final while Navua beat Suva 2-1 in their semi final.
Story courtesy of www.fijilive.com