Wawen lures 30 teams in off-season soccer

Sports

By LARRY ANDREW
THE 2016 Wawens Cup underway at the Lae Football Association Park in Lae has lured more than 30 teams, making it the biggest off-season soccer tournament in the province.
The tournament is the brainchild of Andrew Namuesh and is in its third year.
He said the theme for the tournament was “soccer for raw talent.”
The tournament is sponsored by Punjas (PNG) and the organisers have arranged the senior men’s teams into seven pools, four women’s pools and in the Under-16s (boys and girls) there are four pools of four teams each.
According to tournament director Alex Toki, Chimbu and Kainantu could not make the tournament because their affiliation fees were not paid on time.
Toki said there were 39 men’s teams, 16 women’s teams and 18 U16 sides.
“All the teams are happy and we are looking forward to end the tournament with the finals on Sunday,” Toki said. “In respect of the teams from outside the city limits like upper Nabak, lower Nabak (Hobu) in Nawaeb district and Gabensis travelling in for the tournament, we thought it best to extend the tournament.”
He said teams who were putting on strong performances in their respective pools were Papsii from Unitech made up of former national soccer league players, defending champions Eriku Wawen’s Blue, Pascol, Busu Yarangs, West Green, Creeds, Sentas and Oro Wawens.
The only outside team participating in the tournament, Oro Wawens, has two wins and leads the pool H.