New Zealand the team to beat
By WENDY KATUSELE
PAPUA New Guinea’s biggest obstacle
at next month’s women regional soccer qualifier is beating
favourites New Zealand.
That is the biggest task Papua New Guinea Football Association’s
technical director and Brazillian coach Marcos Gusmao has in the
remaining weeks leading up the April 9-13 championships to be
staged at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae.
Currently Gusmao is in Port Moresby assessing capital city based
players and will be heading back to Lae to join the rest of the
team who are at the moment in camp in Lae.
PNGFA president David Chung said in an interview with The National
said the games will be played on a round robin basis with PNG’s
lining up against the Solomon Islands on April 9 and they take on
Tonga on April 11 with a must win from these two countries with
New Zealand on April 13.
Samoa however will not be participating following a ban from
Oceania Football Confederation.
“We need to win our two openers with big margins and to stay
intact with New Zealand are definitely favorites,” Chung said.
The winner of qualifier automatically qualifies for the world cup
in China on Sept 10-30.
With the local crowd an advantage all the national team has to do
is stay on the winning note and that’s up Gusmao to come up with
the formula.
Chung said New Zealand had a lot of determination because of their
wealth of experience and exposure that has made them a strong side
and they will be hard to beat but our girls will have to show face
too.
