Moving On
Is it time to leave this club?
Moving On
The good news comes first. We beat Ilaoa and To’omata.
It was close. Chris Fa’amoana scored in the 44th minute after a tight, defensive first half.
Roy Ledoux, our unheralded left winger, scored a rare goal in the 52nd minute, after which Fa’amoana added his second in the 66th. I thought we’d be able to coast to the finish line.
Not quite. Takai Faaoga finally broke through our defense in the 80th minute, making the score 3-1.
And then, right when we thought it was over, Raynel Krishna (what a great last name) scored in the 4th minute of added time, making it 3-2.
They didn’t touch the ball again, thankfully. But it really made me sweat.
The Bad News
And now, of course, comes the bad news.
We had a full week between the Ilaoa and To’omata match and our next match against Taputimu Youth.
Taputimu Youth aren’t a good team by any stretch of the imagination. We beat them 4-1 in our first encounter with them, and manhandled them 6-1 in the next to last friendly we played before the season started.
They’re in 8th place and don’t show any signs of competing this season.
But, well, we lost.
It was a close lost — but, then again, all of our losses have been close. We had a 2.10 xG to their 0.61, had 9 shots on target to their 2, and had 61% of the possession.
Petuliki Tualaulelei scored a goal in the 24th minute, though, after 34-year-old (and soon to be retiring) left back Liatama Amisone was too slow to get back to his defensive position.
And, well, we didn’t really come close to scoring.
Toa Maile did his best. Chris Fa’amoana, on the other hand, played very poorly, forcing me to bring Petu Pouli on at halftime.
It didn’t matter what I did. I shouted, I screamed, I cajoled, I swore — and we still couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net.
The End?
The problem is that we can’t overcome this deficit.
I suppose it’s mathematically possible. We’re only 6 points behind Ilaoa and To’omata with 7 matches left. We’re playing against the worst teams in the league.
But so are they.
Our goal differential is a mere 19 compared to their 24. In other words, for us to have a realistic chance, we would either have to blow our opposition out (something we haven’t done this season), or we would have to hope that they lost 3 out of 7.
It’s not going to happen: that much I know.
Now, I’m not in any danger of losing this job. While all of this was happening, PanSa East FC Chairman Nofomuli Scanlan stepped down. He was replaced by Samaraki Ah Sam, who is suddenly more than happy if we finish in the top half.
But you know my ambition. I’m not here to finish in the top half.
I need to win the Oceania Champions League, not battle for supremacy in American Samoa for years on end.
And so we’ll see what happens. If there was ever a time to jump to a new team in Oceania, it would be now.