Team revising training schedule to help them adapt to humid conditions

By ROBINSON LEKA
PORT Moresby City are looking to revise their match preparation and training schedule to help them adapt to the humidity of the nation’s capital, says coach Frederica Sakette.
“My players had a reasonably good opening match, considering the heat and time that we played,” she told The National after their 3-0 win over National Capital District (NCD) at Papua New Guinea Football Stadium on Saturday.
The City-NCD fixture, which kicked off at 11am, was the first of three Southern Conference matches in round one of the Women’s National Soccer League.
“The match times don’t exactly correspond with the times that we train, so we will have to revise our preparation and training schedule to replicate the match conditions.
“But I’m happy with the scoreline and I congratulate our opponents who have a good number of new faces but they’ve shown a lot of fight in their game.
“I am confident that we will be very competitive, given that most of my players are from the Port Moresby Soccer Association.
“I’m looking at how we can improve our style of play as the season progresses.
“We want to be competitive and prove that we have players who are good enough for the national team.” Meanwhile, after their 3-0 win over Port Moresby Academy, Genesis coach Percy Mataio said the competition was crucial for women to play regular football at the highest level in the country.
“The expectations for all 14 teams are high, knowing that there’s only two playoff spots on offer for each conference (northern and southern),” he said.