Submitted by drupal on 23 July, 2007 - 10:31am
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NATIONAL SQUAD 3, KOSSA FC 1
NATIONAL SQUAD 3, KOSSA FC 1
By EDDIE OSIFELO
NATIONAL soccer coach Airton Andrioli was not happy with his squad’s 3-1 win over club champions KOSSA FC on Saturday.The squad warmed up for the South Pacific Games with an inconsistent match on a hot day at Lawson Tama.Andrioli said:“Not a good match.“The boys performed on a poor standard in the first half.“There’s too many mistakes.“We still have a lot of work to do.”But Andrioli said the game did give him a good indication of who will make the final team.Stanley Waita, Henry Fa’arodo and Tinoni Ratu scored for the national side to cancel out Moffat Deramoa’s goal for KOSSA.Alick Maemae should have extended the margin but he missed a penalty in the second half.Waita opened the scoring in the first half with a long range shotfrom outside the box.The national lineupdominated the first half, making six shots at goal.KOSSA could only manage two shots at goal, with one of the best chanceswhen referee Nelson Sogo awarded a free kick.KOSSA’s Joe Luwi blasted the ball through the wall of players, but it hit the post and was cleared.Andrioli then sent in Tinoni Ratu for GodwinBebeu.Ratu’s introduction made an impact, with him providing good balls forFa’arodo and Menapi on the counter attack.But still the two big names could not score.Andrioli changed the tune of the match when he sent in Judd Moleafor Waita and Gideon Omokirio for DavidTaro.His tactic paid off when Morgan fouled Menapi.Fa’arodo scored the penalty.The national team continued to dominate the second half with six more shots at goal.Momentum improved when Jacob Pekau, Mostyn Beui,Abraham Iniga and Jack Samani came in.Iniga and Samani caused a lot of problem for KOSSAdefenders with their speedy runs.This led to their third goal, when Iniga ran away from one of theKOSSA defenders. He passed the ball to Ratu, who checked beforeblasting it past Morgan.KOSSA coach Willie Lai said: “It was a good match to look at players.“The boys are young but still could compete against some of the beststrikers in the Pacific.”The national squad play another warmup match, against Solympic, this Saturday. They then play Honiara Select before going to Australia on 10 August for their final warmup games there.From there the team travel to Samoa for the South Pacific Games 25 August - 8 September
