2012 OFC Nations Cup Solomon Islands

Sorry Gordon.  He did call Papua New Guinea correctly.  But he's still an arsehole.

http://content.radionetwork.co.nz/weekondemand/radiosport/41900.mp3

PS: The Solomons vs NZ was "brutally boring"...yet he loved a 9-6 game of rugby...and you should have heard him after the Bahrain match.  "I love football-this, football-that".  GLORY HUNTER!

No worries. To be expected, I suppose. 

GGW

Gordon, what players from the other teams do you think could play in the a league? Thanks.

Good commentary and comments here.

Great goal from Totori last night.

Seems like PNG improved a lot under Farina (will he stay there, btw?). Shame their qualifying journey lasted for 5 days only. Would be great to see Nations Cup in this format being held every two years, would surely boost Oceanic football.

Semis

NCL vs NZL ... another tough matchup for All Whites, but I think they will prevail. Win by a goal, with Caledonians score. 1-2.

SOL vs TAH ... my pick is Tahiti, they are having great tournament and I think they can beat hosts. Game is at 2 am here so I might watch it. :)

Surely, there is great Third Round ahead of us.

Just saw Totori's goal on the highlights on Sky Sport. Jeeezusss! What a strike!

The new Ian Hogg!

Was a great strike, feel the context of the game does need to be considered though

Yeah, I think everyone's been pleasantly surprised by PNG, I certainly expected to be pretty decent, but they've been much better than that, and certainly deserved more than a solitary point.

I hope Farina stays there, they seem to be on the right track.

This competition has been a real eye opener for me in regards to how good many of the Oceania teams are. There is a lot of potential in the OFC and it would good to see it fostered and tapped.

I am particularly impressed with their ability to maintain energy levels in these sapping conditions. Perhaps we should be doing more training in the region ourselves!

GGW's commentary been great to listen to. Miles is entertaining, although a bit "off the beam" sometimes!

Who has been dragged in to do the commentating on the Sky coverage? I may have to keep listening to the OFC coverage and mute the TV.

It was still Gordon and Miles commentating on Sky yesterday, doubt that it will change for the rest of the games.

Please, keep writing, it's quite interesting.

This is a football forum after all.

The island players would count as foreign players in the a-league right? Makes it hard for them

They would,

it would be quite an interesting thing to see what would happen if a bunch of players from the Islands were able to go professional.

We have a winner. The Phoenix have to step up here and prove their cause to the rest of Oceania by looking at one or two players from the OFC Cup. The Phoenix would look good to the rest of the OFC by signing up a few of the Island players.

NZ isn't going to Asia anytime soon if the team is unable to beat the Solomans. I fear what the outside world think of the result. The Aussies will want to play other OFC nations instead of NZ!

Travelling is good. NZ would miss big $$ by not playing Confederations Cup. Aussies used to rely on that money many years ago to stay solvent.,

Is anyone else thinking that this "Zachsta" is the old Dingo's Diego Son?!?!?!

Game day fire up? Not much noise about the game anywhere

Unbelievable amount of rain last night from about 5pm until after I went to sleep.  Worse than I have ever seen in Wellington. The local river seemed to have risen by a good couple of metres when I drove over it last night.

Will be interesting to see how the ground coped with it.

Pretty cloudy at the moment.  Although Wednesday proved the weather can change pretty quickly here.

Game day.  Fire up!!

New Zealand vs New Caledonia:

Played: 26

NZ Wins: 15

NC Wins: 10

Draws: 1

Goals: NZ 57, NC 42

Recent Meetings:

September 2008: NZ 3 NC 0 (in Auckland)

September 2008: NC 1 NZ 3 (in Noumea)

Only Australia have beaten us more often than New Caledonia - although they haven't beaten us since October 1976, and only 1 of their wins has been outside their own country (October 1968 at Newmarket Park)

The commentary on the stream cut out for about a minute. I enjoyed not hearing Miles.

Yeah,I was actually thinking the same thing. Same sort of tone,and message given to us lowly nzers. 

Fired up for the game,the pitch may be in a bit of a state so that could make things even harder. Fairly nervous. Annoyingly I have work at 5 so have to watch it when get home later tonight. 

1-0 to Tahiti at half time, and they're well worth the lead.  Goal came from a well-worked set piece.

Solomons haven't created a great deal, although Naka should have equalised but managed to put the ball over from inside the six-yard box.  Tahiti have missed a couple of good chances on the break with the Solomons playing a very high line.

Ryans Rovers - pitch is holding together well enough, but certainly starting to shows some signs of wear.

There have been several from French Polynesia who have played professionally in France over the years - most famously Christian Karembeu from New Caledonia who arguably had the most illustrious career of any player in Oceania history ahead of Wynton Rufer or any Aussies such as Kewell. A World Cup winner with France, European Champonship winner and two time Champions League winner (Real Madrid) and Oceania Player of the Year 1995, 1998. (Karembeu was eligible to play for New Caledonia since he grew up there before moving to France as a teenager).

Other island footballers who played professionally :

Pascal Vahirua (Tahiti):  Played for twenty years in France, mostly for AJ Auxerre in French top flight in the 80's and 90's. Vahirua appeared for the French national team at Euro 1992 and qualifying for World Cup 1994 (22 games for France). Spotted by the Auxerre manager whilst holidaying in Tahiti.

Marama Vahirua: younger cousin of Pascal who has played professionally in French top flight since age 16: Nantes, Nice, Lorient, currently Monaco. Former France u-21 international.

Gerald Forschelet (Tahiti): Former Cannes, Bolton Wanderers, Neuchatel Xamax and Charleroi midfielder, still playing in lower Belgian leagues.

Nicolas Vallar (Tahiti) a defender at SCO Angers , at Montpellier Hérault Sport Club and FC Sète . He now plays for FC Penafiel , in Portugal.

David Grossman (Tahiti) : defender at FC Lorient 1992- 1998 (French Ligue 1 champions 1995), SCO Angers 1998-2001, Olympique Vannes 2003-2004, Olympique Saumur 2004-2007        

William Bambridge (Tahiti) : Stade Rennes (Ligue 1) 1930's        

Claude Carrara (Tahiti): FC Toulon 1965-70, Tahiti national team          

Patrick Appriou (Tahiti): Olympique Marseille 1986- 88; played in the semis of the Europoean Cup-Winners Cup against Ajax 20/04/88. Olympique Ales (France) 1988-1990.

Felix Tagawa (Tahiti international): Brisbane Strikers, Adelaide United Aussie NSL 2003, 2004

All of the talented Solomon Islanders like Bartram Suri, Henry Fa'arodo and Benjiman Totori who have played in NZ, Australia and Tahiti have spent most of their adult lives as professionals -  they have been fulltime footballers with no other jobs usually e.g. I interviewed Bartram Suri in Nelson once and he was living in Hotel Nelson and paid to play for Nelson.

The Masi cousins from Fiji: Esala and Manoa Masi played for some years as professionals in the old Aussie National Soccer League: Esala for Gippsland Falcons 1995-97, Woolongong Wolves 1997-2000, Newcastle United 2000-2004. Johor FC Malaysia 2005 and various state league clubs; Manoa Masi for Gippsland 1995-97.

THE GREATEST UNKNOWN LEGEND OF OCEANIA FOOTBALL: ANTOINE KOMBOUARE (NEW CALEDONIA):

New Caledonia- born pro in Europe 1982- 1998 who won everything in France 1990-1995 with Paris- Saint Germain (Ligue 1, Cup)  Also played for Nantes, Sion (Switzerland) and Aberdeen (Scotland). At the PSG, he became famous for a winning header he scored in the dying seconds of a UEFA Cup quarter final against Real Madrid, in the 1992-93 season. The header qualified PSG for the next round. Kombouaré had already scored a decisive goal in similar circumstances against Anderlecht in the previous round. His habit of netting tie-deciding headers earned him the name of "Casque d'Or", which means "Golden Helmet" in French. In 1994-95, during a UEFA Champions League quarter final against Johan Cruyff's FC Barcelona dream team, he captained Paris Saint-Germain to a resounding and unexpected 2-1 win which qualified the French side for the semi-final, which they lost to AC Milan.

Kombouare has had the greatest managerial career of anyone from Oceania, managing French top flight sides Strasbourg, Valenciennes (French second div. champions) and Paris-Saint Germain 2009 until January this year when he was controversially fired with PSG on top of the league and widely regarded to be playing their best football for decades (PSG's chairman connived to replace him with former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti). PSG appeared in two French cup finals during his tenor, winning once and qualified for the Europa League.

Isn't it amazing we haven't heard of this guy in New Zealand when he's an absolute football legend?

Frederic Piquionne : New Caledonia-born West Ham team-mate of Winston Reid, prev. with Stade Rennes, Monaco, Lyon, Portsmouth; one France cap.

Benjamin Longue (New Caledonia): SC Bastia, France (Ligue 1) 1998-2005, CA Bastia (fourth tier) 2005-2008

John Gope-Fenepej (New Caledonia): Played for Nantes in France, Bolton on loan and Creteil in France.        

Marek Aucher (New Caledonia): Stade Laval (France Ligue 2 ) same team as Eugene Dadi (ex-Wellington Phoenix)                

Vincent Xati Taua (New Caledonia): In Italy 1998 to date. Striker played for third and fourth tier sides Cavese, Benevento, Vibonese and Teramo. Currently at Isernia (fourth tier Italy). Cousin of Christian Karembeu.      

Three members of the current New Caledonia team currently play in the lower divisions in France e.g. Joel Wakanumune plays for Chambery, an illustrious French lower league club. In the 2010–11 season, Chambéry became the first amateur club in Coupe de France (French national cup) history to defeat three Ligue 1 clubs (Monaco, Brest, Sochaux), before losing in the quarterfinals.

KOMBOUARE YOU TUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/topic/cHit39oEleA/antoine-kombouar?feature=relchannel

 Kombouare - PSG manager 2009- 2012

Kombouare - PSG player 1990- 1995

Pitch looking much better than any of us expected it to be. It's not a whole lot worse than it was for our game against Fiji. The day inbetween the last games and today's games seems to have given the ground staff time to run repairs.

Tahiti hold on to win 1-0.  Solomons had plenty of the ball in the second half, but didn't create many chances.

Oh good, I wasn't looking forward to facing Totori again in the final.

All Whites starting line up (3-5-2) v New Caledonia: Gleeson (gk), Sigmund, Vicelich, Smith (c); Bertos, McGlinchey, Killen, Barbarouses, Lochhead; Wood, Smeltz.

Surely with 5 in the midfield we won't be allowing New Caledonia to waltz straight through.

Happy with that. I think the 3-4-3 has been a terrible choice for this tournament particularly with the lack of running/conservation of energy policy our players seem to be taking. Will be interesting to see exactly how the central midfield players form up, I like the Idea of Kosta dropping deeper. Only question mark for me is whether Brockie should have been first wide player selected and then add one of Lochhead or Bertos. He just seems in better form.

Spoonley?

You would think so.......

Xavi, Inneista and Messi work OK, no "shielders" in there. I like the fact that McGlinchy and Kosta are both busy players even though they are not going to pull off any traditional NZ sliding tackles. I think busy players are better defensively that holding midfielders who don't move much anyway. I thought Killen worked pretty well against Fiji, his passing was fairly good.

I'm guessing that McGee will follow the ball more, Killen deeper and Kosta pushing a bit higher. I think you will usually see two at more or less the same depth though, not sure if that is what you mean from that formation.

Also not sure how Barbarouses, Mcglinchey and Killen will operate? 

I feel like Killen didnt offer enough on defence or shielding when he played there. Two shielders and one attackive would work but thats not what we have there. I'm guessing it will be something like this:

                Gleeson
     Sigmund Vicelich  Smith
                     Killen
Bertos    McGlinchey     Lochhead
             Barbarouses
           Smeltz    Wood

Edit: How the hell did Spoonley make it onto that teamsheet??