HONIARA – Kossa FC coach Jacob Moli says anything less than three points against Ba will be unacceptable in tommorrow’s Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) O-League crunch game
at Lawson Tama Stadium.

Moli, speaking at Kossa’s final training run at the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) training academy said

The Kossa FC coaching trio of Moli, Willie Lai and Moses Toata believes nothing less than an OFC O-League victory is acceptable as Honiara
gears up for the visit of Fiji champions Ba on Monday.

Jacob Moli speaking from the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) Academy said Kossa needed maximum points or face
elimination.

“A draw is no good to us. If we draw then everything becomes complicated because we will need to win twice in our away games,” Moli
said.

Kossa has not had the most ideal preparation for the match after taking a six week break in DJ Graphics League action after torrential rain
and the Our Telikom Cup competition rendered Lawson Tama Stadium unplayable.

Two matches against the Solomon Islands Olympic Games U-23 team yielded a win and a draw for Kossa but matches against age group teams in a
training environment cannot take the place of a match played in competition.

Fortunately, Kossa were able to get back into action midweek with a victory over mid-table Sunbeam.

DAVANI: DJ League win over Sunbeam a morale boost for Kossa

“We beat Sunbeam 2-0 in midweek but it wasn’t a flash performance,” striker Reggie Davani said.

“It was difficult to take such a long break – but the ground was unplayable.

Then everybody in the Solomon Islands goes away during the holiday season for weeks on end, so our preparation stopped.”

Kossa also has concerns over two players.

Solomon Islands international defender and Bilikiki Boy Samson Takayama is recovering from a bout
of malaria and Fiji defender Inosi has returned to Suva.

 

Kossa coach Jacob Moli at the SIFF Academy yesterday

Jacob Moli was coy about speculation that Inosi had left the club permanently.

“We are hopeful that Inosi will be available for us when we travel to Fiji to play Ba.

But he is unavailable for this match,” Moli said.

Moli says one aspect of the build-up that has pleased the Kossa coaching staff has been the commitment of the squad’s Beach Soccer players –
Gideon Omokirio, James Naka and George Luwi.

“When we started training this season the players involved with the Bilikiki Boys didn’t show up.

We talked to the Beach Soccer administration and said, ‘Hey, we need to have priority for this match’ and they have agreed,” Moli
said.

Bilikiki Boys squad members have been playing in a “League” competition over the past three weekends in Honiara as part of Solomon Islands
preparation for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup – Marseille 2008.

Ba coach Yogendra Dutt knows his team need at least a point to keep its OFC O-League hopes alive – a defeat will hand the initiative in Group
B back to Kossa and Tafea FC.

The 2-1 defeat to Tafea FC in Port Vila last week has heaped pressure on the Fijian champions to take at least four points from its remaining
two matches.

With all three teams in Group B so closely matched, it is almost impossible to guess which of them will emerge as opponents for one of the two
New Zealand clubs later this year.

OFC O-League

Group B

Standings – 23.02.08

PL

W.

D.

L.

GF.

GA.

PTS.

1.

Tafea FC (Van)

3

1

1

1

3

3

4

2.

Ba (Fij)

2

1

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0

1

2

2

3

3.

Kossa (Sol)

1

0

1

0

1

1

1