Soccer: Warming to a chill in the air

Benjamin Totori and his Waitakere United side face a tough game today. Photo / Janna Dixon

It might seem strange considering where he comes from but Benjamin Totori hopes today dawns cold.

Not brass monkey, freeze-the-crown-jewels-off cold but chilly enough so that his Solomon Islands countrymen from Kossa FC feel like they're more than 3393km from home.

Waitakere United did when they played the first leg of the O-League final in hot and humid conditions in Honiara a fortnight ago. They lost 3-1, sending locals into a frenzy.

It was the first time any team from the Solomons had beaten a New Zealand side and put them within 90 minutes of qualifying for December's Club World Cup in Japan.

"I hope it's cold," Totori says quietly but with an unmistakable grin. "It's a big game for us and it's not going to be easy because we need two goals. I think the weather is going to help.

"Back in the islands we couldn't play our normal game. We defended more because it was so hot. Even I found it hot. I struggled. During the warmup I felt dizzy. But back here we know it won't be like that and I think we will do much better."

To do as well as Totori hopes and return to Japan for a second time, Waitakere need to win by a margin of at least 2-0. That puts the onus on attacking football and there is an expectation Totori will provide a lot of the punch up front.

The diminutive 22-year-old has been doing it all his life.

He was a star of his Honiara high school side, knocked the goals in for fun for his local club side Uncles FC and has followed it up with more for Solomon Island national sides.

In one Olympic qualifier this year, he scored five in one match and finished the tournament as the leading goalscorer.

It was his record that prompted Manawatu coach Shane Rufer, who was also Solomon Islands under-20 coach in 2005, to coerce Totori to return to New Zealand with him to play in the NZFC.

"It was a big decision for me to leave home and to leave school," Totori says. "At first it was really hard. It was a different environment and different food and it was cold in Palmerston North. There were times when I wanted to go back home. But I had made the decision to leave school so I knew I just had to work hard."

He's since scored 43 goals in 50 NZFC games, including 24 for Manawatu in 2006 which saw him secure the league's golden boot by some margin, but he's been less prolific this season in a Waitakere system that often sees him playing out wide.