Ba 5 Out of IDC
It takes time to build a team and it is sad that other districts are trying to break us apart-Ba team manager Arvind Singh
Ba football team manager Arvind Singh is disappointed they are losing key players to other districts ahead of the Courts Inter-District Championship (IDC) next month.
“I’m very disappointed with other districts especially Lautoka and Suva for taking the majority of my players,” Singh said.
He said five players would join other districts in the new transfer window.
“Five players who represented the side in the winning the INKK Battle of Giants tournament will be missing from the team.”
They are Meli Codro and Laisenia Raura who will be joining Suva, Samuela Nabenia and Manasa Nawaikula teaming up with Lautoka.
“And it is likely that my goalkeeper Josaia Ratu will also be moving out,” he said.
Singh said that it took time for him to build a good side.
“It’s sad that other districts are trying to break our team,” Singh said
He stressed other districts should develop their own players rather than trying to split other teams.
“IDC is the biggest football tournament in Fiji and Fiji Football Association must look into it,” he said. He said that he understood the transfer window laws but also stressed that it adversely impacted on the development of the sport.
“I have 45 years of football experience and this is not the right way forward for football,” he said. He said youth players would be playing for Ba in the annual event.
The Vodafone Fijian Under-16 national team bowed out of a chance to play in the FIFA U17 World Cup in Peru next year.
This was after the team lost 1-3 in the semifinal to Solomon Islands at Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara yesterday. Solomon Islands and New Zealand will play in Peru after being the top teams from Oceania.
New Zealand beat Tahiti 4-1 in the second semifinal yesterday. Obviously disappointed his side won’t be heading to Peru, Coach Yogendra Dutt still praised the journey his side has taken to get this far. “What I have learned throughout my career is one thing is winning, and another is satisfaction,” he said.
“We are really satisfied by the performance given by the boys. This is what they could do, this is how far they have come.
“We are pleased and proud of the performance and I know that in the future these boys will become a big force if they can stay together.” Dutt admits conceding within the first minute of the match definitely made things more difficult than they had hoped.
“We could say we gave the two games away, it was very easy. It’s international football and a semi-final too. Coming back is a really difficult task.
“We managed to pull one back and all things were going well until that third goal.”
Solomon Islands coach Stanley Waita was delighted after the final whistle. “We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Waita said. “This is the day the country is waiting for – we’re through to the World Cup.”
Solomon Islands got off to a dream start when Charles Mani scored 45 seconds after the kick-off, in what has to be a record for this competition, with a low drive. Conceding so soon rattled Fiji and it took a fair while for the team to settle into the game as Solomon Islands controlled the action keeping Fiji contained in their half, and making sure goalkeeper Isikela Sevanaia was kept busy.
Fiji had hoped to man-mark Solomon Islands marksman Raphael Le’ai out of the match with Thomas Dunn tasked with keeping the speedy goalscoring machine under wraps. However Le’ai had other ideas and constantly pushed to try and lose his marker, managing to create some decent opportunities for himself and his teammates.
Unfortunately for Fiji the focus on Le’ai left Mani free reign to roam the penalty area which meant when Le’ai’s 29th minute cross came in Mani was able to put it over the line with ease. Solomon Islands’ domination continued through the first half right up until the final moments when Nikhi Pillay broke through the defence and looped the ball over an advancing Davidson Makam to become the first player to score against Solomon Islands in this competition.
That goal was what Fiji needed going into the second half as it gave them confidence against a side which had been running rings around them. With a couple of personnel changes, Fiji started looking more and more competitive forcing Makam and his backline to work a little harder than they’d needed to in the first period.
Both sides started to show signs of a long and arduous campaign as the clock ticked down but one man who never seems to tire still had enough in him to make his mark on the game.
Le’ai picked up the ball inside the Fiji half, ran at goal with Mani drawing a defender one way before he went round the other and fired under a diving Sevanaia to bag his eighth goal of the competition.
“We were supposed to score early goals and we did, really early maybe 50 seconds in. Then we sat back and allowed Fiji to have a bit of pressure on us,” Waita said.
Solomon Islands controlled the action keeping Fiji contained in their half, and making sure goalkeeper Isikela Sevanaia was kept busy.