Coach happy despite defeat

 By HENRY MORABANG

ORO coach Joe Turia is confident his young charges will lift during the 2014 National Soccer League season. 

With less than four days before the January 11 kick-off, Turia and his assistant Mathew Witu have a mountain to climb in preparing their side for the new season.

After their 2-1 friendly loss to the Eastern Stars on Saturday, Turia said he needed a back-up striker, a defensive midfielder and a central defender.

“I need to find these three players or work on some players to support the team as they go through the hectic season,” he said.

The former international said his charges had youth but lacked NSL experience.

Striker Gari Moka is the only seasoned campaigner, while Vincent Lam, former Madang Fox and the former Eastern Stars Theo Sergio will be the only other experienced players supporting Moka.

Oro will be an unknown team and will need much work as the season goes by.

Turia said he hoped to use the transfer window to rope in three more players for the positions he was looking for players so his team could be more competitive in the second half of the season.

Oro franchise owner Dudley Yariyari said his team used the pre- warm-up to work out their combinations.

“We are planning for a second friendly on Tuesday against Stars, and hopefully we can reverse the score-line,” he said.

Yariyari said he was pleased with the results under Turia and Witu, and hopefully the tide could change in the second hit-out tomorrow. 

The Stars and Oro want the much-needed match practice before the NSL opening match on Saturday. 

Eastern Stars franchise owner Joseph Ealedona was happy with the way his boys played. 

It was a well coordinated approach in attack and defence, he said.

The match was played in front of a good Port Moresby soccer crowd.

The Huawei-sponsored team came from behind to win the match. 

They scored through Richard Sios, who made a welcome return to top football after a decade as youth representative player and veteran campaigner and former Port Moresby skipper Michael Foster, while Charles Paranda scored for Oro 10 minutes into the game.