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Solomon Islands To Play Brazil!

It's not every day that I'm this excited but today, I'm exceptionally thrilled. According to this report from the Solomon Star, the Bilikiki beach soccer team will play a friendly against Brazil as part of their build up before the Beach Soccer World Cup kicks off. People, the prospect of Solomon Islands playing Brazil, in a game of soccer is just too good to believe. Not since Charles Dempsey immortalized us with the tag, "Brazilians of the Pacific" have we been this close to Brazil. Regardless of the match outcome, the experience of playing alongside this great team will surely be something to remember for a lifetime.

Well anyways, the Bilikiki team did finally reach Brazil and that itself is a story to be told. You can read it all here. I can just see the look on their faces as they stepped off the plane.

Go Solo Go!

Totori Form Impressive

I've really been impressed with Totori's form to date. In every game he's played for Manawatu this season, he's scored in all three of them. To date, Manawatu is the only team to have a 100% record. With Benji's impressive form apparent on Monday in their 4-1 thumping of Otago, I can only imagine it's a sign of things to come.

Here's an interesting statistic. Three of the top 4 teams in the New Zealand Football Championsip have Solomon Island players in them. Manawatu has Totori, Maemae and Sale, Waitakere has Menapi and George Suri, and Canterbury has Batram Suri and Henry Fa'arado. Coeincidence? I think not.

For a round-up of Monday's games, click here.

You can always visit the official NZFC website to get the latest news.

Extra Links:
YoungHeart sets sights on league title
Rufer's men do it again

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Solomon Islands Soccer

While looking up Solomon Islands' current ranking on the FIFA World Rankings, I came across a very impressive site. People, I could not believe how I never knew of its existence until now. Truly, along with the previously mentioned PlanetWorldCup.com, this has to be the next best site - at least where Solomon Islands soccer is concerned.

Well, before that, let's look at where we stand. Currently, we're on the 156th spot. That's a few place below New Zealand and Fiji who are both placed 131 and 149 respectively. Hang on, didn't we beat Fiji in the recent 2006 Qualifying Series? Yes we did. But that was 2 years ago. And before that, let's face it, we weren't doing that well compared to the other Pacific countries like Fiji and Tahiti. Don't believe me? Just wait 'till you see the statistics.

Okay, let's talk a bit about the FIFA Rankings. Basically, the FIFA Ranking system has been devised in such a way that it rewards teams who play regular internationals and get good results in the process. It's actually more complicated than that but that's my summary of it all. Solomon Islands who did not play a single international since losing to Australia 2-1 in 2005 dropped a few places while Fiji managed to get two wins against India and move ahead a few places. See where I'm getting at? If we could've played one game, just one, a win would have put us ahead of Fiji. What's the lesson here? It doesn't hurt to play at least once a year. Sure it costs money and time, but we've got SIFF and I'm sure they could work something out. Perhaps an annual international friendly with neighbours PNG or Vanuatu. Seriously, they need the games as much as we do.

Now leaving the FIFA Rankings behind, you might be surprised to hear that there is an alternative world ranking system called the World Football Elo Ratings. Honestly, I don't know what to make of it but I understand it's a bit less complicated than the FIFA system of calculation. I won't go into the details but basically, it (both the FIFA and Elo system) takes into account all the factors like who you're playing against, where you're playing, whether it's a friendly or a competition, etc. along with the actual results from the game. All these variables are put into a special formula and what comes out of it determines whether points are added or subtracted from your previous points total. What really separates these two systems is that FIFA's rankings are representative of the teams' performance over 8 years whereas Elo's rankings are more representative of the teams' performance over the last 30 games. So which one is better? I can't really say. If you want to see which teams are currently doing well, look at Elo. If you want to see where they truly stand, look at FIFA's.

In case you're wondering about the Elo rankings, we're ranked 107, just one place above Fiji.

Now back to the site that I'm so impressed with. Actually, there's more than one but that one site lead me to the other sites so credit where credit's due. The site I'm talking about is none other than EloRatings.net. I think that was pretty obvious. Well, what's so special about it? Here's why: All of Solomon Islands' games listed in chronological order from our first game to our last game. For a more in-depth guide, check this out at rsssf.com. And finally, check out World-Results.net to see every tournament covered. Awesome don't you think?

PS. My knowledge on the FIFA and Elo ranking systems are limited at best. They're probably too complicated for me to understand fully so take all I've said regarding both of them with a grain of salt.

Totori Strike Shocks Auckland

Solomon international, Benjamin Totori was on target for the second time in as many games as his 68th minute strike lifted Manawatu to a shock 1-0 win over defending champions, Auckland. The win leaves Manawatu with a perfect record while Auckland, who will be representing Oceania in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, is still without a win. In other matches, Menapi's Waitakere held on to beat Suri's Canterbury 2-1.

Solomon Islanders who featured during the weekend are:
YoungHeart Manawatu: Benjamin Totori, Alick Maemae
Waitakere United: George Suri, Commins Menapi
Canterbury United: Henry Fa'arodo, Batram Suri

Stanley Waita and Godwin Bebeu did not play for Waikato FC.

Standings after Round 2:
Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Waitakere United 2 2 0 0 5 2 +3 6
YoungHeart Manawatu 2 2 0 0 3 1 +2 6
Canterbury United 2 1 0 1 2 2 0 3
Otago United 2 0 2 0 3 3 0 2
Auckland United 2 0 1 1 2 3 -1 1
Hawks Bay United 2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Team Wellington 2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Waikato FC 2 0 1 1 2 4 -2 1

Round 2 Results:
YoungHeart Manawatu 1-0 Auckland United
Waitakere United 2-1 Canterbury United
Hawkes Bay United 0-0 Team Wellington
Otago United 1-1 Waikato FC

Further links:
Official NZFC website
NZFC Fixtures
NZFC Results

Bilikiki Flies To Brazil

The Bilikiki Beach Soccer appeal has provided a much needed boost in morale and resources this morning when a Member of Parliament for West New Georgia and Vona Vona constituency, the Honorable Peter Boyers, handed over a cheque for $20,000 to SIFF General Secretary Eddie Ngava.

Read the full article here...

Some interesting snippets from the article:

Coincidentally, `Bilikiki' is the local name of a common bird in the Roviana dialect that is found in many parts of the country particularly on the beaches.

Hon. Boyer's says his donation is fitting because the name Bilikiki is from his constituency.
It also has a special dance which is popular in the Western part of the country and adopted by other Solomon Islanders when performing local dances overseas.

The Bilikiki Beach soccer team departed for Brazil and the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup yesterday.

The team is expected to engage in a couple of friendly matches with local teams and will travel to the competition venue couple of days before the tournament starts.

The team was in camp at the SIFF Academy this week and were training twice a day at the improvised beach court at Ranadi.

The Bilikiki played against a team from the Mataniko river mouth in the second friendly match recording a win but that is unlikely to represent the standard the Bilikiki will encounter at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Bilikiki Confidence High

The Bilikiki Beach Soccer team is heading off to Brazil, carrying the hopes of the Oceania to the FIFA World Competition. The players have vowed to give their best shot in Rio when they take on their opponents. As Coach Vivian Wickham says, "We have equal number of legs and see no reason why our opponents are any different to us." That's the spirit. Good luck to the boys.

Read the full article here...

Further links:
Qualification an inspiration for Bilikiki

The Road To South Africa

After reviewing Solomon Island's achievements in their 2006 World Cup campaign, it's now time to look forward to the future. As much as I enjoy reminiscing about 2004, 2 years have already passed and it would be naive to judge ourselves based on what happened in one particular tournament. If we're truly as good a team as we Solomon Islanders tend to believe, then the upcoming Nation's Cup should prove that.

Just to clear things up, the Nations Cup has been incorporated into the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stages. And, today we're going to take a look at that.

Once again, the football website planetworldcup.com, and in particular, columnist Paul Marcuccitti has covered this in detail. I must say, given Australia's departure from the Oceania Football Confederation, it's good to see an independent website still taking an interest in what goes down in this small region. Major props to Paul and planetworldcup.com.

Here are the links:
From FIFA's official website, the 2010 format is covered briefly:
Oceania alters format for FIFA World Cup qualifiers

Form planetworldcup.com, Paul Marcuccitti covers the format in great detail and gives a few of his opinions on the whole thing:
Wrap-Up: Oceania qualification series

Relive The Glory Of 2004

2004 was a historic year for the Solomon Islands. Ask any self respecting Solomon Islander about the significance of 2004 and I'm sure they'll tell you. Here's a hint. It had something to do with our victory over Australia in the last game of Stage 2 of the 2006 Oceania World Cup qualifiers. Did I say victory? Sure, the final score was 2-2 but you could've been forgiven for thinking we had won the World Cup. Celebrations erupted on the field and back home in scenes reminiscent of Australia's win over Uruguay that would follow a year later. On that historic night, we were all proud to be Solomon Islanders.

The result lifted the status of the small island nation. "A football team raising the spirits of a nation". It was one hell of a story.

I have been searching the web for coverage on this event and found two really good sites.

One is FIFA's very own 2006 FIFA World Cup site. It's got everything about everything regarding the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers right up to the Final itself. Included in there are news reports on all of Solomon Island's matches.
Link: FIFA.com

The other one is a gem. It's basically all down to Paul Marcuccitti. Paul, a columnist for the football website planetworldcup.com covered all the games during stage 2 of the Oceania qualifying stages in Australia. Over the course of the matches, he took a fancy to the Solomon national team. Who wouldn't? We were virtually playing up to our nickname, "The Brazilians of the Pacific"! He even went as far as to wearing the national team colours, blue, green and yellow to all the games. Fact! This is truly a must read for all the die-hard fans out there.
Link: planetworldcup.com

More images:

Coach Talks About Bilikiki's Chances In Brazil

Solomon Islands Bilikiki coach and former international defender Viv Wickham will help lead his team into their first foray into a FIFA world event alongside Eddie Omokirio.

The eyes of the world will be watching the Melanesian side with interest as they take on Portugal, Cameroon and Uruguay. Oceania Football Confederation Media Officer Gordon Glen Watson caught up with Viv Wickham and asked him about Bilikiki's chances in Brazil next month...

Read the full interview here:
Exclusive Interview - Bilikiki Coach Viv Wickham

Totori And Menapi On Target

Benjamin Totori and Commins Menapi both got their names on the score sheet to help their team win in the first round of the New Zealand Football Championship. Totori scored the 89th winner to complete YoungHeart Manawatu's comeback from a goal down against Wellington, Manawatu wining 1-2 in the end. Menapi meanwhile scored on debut for Waitakere United as they thumped Waikato 1-3.

Other Solomon Islanders to feature in the weekend action include Henry Fa'arodo and Batram Suri for Canterbury United, Nelson Sale and Alick Maemae for YoungHeart Manawatu, Stanley Waita for Waikato FC, and George Suri for Waitakere United.

YoungHeart Manawatu will take on current title holders Auckland United in their next game while Menapi's Waitakere United face off against Suri's Canterbury United next week.

Standings after Round 1:
Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Waitakere United 1 1 0 0 3 1 +2 3
Canterbury United 1 1 0 0 2 1 +1 3
YoungHeart Manawatu 1 1 0 0 2 1 +1 3
Auckland United 1 0 1 0 2 2 0 1
Otago United 1 0 1 0 2 2 0 1
Waikato FC 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
Hawkes Bay United 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
Team Wellington 1 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0

Round 1 Results:
Canterbury United 2-1 Hawkes Bay United
Auckland United 2-2 Otago United
Team Wellington 1-2 YoungHeart Manawatu
Waikato FC 1-3 Waitakere United

Round 2 Fixtures:
YoungHeart Manawatu vs Auckland United
Waitakere United vs Canterbury United
Otago United vs Waikato FC
Hawkes Bay United vs Team Wellington

Further links:
Official NZFC website
NZFC Fixtures
Solomons pair spark victory

A Look At The 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The Solomon Island's 6-2 victory over Vanuatu in the final of the Oceania Football Confederation Beach Soccer Tournament created history. Not only did it give them a place in the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Brazil, but it also made them the first team other than Australia and New Zealand to qualify for a FIFA event from the OFC. Read all about it here: Bilikiki boys reach Brazil

The 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup will take place in Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from November 2 - November 12. 16 teams will be split into 4 groups of 4 with the Top-2 from each group advancing to the knock-out phase.

(Information on host nation, Brazil)
(History of Beach Soccer)
(Information on Beach Soccer)
(Information on FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup)

The teams taking part include: From Europe: Spain, Portugal, Poland and Italy; From South America: Uruguay, Argentina; From North America, Central America and the Carribbean Region: USA and Canada; From Asia: Bahrain, Japan and Iran; From Africa: Cameroon, Nigeria; From Oceania: Solomon Islands; And defending champions, France and Hosts, Brazil.
(Click here to see how they all qualified)
(Click here to see group standings and schedules)

Solomon Islands are in Group C which also includes Cameroon, Portugal and Uruguay. They will first play Cameroon, then Uruguay, then finally Portugal. Both Portugal and Uruguay will be extremely strong. After Brazil, Portugal and Uruguay are the next most successful teams in the Beach Soccer World Cup. Portugal, last year's runner-up have been in 4 finals, and is the only team to have lifted the World Championship trophy besides Brazil and France, when they won in 2001. Uruguay meanwhile has appeared in 2 finals and were third-place winners 3 times. Cameroon are not to be taken lightly considering they're the top qualifier from Africa. The Bilikiki Beach Boys will have to play out of their skin if they're to make it past the group stages. Their first game against Cameroon presents their biggest opportunity to shine.
(Click here to see a profile of Cameroon)
(Click here to see a profile of Uruguay)
(Click here to see a profile of Portugal)

More photos from the qualifiers:

About GO SOLO GO!

Welcome to GO SOLO GO! Still work in progress, this blog is all about providing information on news relating to Solomon Islands soccer. It's important to mention that the purpose of this blog is not to compete in any way with other sites. I'm simply trying to fill a gap I thought was missing on other websites. Many of us want information about Solomon Islands soccer in a fast and easy way and but don't have the patience to read and search the numerous sites on the web. This is what GO SOLO GO! is here for.

If you'd like to give some feedback and suggestions on what YOU are missing or would like to see on GO SOLO GO! send an email to: