THE National men’s football team are scheduled to have their final training session today at Lawson Tama ahead of the decisive match with Papua New Guinea on Friday.
Head coach Felipe Vega-Arango told Star Sports yesterday the atmosphere in the camp is great and the players are itching to take the pitch in front of the home crowd.
“The atmosphere is positive, I am happy, the boys are happy and we are determined to get a good result,” he said.
Many local football fanatics were not happy with the lack of cutting edge in the attacking half of the pitch after the mixed results of the two international friendlies with Fiji.
The Spaniard admitted his boy’s lack of finishing instinct but said they are working tirelessly in training over the two weeks.
“The response from the boys is always positive because they want to learn.
“In Fiji we don’t get the result everybody expects but like I said before we left, the result doesn’t matter in a friendly.
“Rather the most important part is to see the chemistry of the team and how we are responding in an international game.
“We know where we have to work after those two games so we did a lot of finishing this week,” he added.
He stressed as a coach you get all kinds of feedback both positive and negative.
“But I am always wanted to be positive and I am looking forward to the big match on Friday (tomorrow),” he stated.
Vega-Arango added that playing at home is always difficult due to the massive pressure from the home crowd’s expectation for a positive result.
Solomon Islands will play PNG in the OFC third stage of the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers at Lawson Tama tomorrow at 3pm.
By SIMON ABANA
