No regrets for Hekari after Club World Cup exit
Reuters - Wednesday 08 December 2010, 23:45
ABU DHABI - Oceania champions Hekari
United were not prepared to renounce their attacking
instincts, their coach said, after the Papua New Guinean club
crashed out of the first round of the Club World Cup.
Hekari lasted no more than one match as they were beaten
3-0 by hosts al-Wahda, the United Arab Emirates champions, in
the tournament opener on Wednesday night.
"I believe attack is a defensive weapon," said coach Tommy
Mana, one of several Solomon Islanders involved in the Port
Moresby side, as he defended his team's commitment to going
forward.
He said Hekari, a team of part-timers founded only seven
years ago, had suffered lapses in concentration that allowed
al-Wahda to settle the match with two goals in the five
minutes prior to halftime.
"It happened in just five minutes. Our plan was to score
early... We lost our possession," Mana told the post-match
news conference.
"We just slipped up in those five minutes. When you make
errors, that's it," added Mana, whose team conceded a third
goal in the 71st.
Hekari created the first clear chance of the match when,
at a corner in the sixth minute, defender Pita Bolatoga, one
of several Fijians in the side, headed at goal only for the
ball to be cleared off the line.
In the end, though, they only forced home goalkeeper Adel
al-Hosani into one serious save in the 90 minutes.
Mana credited al-Wahda with greater composure than his
team although Hekari failed to profit from the nerves that
affected the home side for the opening half hour.
HOME FEARS
Al-Wahda were fearful of emulating al-Ahli, who lost last
year's opening match to New Zealand's Auckland City and were
criticised by organisers for the failure. The only
well-attended matches in 2009 after that were the two played
by winners Barcelona.
The team winning the opener ensure they play twice more, a
quarter-final followed by a semi-final or fifth place play-off.
Al-Wahda's Austrian coach Josef Hickersberger said:
"Hekari are a good team. Of course, they don't have the
experience like our Brazilian players or UAE internationals,
but they are very physical, very fit and they fought to the
final whistle."
That perseverance has helped Hekari reach great heights in
a short time, becoming champions four times in a row of the
newly-created PNG National Soccer League before winning the
Oceania League after two failed attempts.
Club owner John Kapi Natto, who went on a recruiting drive
to Fiji and the Solomon Islands, said the club lived by their
motto of "No pain, no gain".
"It is a belief that nothing comes easy in life and if you
want to achieve something, you have to accept pain and hard
work," he said.
"Pain through sacrificing your time whole heartedly and
cutting out bad habits that might hinder you to achieve the
results you want to see."