By HENRY MORABANG
FIREWORKS is expected when archrivals champion Hekari United takes on Gelle Hills in one of the double header Telikom National Soccer League (NSL) matches to be played at Telikom Park in Port Moresby tomorrow.
In the other match in Port Moresby, Inspac Rapatona take on Welgris Highlanders while in Lae Tuguba Laitepo Morobe Kumuls will host visiting Madang Besta Fighters at Lae Football Association (LFA) Park.
The highlight of this weekend’s NSL matches would be the clash of two founding members of NSL competition, the Hills and the United soccer teams.
United has not been performing well lately to see the Hills currently leading the three weeks old NSL competition with six points on goal average while Morobe Kumuls 6, Inspac Rapatona 4, Welgris Higlanders 4, Hekari United 1, Besta Fighters 1 and Madang Fox 1.
Hekari United with hefty backing from Hekari Group of Companies have snatched some of the Hills key players such as Frank Tulem, Tagaia Watson, Lawrence Moses and Lazarus McOwen from Gelle Hills.
Hills on the other hand scooped the signature of some University key players such as Steven Mali, Ila Ilatia jnr, Desmond Waku, Jeremy Masalo, Vincent Auram to team up with skipper Nathan Vincent, Winnie Tau and Naime Kepi.
Hills coach Wesley Waiwai said the movement of player is part and parcel of the game but his boys will be out to give United a good game.
He said he would rely on the experience of skipper Vincent to organize the boys to come up with positive results.
Hills franchise owner Wilfred Vali is optimistic that his charges would provide a good opposition for Hekari United who has yet to register a win.
The National was unable to contact Hekari United coach Jerry Allan on his comment for the upcoming NSL clash. However, the club will certainly miss the services of Godfrey Baniau at the goalmouth. Baniau along with Trevor Ire voluntarily resigned from the club following an off-field incident in Madang two weeks ago.
After the bye last weekend, Hekari would comeback strongly with the Solomon Islander trio striker Abraham Iniga, flanker Jack Samani and backline Jacob Pekau who will feature prominently in this match.
Coach Allen would also rely on Kema Jack, David Muta, Eric Komeng, Enoch Abraham and Brian Tuhiana
In the other match, Rapatona stand-in coach Cafu Clement Anisan said he will announce his side after the telephone conference with his head coach Kisakiu Posman who is currently in Singapore for business trip.
After consulting Posman, he said he would be able to name the team. The only news in the camp is striker Percy Mataio is ruled out for this weekend’s clash against Welgris Highlanders.