National team set for Wellington tour

By Deidre Fanene 22 March 2016, 12:00AM

The Samoa national soccer team is prepared for their next mission.

Today, the team leaves for New Zealand for a three week tour where they will be playing three clubs from there.

During the press conference National Team Coach, Scott Easthope, said the objective of the tour is for the team to get a look at the players and the group of players that they are looking at for selection of the Nation’s Cup team in May.

“It’s going to expose these players to a level that’s a lot higher than the game so we can get them here in Samoa,” he said.

“As you can imagine them being the best players that we have to select from here in Samoa it’s hard to get other players to play them here that are going to test them to the level that we need them tested.

“That is part of the idea behind the tour as well and we are also looking to introduce the players to a new Coach and a new system of play and training.

“I’ll be looking to expose those players to my environment that might be slightly different to what they have been expose to in the past and that will get an idea to what’s been required before the nation’s cup when we travelled and when we get ready for game play so that is the idea behind the tour.”

Mr. Easthope also said that during the tour the team will go up against some of the clubs in Wellington and in Auckland as well.

“We’ve got some interesting things happening over in New Zealand where we are trying to be a little bit different with the preparations for the nation’s cup,” he said.

“We do have some friendly fixtures in Wellington to start with three friendly fixtures there against Centrally Clubs Sides in Wellington which is the top league in Wellington.

“We will be playing Lower Hutt City, Stop Out and Western Suburbs all three of those teams are also in the areas of Wellington that has big Samoan Communities so that was a little bit of the part of how we put the tour together as well.

“So after the friendly fixtures a group of the players will also move up to Auckland where they will go into the O League with Kiwi FC and they will get three further fixtures as a minimum and pool play against really tough opposition there as well.”

By Deidre Fanene 22 March 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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