The Solomon Islands National U19 squad might not have won the Oceania U20 Championship but they did brought back some pride returning home with two top awards, the OFC Best and Fair Play Award and the Golden Boot Award.
The tournament’s Golden Ball was won by Solomon Islands midfielder Atkin Kaua who bagged five goals as he and his team-mates also picked up the OFC Fair Play Award.
Winning the Fair Play award does not come as a surprise to the Mamulas who have proven to be a team who does display the fair play attitude in all matches.
Despite not having a lot of goals in every match, the Mamula had one man who defied the odd, Atkin Kaua a Solomon Islands young talent who currently studies in New Zealand.
He scored a hatrick against American Samoa, one against New Caledonia and his final against hosts, Fiji on Saturday.
The Mamula’s finishes fourth in tally behind champions Fiji, second by Vanuatu and then New Caledonia.
This was followed by Papua New Guinea and then American Samoa finishing at the bottom of the table.
The country’s U19 squad arrived home on Sunday.
By CARLOS ARUAFU
