Manu Samoa winger Sinoti Sinoti has dedicated their victory over Germany to the country and the children of the Samoa Victim Support Group.

The number 11 in the Manu Samoa team is the son of Leotele and Tunoa Sinoti from the villages of Pata Falelatai and Manono.

The week-long program of visiting different communities in Samoa in the lead-up to yesterday’s match triggered a sense of nationalism in him and his team-mates. 

“This is our way of giving back to the community and what we do is nothing compared to what the people go through every day in Samoa, the struggle and I know everyone here understands the hardship that I am talking about. Life is hard here and seeing those just smiles for a bit because we won is worth more than anything,” he told Samoa Observer.

The 32-year-old revealed that holding and seeing the children of the Samoa Victim Support Group had a big impact on him. 

“Everything that we have done and seen in the past few days from meeting with the old boys, seeing the children of the Samoa Victim Support Group, visiting the schools and seeing the Head of State. What touched my heart the most was seeing those children in the Samoa Victim Support, which was the best event for me.”

He said he was grateful for the support that the ordinary people showed during their week-long program in Samoa. 

“Just thank you Samoa for having our team and for supporting us. Obviously it has not been easy considering our many loses in the P.N.C. But thank you for standing behind us 100 per cent and hopefully we could make the country proud by being fully qualified for the World Cup.”

Playing at Apia Park in front of the home crowd was also a new experience for him and to win after 10 losses was special. But the job is not done yet with the return match in a fortnight in Germany.

“We are happy to get the win; I hope that we were able to put a few smiles on the countries faces. It is only half job done now so now we have to wait until we get to Germany so that we will be able to get the job done and be qualified for the World Cup.”

He also thanked the German team for the game and said there were some areas of the match that they need to work on before the return game. 

“The Germans tested us in areas that we needed to improve (so) credit to them. We obviously need to go back to the drawing board while rested just to see what we need to work on. Both teams need working on and we can never stop learning and working.”