National women’s train-on team start training

THE national women’s football train-on squad kicked off a month-long training programme yesterday at Port Moresby’s Papua New Guinea Football Stadium and Lae Football Association (LFA) Park.
Northern Conference players will be training under coaches Susan Watpore, Rachel Wadunah and Edna Thomas while those based in Port Moresby will be overseen by Frederica Sakette and Miriam Lanta.
PNG Football Association general secretary Pius Letenge told The National that the coaches would roll out the programme for the 80-man squad until their international head coach arrived next month.
“We have a similar programme for the women’s and men’s squads, so players from both squads in Lae and Port Moresby will be using that in the coming weeks,” he said.
“We will announce the identity of our international coach soon.
“But the Port Moresby-based players met with women’s football manager Margaret Aka on Saturday and they were briefed on the training.
“A similar arrangement for the training programme for the Northern Conference players will be made.”
This will be the first training programme for the squad since the announcement of the 80 women in May.
Meanwhile, Letenge said the association was still awaiting a response from the Oceania Football Confederation on their expression of interest to host the Women’s Nations Cup next year.
“We have submitted our bid to host the Cup which is the qualifying event for the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“Apart from Vanuatu, PNG has the required facilities to the host the tournament.”