Suva is hoping to break a 24 year old drought in the Inter District Competition heading into the semi finals today.
The Uro Fiji/Fiji Bitter Suva side will meet Vodafone Ba in the first semi-final at 8am today followed by the other semi between Navua-Shop and Save Nadi at 9.30am.
Standing in the way of Suva is Ba, a side which is know for rising to the occasion come semi final time.
Suva president Maritino Nemani was the last capital skipper to lift a major title at the 1995 Battle of the Giants at Laucala and is confident his young brigade will be able to
deliver the goods.
“I have confidence in my players and I know they will play their hearts out,” said Nemani.
Suva coach Ravuama Madigi also last won the IDC title as a player in 2001 at the same venue and scored the winning goal for Rewa against Ba.
Ba president Rishi Kumar said they were glad to be in the semi-finals but didn’t want to say more than that.
“It will be our usual football that we will play,” Kumar said.
Navua has been impressive at the tournament and the side coached by Saiyad Ali could turn out to be hard to bring down.
They have never won the IDC and their last title came at the stadium in 2005 when they won the Battle of the Giants.
Ali said while the team had been doing well, the fact was that knockout stages was a different ball game.
“We have a lot of young players and we need to get them to remain focused as the semi-finals are tough and any team which makes it does not give up easily,” Ali said.
“We will give it our best and try to win the title for the first time ever.”
Nadi coach Gurjit Singh said he was proud of his team to have made the semi-finals.
“We lost the first two matches but we bounced back and we will be out in full force,” Singh said.
By Indra Singh