Solomon Islands' national futsal team, Kurukuru, which claimed the title of Oceania champions in 2008, is set to play a RAMSI team in a friendly fundraising match this Monday evening at Honiara's Multipurpose Hall.

Solomon Islands' national futsal team, Kurukuru, which claimed the title of Oceania champions in 2008, is set to play a RAMSI team in a friendly fundraising match this Monday evening at Honiara's Multipurpose Hall.

The five-a-side futsal (indoor soccer) match, is a one-off match to help raise funds for equipment and uniforms to support the Kurukuru team's upcoming trip to the Futsal Confederations Cup next month.

As part of the friendly nature of the match, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has committed to donating SB500 for each goal scored by Kurukuru against RAMSI, with this contribution set to double to a maximum of SB10,000 should the Kurukuru side score 10 or more goals.

The Kurukuru squad is the Oceania representative at the Futsal Confederations Cup and will be travelling to Libya next month to compete against Guatemala, Iran, Spain, Uruguay and host nation, Libya.

While the Kurukuru squad has a wealth of experience - and a string of major victories - to its name, this will be the first official match for the newly-formed RAMSI futsal side, which includes police and military representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Tuvalu.

Solomon Islands' Kurukuru captain, Elliot Ragomo, said that although the teams were somewhat different in terms of levels of experience, the Kurukuru team was not taking anything for granted.

"I can assure you that we will give this match our all and will fight to earn every goal," said Mr Ragomo. "And given the incentive - that the more goals we score, the more RAMSI will contribute for equipment - we will be playing as hard as we can."

Captain-Coach of the RAMSI team, Kurt Greenwood of RAMSI's Combined Task Force, said that while he was reluctant to talk his team up too heavily given the quality of their opposition, he still believes the RAMSI side will put up a good fight.

"Solomon Islands is a nation that takes its soccer very seriously," explained Mr Greenwood. "There's no doubt we're going into this match as strong underdogs, but I know the team is focused to do our respective Pacific nations proud against the might of Kurukuru."


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Soccer fans are encouraged to come down to support either side. The details:

Solomon Islands Kurukuru vs RAMSI futsal match
Where: Multipurpose Hall, Honiara - next to Lawson Tama Stadium
When: 5:00pm kick-off.
How much: Entry is free.