Just three months after starting in the
local league, Whangarei's FC Pasifica
soccer club won the plate final in a
knockout tournament. Club officials are delighted with the
achievement and have promised more
fireworks as the local league progresses. The team beat Central Brown 4-2 on
penalty kicks in the final after accounting for Kamo 3-1 in the semi-
final. The knockout tournament was
organised within the local league and
was played over the last three
weekends. FC Pasifica are currently on 7th spot
out of 10 teams in the second division
and coach/player Mahesh Prasad says
the aim is to grab third spot. The club now has more than 40
members comprising players and
officials from Fiji, South Africa and
Thailand. It prides itself in being the first
soccer team in Northland with the bulk
of players from Fiji, where soccer is the
second major sport behind rugby. ``We'll stay in the second division
which I think is really entertaining.
We've also got some good players who
can play at a higher level,'' Prasad said. He said fitness was okay and the
players were putting in extra effort to
win every weekend. The competition ends in September. FC Pasifica was formed five years
after five soccer enthusiasts from
Fiji began training with a view to
forming a fully-fledged club in years to
come. That idea came to fruition late last
year when FC Pasifica approached FC
Whangarei to join the local league. Mr Prasad said FC Pasifica was
indebted to FC Whangarei for giving
them an opportunity to compete with
other teams and for providing facilities
at Morningside School. He said the club was also looking at
forming a women's team but was
hampered by lack of finance. The team had been training on
Sundays and Thursdays and competing
on Saturdays.
