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For Rafa against Fiji as 🇸🇧 qualifies for the semis of the MSG Cup in Port Vila.

A hat-trick from Paul Francis helped the Solomon Islands to a comfortable 6-0 win over American Samoa in the opening game of the OFC U-19 Championship 2022 in Tahiti. 🇸🇧💪

FULL-TIME I All to play for in the second leg of the OFC Champions League National Play-offs as TSL Champions Central Coast come from behind to draw 1-1 with Solomon Warriors at Lawson Tama this afternoon.

📷 SIFF Media

OCL2022| Strikers Joses Nawo (left)of Solomon Island and Raymond Gunemba of Papua New Guinea have been included in the starting lineup for Lautoka against Rewa in the OFC Champions League National PlayOffs at the ANZ Stadium in Suva at 3pm this afternoon.

SOLOMON CUP RETURNS THIS YEAR

Football fans will once again be treated to a 2-week football fest in Honiara as talent from our provinces battle for the coveted Solomon Cup.

SIFF's Competition Department announced yesterday the 2022 Solomon Cup will take place from November 26 to December 10.

Western Tomoko of Western Province are the defending champions.

WILL IT BE NEW ZELAND OR SOLOMON ISLANDS?? 🇳🇿 🆚 🇸🇧

After two weeks of intense competition, the two remaining teams will battle it out tomorrow morning 4am local time for the grand prize, a spot at the inter-confederation play-off for a shot at football’s global showpiece, the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

And in fitting fashion the two best teams at the Oceania Qualifiers the past week remain. New Zealand and Solomon Islands are the highest ranked teams in Oceania as far as the FIFA World Ranking is concerned.

While New Zealand was expected to reach the final, Solomon Islands had to battle hard to reach this summit clash, and it must be said they did it convincingly.

Simply put, the two best teams are meeting in the final.

🟩 SOLOMON ISLANDS’ CHANCES

Solomon Islands’ technical ability and pace has been evident in the group stages.

And their biggest strength going into this final is their ability to rotate the ball from left to right producing some silky one touch passing before sending the ball upfront for centre-forward Joses Nawo and impressively having a 2nd, 3rd and even a 4th runner as support.

Suitably, of all the teams in this competition that can cause New Zealand trouble, Solomon Islands is well suited for this judging from their performances so far.

Defensively Solomon Islands have been very good, the experienced Hardis Aengari is the leader in defense alongside his younger teammates. Right-back, Ian Kalu is having an impressive debut tournament for the senior side and while PNG winger Kepo managed to get on the other side of left-back Prince Tahunipue on occasions, Solomon Islands did well in muscling out PNG attackers in the semis.

Going forward, Solomon Islands attacking ability with five players upfront can cause any side problems. They have scored 3 goals in back to back games against Tahiti and PNG.

Yes, only 2 goals against Cook Islands in the opener but the Cooks did park the bus. Against Tahiti and PNG who attacked Solomon Islands more, they put 3 goals past them and we have seen some fantastic counter-attack goals from Solomon Islands.

🟩 SOLOMON ISLANDS CAN’T AFFORD TO TAKE A DEFENSIVE APPROACH

Solomon Islands have attacking flair without a doubt yes, but they do not have the ability to park the bus or take a defensive approach against a team like New Zealand.

The Solomon Islands players are not big enough physically, as such, New Zealand’s English Premier League striker, Chris Wood will dominate in the air.

New Zealand will likely play 3 at the back like in their previous games with overlapping runs from their wing-backs giving them the opportunity to cross the ball into the area if Solomon Islands decides to park the bus and play defensively.

The quality of delivery into the area by New Zealand will be far superior, as such, Solomon Islands will need to play their usual attacking football and try to cause an upset by scoring goals.

A quick flash back to 2017 also in a World Cup qualifying decider between these two teams, when current coach Felipe-Vega Arango was also in charge, Solomon Islands opted for a defensive approach in the away leg in New Zealand and got hammered 6-1.

Solomon Islands drew 2-2 at Lawson Tama in the return leg but lost the tie 8-3 on aggregate.

🟩 CHRIS WOOD VS CENTRE-BACKS

New Zealand and New Castle striker Chris Wood and former Premier League defender Winston Reid will be the biggest threat for Solomon Islands.

They will dominate aerial battles with quality deliveries into the area and this is one area where New Zealand will expose Solomon Islands’ weakness.

🟩 RAPHAEL WILL BE A KEY PLAYER

If Solomon Islands is to produce something spectacular in this final, we will need another big performance from young Raphael Leaí.

To be fair on the young man, this is a lot of responsibility to put on the shoulder of a 19-year-old.

Rafa, on the right wing, will be playing on the opposite side of the pitch to Winston Reid so if Captain Micah Leaálafa or Gagame Feni, who is expected to start replacing the injured Alwin Hou, keeps Reid occupied on the left, Rafa will be able to use his pace and power to cause problems.

As we witnessed against PNG, Rafa headed the ball over 2 defenders and then sprinted past them with ease, good first touch and boom, goal.

Solomon Islands dominated mid-field in the semi-final with William Komasi sitting deep shielding the defense and linking up Micah and Atkin Kaua to link up the front 5 not to mention Joses Nawo’s work rate upfront.

It will be a tough battle this time round to dominate the mid-field against New Zealand.

🟩 FULL-BACKS

Solomon Islands’ full-backs will also be key. We have young Ian Kalu (right-back) and Prince (left-back) expected to start again in the final.

If they are left exposed ad beaten, that’s where the New Zealand goals will likely come from.

From deliveries out wide, as New Zealand in their previous matches only occasionally play through the middle of the pitch.

Solomon Islands’ wingers tend to stay high waiting to counter and this might cause problems down the wings with New Zealand looking for every opportunity to get the ball into the box.

🟩 WHAT THE COACHE SAY

Solomon Islands coach Felipe Vera-Arango admits it won't be easy against a New Zealand team with so many top professionals.

"It's going to extremely tough. They need to have a bad day and we need to have a perfect day," he said.

"They are obviously the favourites but I want the players in the Solomons to feel that they can do it and I want them to feel that this is people, this is 11 against 11 and you need to play as hard as possible because you can surprise them,” he said.

Will the final go according to script, or will Solomon Islands cause an upset?

This is football., anything can happen. All the best to both teams.

The Spaniard is confident his star player, Raphael Leaí, will be fit in time for the grand-final against New Zealand.

Young Leaí picked up an injury during their semi-final victory against PNG along with 3 other starters in Felipe’s starting line-up.

Alwin Hou, who scored two crucial goals in the semis, holding mid-fielder, William Komasi and experienced defender, Hardis Aengari are also nursing injuries.

Felipe claims to have found the winning system for his team, as such, will be looking to play the same starting eleven.

These injuries have been examined by Doctors and the Team Physio and the players are recovering hoping to make Thursday morning’s final.

Up next, is New Zealand in the final. 🇸🇧🆚️🇳🇿

3 left-footed strikes from Alvin Hou and Raphael Leaí were the difference as Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 booked their place in Thursday morning's grand-final of the 2022 Oceania World Cup Qualifiers.

𝐏𝐑𝐄-𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓 🇸🇧 vs 🇵🇬

SOLO TAKES ON PNG FOR A PLACE IN THE FINAL

Solomon Islands will play Papua New Guinea in the first semi-final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Oceania Qualifiers in Qatar 1am local time.

The winner of the clash will take on either New Zealand or Tahiti in the summit clash to decide who progresses to an inter-confederation play-off for a spot at the 2022 World Cup.

With the withdrawal of Cook Islands and Vanuatu, Solomon Islands have been the best team in Group A, with the lads from Kwaio, Malaita Province, Micah Leaálafa and Raphael Leaí leading the way.

19-year-old, Leaí is proving to be the best player for Solomon Islands at the tournament so far, and he was crucial as Solomon Islands beat Tahiti 3-1 in their final group match.

It was evident, the Tahitians found it difficult to stop him. And thanks to three brilliant assists by captain Leaálafa, Joses Nawo and substitute Adrian Mara, the youngster was able to bag a hat-trick to complete an outstanding individual performance.

PNG, on the other hand, defeated strong Fiji and New Caledonia sides and a narrow 1-0 defeat to favourites New Zealand to book their place in the semi-final.

Their talismanic forward Tommy Semmy arrived in Qatar in time for the tournament to join an experienced PNG side breaming with confidence after three solid performances in the group stage.

Tomorrow morning’s encounter will be the 16th meeting between the two Melanesian rivals and if history is anything to go by, Solomon Islands has the upper hand having won 10 of their previous meetings, drawn 3 with PNG beating Solomon Islands only twice.

Solomon Islands’ Spanish coach, Felipe-Vega Arango was responsible for architecting PNG’s 2 recent defeats to Solomon Islands during the 2018 Oceania World Cup Qualifiers and knows what to expect from the Kapuls.

“Against Papua New Guinea, it won’t be easy. PNG always going to compete.

“They play a 4-2-3-1 system, defensively is pretty much the same system that we are playing when we play in defence,” Felipe said in his pre-match interview with SIFF Media.

“We need to compete, we need to work hard, we need to be patient, we need to keep the ball on the ground,” he said.

Felipe believes his young side can win and progress to the final if they produce another high intensity performance like they did against Tahiti.

With no major injuries within the team, Felipe is expected to field an unchanged starting eleven in this semi-final with Nawo operating upfront as the lone striker and the speed of Leaí and Alvin Hou on either flanks.

Captain Micah with the support of Atkin Kaua have been outstanding in pulling the strings from mid-field flawlessly transitioning defence into attack as we saw in those devastating counter-attacks against Tahiti.

Young William Komasi, who has made his debut at this Qualifiers, is expected to start his third straight game for the senior side sitting behind the 2 attacking mid-fielders in that holding role providing cover for the Solomon Islands defence.

In defence, Solomon Islands also has 3 starting players on their first outing for the senior side including the 2 fullbacks Prince Tahunipue (left-back) and Iani Kalu (right-back) who have been outstanding against Cook Islands and Tahiti both defensively and going forward down the line to support the already talented Solomon Islands attack.

Javin Wae returned from injury and was rock solid against the taller Tahitians pairing at centre-back with the experienced Hardis Aengari. Philip Mango will be between the sticks again for Solomon Islands in what would be his 4th appearance against the PNG national side.

While their counter-attacking caused Tahiti a lot of problems, coach Felipe wants his players to be cautious with their counters against PNG with striker Tommy Semmy capable of causing similar damages at the other end of the pitch.

Semmy is not the only player in the PNG side that have played his football in Solomon Islands.

PNG’s Brazilian Coach, Marcos Gusmao has named 3 other players in Jacob Sabua, Raymond Gunemba and captain Michael Foster who have previously played their club football in the Telekom S-League.

“"I am always positive and confident with my team’s preparations and also have confidence with whichever player I select on match day," he said.

Will the Brazilian’s confidence and experience side triumph over youth and flair? Whatever the outcome after 90 minutes or possibly more, this first semi-final will be a thriller.

May the best wins!!