oceaniafootball.com will run a series of profiles looking at each team’s prospects as the countdown continues and we kick off today with a look at hosts the Solomon Islands.
OFC Nations Cup Profiles
Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands is a football-mad nation and news of Honiara’s successful bid to stage the Nations Cup was greeted with a high degree of excitement by the passionate locals.
That enthusiasm towards witnessing a top-class tournament first hand – the Nations Cup is the largest sporting event to ever be held in the country – has grown even more in the weeks leading up to kick off and will be at fever pitch by the blow of the first whistle.
Lawson Tama Stadium is sure to be packed each time the fans’ beloved Bonitos take the field and such fanatical support will be a massive boost to the hosts’ chances. But that fanaticism will also bring with it much expectation and there is a lot of pressure on the shoulders of the home side.
How the squad deal with that will be a vital element to the Bonitos’ chances of success, as will the form of several important figures. The most prominent of these are the talismanic attacking duo of Benjamin Totori and Henry Fa’arodo, both heroes in their homeland and well known to the wider footballing community due to their impressive exploits for overseas-based clubs.
Totori, who has now returned home to star for Koloale, was a key player for New Zealand champions Waitakere United in previous years while Fa’arodo helped Team Wellington finish runners-up in the recently-concluded ASB Premiership.
Other men likely to get the crowd on their feet are wingers James Naka and Joses Nawo while fellow wideman Himson Teleda, 19, has huge promise and could make a name for himself with some strong performances.
Coach Jacob Moli – who will be assisted by former international Gideon Omokirio and highly-qualified French technical advisor Laurent Papillon – can also call on the skills of several fine exponents of the small-sided beach soccer and futsal codes, most notably Jack Wetney and Jeffery Bule.
Bonitos fans will not be able to cheer one of their favourite sons though as the hugely popular Alick Maemae has been left out of the final 23-man squad.
But with such a high degree of skill and flair within the ranks his absence should be well catered for and Papillon, who arrived in the country earlier this month, believes the Bonitos have the ability to make a big impact on their own patch.
“I believe this team can achieve a lot if everyone invests the right attitude, effort and determination,” he says.
“I can see this is a football country and there are a lot of expectations for the national team. The players here are under a lot of pressure and we have to consider that in our preparations.”
Solomon Islands will open their Nations Cup campaign against Papua New Guinea at Lawson Tama Stadium on 2 June before going on to play Fiji (4 June) and defending champions New Zealand (6 June) in their other Group B matches.
The locals will already have pencilled in that final pool match as a must-see as the All Whites have never played an international in the Solomon Islands before and coach Ricki Herbert is bringing to Honiara a full-strength squad, including England-based professionals Ryan Nelsen, Winston Reid, Tommy Smith and Chris Wood, as well as striker Shane Smeltz, the leading goalscorer in the history of the A-League.
The Nations Cup winner will qualify directly for the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 while the four highest-placed teams will go on to contest stage three of World Cup qualifying – a round-robin, home-and-away play-off series concluding in March 2013.

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