The hosts will be joined by American Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga for the OFC Stage 1 tournament, set to take place at J.S. Blatter Stadium in Apia from November 22 to 26.
Despite a lack of international matches since the previous FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Lui believes the team has progressed well over the course of the year.
“The preparations have been really good,” Lui says. “With the number of trainings we’ve had together, there is now a strong team spirit amongst the boys.”
The local players, equating to 20 of the 23-man squad, began training together in February and have been in camp since the start of September. Joining the team from Australia will be Shaun Easthope and Masi Toetu, while Wellington Olympic’s Jared Curtis is the only other overseas-based player.
Samoa enjoyed a comprehensive 9-0 victory over American Samoa’s U-20 side earlier in the year before testing themselves in August with a tour to Fiji where they lost 5-1 and 5-0 to the national side.
“The Fiji tour was important for our development because it helped us to see where we were at compared to one of the top four teams in Oceania,” Lui says. “It gave us some guidelines on what we have to work on, what our weaknesses are and what our strengths are.”
Lui has been involved in qualifiers before but may want to forget his previous experience. It was in 2001 that he took the newly-affiliated American Samoa to their first preliminary tournament, held at Coffs Harbour in Australia. With a number of players from neighbouring Samoa ruled inelligible at the 11th hour, Lui was forced to leave many of his senior players at home. The team suffered four heavy defeats including a 31-0 loss to the Socceroos, which remains a record in FIFA World Cup qualifying.
So with a point to prove, Lui is looking forward to facing up to more evenly-matched opposition next week. He admits there will be nerves playing in front of a home crowd but is vowing his charges have what it takes to live up to expectations and bring pride to the tiny island nation.
“We are looking forward to the support from our local clubs, fans and the whole country. Our target is to win this tournament for Samoa.”
The winner of the round-robin tournament will advance to Stage 2 where the top seven OFC teams await, namely Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Fiji will host the second stage competition from June 1 to 12, 2012.
For the match schedule click here
For the team lists click here

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