Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Sport: New look to Samoa team for Under 17 football champs

Posted at 23:24 on 16 January, 2013 UTC

It will be a wide-eyed Samoan team which takes the field in next week’s Oceania Under 17 Preliminary tournament in Apia.

The hosts will be competing against American Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga for the final berth in April’s Oceania Under 17 Championships in Vanuatu.

The youngest member of the Samoan squad is just 14 years old and the team’s Technical Advisor, former senior men’s coach Tunor Lui, says most are still very new to the game.

“All our players this is the first time they have played any international tournaments so I think that home ground will be an advantage for us, it will”

“make them feel a little more comfortable playing international matches. A lot of these players from the grassroots level - they have missed most of that - they just started trying football three or four years ago.”

Tunor Lui says the squad has been playing friendlies twice a week during the past month in order to prepare for the tournament.