AS tough as the 1-2 loss to Vanuatu United in the OFC Pro League semi-final play-off was hard to take for Extra Bula FC, the team still has a lot to pat themselves on the back for.
This was the gist of head coach Stéphane Auvray’s words in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday, as he shared how the team performed despite minimal expectations.
“When we started, obviously nobody was expecting us to finish in the top three, which we did so this was really an accomplishment for the season,” Auvray reflected.
Bula FC was established last year as Fiji’s team in the Pacific’s first professional football league, and had fielded prominent football stars such as Christopher Wasasala, Gabirieli Matanisiga, Nabil Begg and Roy Krishna within its ranks, included overseas players such as Scott Wara, Adam Supyk, Didier Desperez and young talents such as Sterling Vasconcellos and Maikah Dau.
The team’s results varied with every round, however the consistency within the team grew with each opponent faced.
It finished five rounds of competition on the leaders table, as part of the top four teams in the league’s standings and then fell from grace into the semi-final playoff when it lost all matches in the leaders table.
“We were able to play in the top group and it was important for us to perform and show that we could match them in terms of playing style and for that game, I really told the players ‘Listen, give everything you have and try to win the game’,” Auvray recalled.
“Unfortunately, it did not happen but a lot of good things.”
