FIFA World Cup 2010

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is just a week away and teams are already having mixed results in their build up matches. Teams like France and Portugal struggled in their warm up matches and they really have to dig deep if they want to make an impact at the World Cup.

France who qualified to the world cup with a controversy, are in Group A and looks to be the favourite to advance to the next round along with the hosts South Africa. France have quality players like Franc Ribery, Theirry Henry, Yoanne Gourcuff and Nicolas Anelka.

Group B has Diego Maradona's Argentina who boast World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi, are certain to advance with Coach Maradona publicly announcing that if Argentina wins the world cup, he would run around naked in the streets of Buenos Airres.

England heads Group C with USA their closest rivals. England will miss the services of Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham but the team cannot be counted out with in form Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and John Terry expecting to play a huge role in their campaign.

In my pool of death, Germany, Australia, Ghana and Serbia will have a go at each other and its really difficult to predict the second team alongside Germany to advance through.

Netherlands with Cameroon and World Champions Italy alongside Paraguay are likely to advance from Group E and Group F respectably.

Five times winners and the number 1 team in the world Brazil head Group G and is certain to advance with either Portugal or Ivory Coast. Brazil has Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Kaka and Robinho and notable exclusions are Ronaldinho and Pato..Portugal has Real madrid star Christiano Ronaldo.

Group H includes Spain and with the likes of Iker Casillas, Puyol, Iniesta, David Villa, Xavi, Torres, Fabregas, Sergio Ramos and David Silva all making a trip to South Africa are surely a team to beat.

So lets countdown to the biggest sporting event in the world, The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Fiji Soccer

The President of Fiji Football Association Dr Samshu Din Sahu Khan should immediately step down from his post. Being at the helm of Fiji soccer for over 20 years, Sahu Khan has not managed to take Fiji to greater heights. When I say greater heights, I mean Fiji did not qualify to the World Cup yet. Fiji soccer is finding it very difficult to beat teams like Solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Tahiti let alone New Zealand in the qualifiers. Look at New Zealand, they will compete at the greatest sporting event in the world starting in two weeks time.

Former Rewa and National rep Abdul Manaan has always criticized the President. He has often questioned Fiji FA on their development. He thinks the districts are scared to vote against Khan. The districts will be fined if they do so. Former Suva and National rep Maretino Nemani shared similar sentiments. When Nemani was the Suva Soccer President, he raised his voice against Khan. He believes its not Sahu Khan's fault, its the districts who give him vote.

Fiji has failed to qualify for any world event. The Solomon Islands already participated in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and the Futsal World Cup. Tahiti U20 Soccer team played in the U20 World Cup and the New Zealand Football team will have a crack at the 2010 FIFA World cup. And not forgetting the Hekari Football Club who will represent Oceania in the World Club Championship in December.

When will we see any of our national soccer team play in any world cup?? Perhaps never because Fiji soccer administration are just doing nothing. They have placed too much focus on district level. Fans get really excited when a soccer tournament nears. We all should ask Fiji FA what will happen after any particular tournaments. I mean why are we having three major tournaments in Fiji?? To select good players for the national team for international matches, or it is just a good way to make money??

Fiji is currently ranked 132 in the world and still Fiji FA puts much emphasis on districts. Fresh minds are needed in the administration. Fiji soccer is going down. We only play when we are supposed to play, like the Oceania World Cup qualifiers. Does Fiji soccer play any friendly internationals? No

Dr Sahu Khan has stated that anyone speaking against him will not be left, but action will be taken so why saying much, afterall Sahu Khan will continue as the president and Fiji soccer will never qualify for any world event.

Suva in Fiji FACT

The performance of the Suva Soccer team in the recent Fiji FACT can be described as pathetic. Suva lost 3 games and won 1..The side went to Labasa to play in the opening game of the FACT and was beaten by the Babasiga Lions by 2-0..

Suva Soccer Coach Dennis Singh said Suva played well in the first half and shut out Labasa but were just unable to score. That is the problem, Suva does not have a good striker, a sure finisher. Singh should look at players who play in the local league. Joseph Mishra and Lisala Bond are disasters for Suva..When Labasa scored first, Suva seemed to have lost concentration and Coach Singh blamed the players fot not having a fighting spirit.

The Suva President Mahen Prasad and Coach Dennis Singh kept talking in the media that Suva will do this and that. Suva played against Lautoka on Thursday in the battle of the cities and came out second best eventhough the whites played better football than the blues..Singh correctly pointed out that the Suva players were left ball watching, something which should never happen. Suva lost and had a slim chance of qualifying to the semis.

The team won their third game against Nadi by 2 nil but then again the jetsetters were pretty ordinary. To make things worse Suva lost to Nadroga in their final pool match as their hopes of ending the tournament on a high note was dashed.

I completely agree with Coach Singh's stance that he will make wholesale changes to the team. He should bring in young and energetic players who will be proud to wear the white jersey. Suva Soccer has capable players at club level.

It is better the young team loses now and then start winning, rather than keeping the same bunch of players and lose all the time.....

Wananavu Suva!!!!!

The Suva Soccer team bounced back in style after thumping Rewa 3-0 at the tfl National Stadium in Suva on Sunday. The victory was very relieving for Suva fans after the side recorded various losses in the National League.

Suva did not let Rewa settle into the match and after long we had witnessed the city boys come up with a fantastic performance. Suva and Rewa have always been great rivals which has been going on from 1942. Since then both teams have been playing yearly for the King Irving Cup (competitions organised), which holds a lot of prestige for both camps. With the rivalry in mind, the match started with both teams applying pressure at each other. Suva scored two good goals and led 2-0 at the break. They scored again to the delight of the Suva fans and won the game by 3-0.

A veteran die-hard Suva fan Bijen Kumar, who was sitting next to me, was so happy that tears of joy fell from his eyes. He told me and a few other people there that he always cried whenever he witnesses Suva winning a particular game. He played for Suva in the seventies and he said at that time Suva was a team everyone feared, and nowadays teams like nasinu and nadroga give a very hard time to our boys. The veteran said that Suva was a very discipline team in his time and that players trained really hard and the best part was that the Suva players gave in their all for the valuable white jersey, something which is lacking these days.

Coach Dennis Singh had said in the media that 'Rome was not built overnight.' He is trying to build a winning combination and that will take time to click. He has promised the fans that Suva will definitely win a major tournament this year.

But one thing really disappointed me. I saw Suva's Dinesh Mudaliar and USP student Luke Haaterea with a couple of Rewa players drinking Bourbon and Cola at Wishbone in Sportscity. That is where discipline comes in and this should have been avoided. Players should now be looking forward to the fiji FACT but with this kind of attitude Suva Soccer will fail again, and again.....

Where to for Suva Soccer??

With just weeks before the Fiji FACT, the Suva Soccer Team has suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of minnows Nadroga in front of their home crowd at the TFL National Stadium.

Suva lost 4-2 and three of the Nadro goals was scored due to goalkeeping blunder by Ilimeleki Tukai. The defeat could have been easily avoided for Suva if the players were more committed, played as a team, took their chances at goal and defended well.

Players like Joseph Mishra and Lisala ‘Bond’ Vetaukula should not be in the team. These two players have been given so much game time but yet they are not proving to be worth to the team. Mishra missed so many goals in this match but it is not new as he did that so many times in his career. If Mishra is given an open goalmouth without any goalkeeper, it would still be a probability of 50-50 chance that he will score.

Suva has abundance of players. Most of the current Suva reps do not have district pride. Suva Coach Dennis Singh is doing a good job by dropping players who he thinks are above the game. Singh is a very good coach who believes in discipline. It is about time Suva stop buying players from other districts because there are so many good players in the capital. The city boys lost out in the semis in all the major tournaments last year and finished fourth in the National League standings.

I had witnessed Suva in all tournaments last year and for me personally, Suva played good football all throughout but was unfortunate not to go further to the final. That is the time when we need a coach who can mentally prepare the players and Dennis Singh is the best man to do that.

In the match against Nadro, only three Suva players gave their all, Shamil Rao, Anish Kumar and Inosi Cava. Shamil is a Ba man, Anish is from Nasinu and Inosi is originally from Ba but has been playing for Suva since when I was in primary school.

Nadro started the match on a high by scoring first even though Suva had all the ball possession. The stallions scored again and just when we were about to leave the stadium and head home, Suva scored to give the fans some hope for a rare comeback.

The Suva fans were frustrated as the whites continued to miss golden opportunities and level the score. Then Nadro scored to make it 3-1...Suva was next to make it 3-2...Samuela Drudru of Nadro put the final nail in the coffing and send the city boys packing.
Around 4000 people came to watch the National League because a double header was on the cards. Earlier on Ba thumped Labasa 4-0.

Fiji says good- bye to HK 7s

The Fiji Sevens Team threw the towel again but this time the boys played really well. Our National team started the tournament with a comprehensive win over Thailand by 82-7. But credit goes to the Thailand side for breaching Fiji's defence, well atleast once. Day 2 started well for the boys as they thumped Portugal 45-7 and rounded up their last pool game with a hard fought victory over the Americans by 38-12. Fiji was through to the quarters to meet South Africa. Fiji scrapped through to win by 14-12 (I did not watch this game because I was at the National Stadium and cheering for Suva, unfortunately the capital city boys lost to Nadro 4-2).

Fiji played NZ in the semis, the boys were really good but they just could not get the result we wanted. Nasoni Roko was at his usual style of play. The team management should now decide that it is high time Roko should say good- bye to the team. With all due respect to his contribution to Fiji Rugby, he should be replaced with someone who has vision to control the game. Suva and Wardens sevens teams have good players who can do the job. Lets face it, Fiji's chances of winning the series for only the second time is now over. But now is the time to give the young players a chance to wear the national colours. Fiji should take young players to the next leg of the IRB Sevens series in England and Scotland. That will give them some game time before the new series begin in December.

Fiji team captain Emosi Vucago should now focus on 15's because I think at the moment Fiji do not have a nippy halfback. For me, Vucago is the best choice halfback for Fiji at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in NZ.

Fiji sevens coach Iliesa Tanivula believes that Samoa are the form team at the moment and are very consistent. They have set the target for all the other teams.

Hong Kong Sevens is over and with two tournaments left in London and Edinburgh, the focus will shift onto the last leg of the series. The national sevens team must beat the odds to come away with a win. Anyone can beat anyone on a given day because sevens rugby is improving very rapidly day by day. The current reps look fatigue and lack firepower. As I said the team management should bring in young boys for the last leg. The result will not come overnight but it will surely come.

Our Pacific Island neighbours Samoa went on to win the tournament by beating NZ in a close encounter. This was Samoa’s third consecutive win and in doing so the Islanders take a vital three point lead going into the last leg. Perhaps this result will see Samoa win the series for the first time but two tournaments are left and as the saying goes it is not over until the fat lady sings.

Fiji Loses in Adelaide

What went wrong in adelaide?? Overall it was a lacklustre performance by our Fiji Sevens team..the players lost too many ball possessions, the kick retention was pathetic..In the first game against Wales, the fiji players seemed tired, they were not hungry for ball possession when compared to their counterparts..i dont understand why nasoni roko is still in the team perhaps because of his experience? he is a two way traffic, he gets the ball, runs left, stops, runs to the right, slips and falls, gets up again and runs..everytime he does that i feel like going inside my television sets and tell him softly to his ears "brother i beg u, please pass the ball"...umm have a look at him next time!! In the quarters Australia punished Fiji for going to much into ruck..Fiji just throwing the ball from this corner to that hoping for a miracle that gaps will open and when they go into ruck itz turned over and therefore game over..in the plate semis, NZ was all over Fiji but i must take my hats off to Setafano Cakau for a solid performance against the kiwis..The forwards need to improve and if they dont then i dont see any reason why coach Tanivula should keep them..there are lots of talented players in Fiji, the selectors just need to sharpen up their eyes..

ok can Fiji win in HK this weekend?? Im putting my money on the boys to do better this time..last weekends showdown should be an eye opener as to where they stand..this is the mother of all sevens tournament in the world, The Hong Kong 7's...The wizard of the game, Waisale Serevi once said, "If we win in Hong Kong, people back in Fiji have a good year"..so boys do it for the people of Fiji, for your families and ofcourse for yourselves...if the boys can do it in Wellington than they can surely do it in HK..so lets sit around a big tanoa and cheer the boys on but drinking on when Fiji loses is a pain in the butt...GO FIJI GO...