Oceania Football Confederation U-17 Championship co-host country Samoa is ready to kick the ball high in today’s opening match at the J.S. Blatter Field.
Samoa’s 23 member squad will clash against last year’s runner up New Caledonia which boasts of a 25 member squad.
The second match for today will be Cook Islands vs Papua New Guinea.
Desmond Faaiuaso, Coach for the Samoan team expressed his high hopes yesterday for Samoa to win the Pool A of the competition to advance to the finals which will be held in Pago, American Samoa.
He shares that the U-17 championship is a good competition for our local boys to become good soccer players in the future.
“All the teams are tough [so] we are trying our best to encourage them to win.”
When asked who the best players in the team are, Desmond answered “My team, all the players are best.”
Meanwhile, Michael Kapisi, Chief Executive Officer of the Football Federation Samoa is confident saying that the Samoan team has prepared well.
“They have been camping here at the F.F.S. academy since first week of December.”
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“I’m confident we will surprise some people; we will surprise the teams that are coming with the level of quality we have,”
“It will be quite difficult to win the pool but you can never rule out qualifying for the semis.”
Realistically looking at the standing of other countries in the past years, the C.E.O. said that it’s going to be difficult; all the games will be difficult.
“They’ve come a long way and I’m hoping they will shock some people.”
He hopes that the heat will work in favour of the Samoan team since they’ve been training there for a while.
His message to the Samoan squad: “Just represent the country and make us proud.”
The Samoan team is composed of 23 boys (four of which are from New Zealand, one if from Canada, two are from Australia and the rest come from Samoa), plus 5 management.
A big bulk from the squad comes from the squad of 30 local boys that were trained by the Center of Excellence. Said training started March last year.
The players are: Faafouina Lola, Tauati Tanoai, Peter Hunt, Bronson Lotu-I’iga, Lafoga Pupula Lafoga, Poasa Epa, Seli Fuimaono, Samuelu Malo, Willie Sauiluma, Frank Mariner, David Wensley, Vaa Taualai, Mose Sofala, Timote Halahingano, Osa Savelio, Iosefo Toma, Henry Smith, Slade Omeri, Felix-Dominique Iulio, Maaushammah Tauasa, Salvation Satuala, Taase Hunt and Tusitala Vito
11 Pacific Nations (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu) are competing for the 2015 OFC U-17 Championship.
The Oceania qualifiers will run from January 13-26 in American Samoa and in Samoa. The winners will have themselves book a berth in Chile for the FIFA U-17 World Cup from October 17-November 8.
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