By CHARLIE DUMAVI
AFTER losing a shot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s world Cup, PNG Women’s National Football team head coach Spencer Prior said, better preparation and investment beyond the region is key to compete in international level.
PNG women’s team have received a historical and decorated welcome home celebration after winning the OFC women’s championship in August 2022. However, the stories have turned quickly into an ugly scar that is now left in PNG’s football history in just less than a year.
Coach Prior who was brought in as replacement for OFC wining Coach Nicola Demaine was given only four months to prepare the team to secure a spot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s world cup – an unreal time frame.
Prior said the team try to prepare for just four months to face an opponent that have preparing to play a 90 minutes game for over four years.
This has shown in the results that saw the OFC women’s champions suffering in four consecutive defeats before their FIFA qualifying match against Panama.
Unfortunately, Panama made through and they silently returned home with a shuttered dream – a dream of realizing their first ever FIFA women’s world cup appearance.
PNG who ranked second after New Zealand in the OFC FIFA ranking tables made their first lose against the sixth placed ranked Solomon Islands 3-0, followed by a forfeit to Australia’s junior Matildas in the four nations playoff. PNG was again trashed twice 5-0 and 9-0 by Philippines in a two series trial match.
The match against Philippines was the first ever international friendly one that PNG National Women’s football team has played outside of OFC since 2017 prior to the actual world cup qualifying match defeat of 2-0 to Panama and a 5-0 sent home by Chinese Taipei.
Coach Prior said there is much to do to improve and PNG need to start playing teams out of Oceania and Pacific to compete in the high-performance football level thus advancing into the FIFA women’s world Cup.
“What it actually means to be (playing) high performance football and what it takes to get to the next stage, for sure they (PNG) going to beat Fiji and win the Oceania Championship. It’s no use just wining Pacific games. There’s no use we’re just wining Oceania Championships. We got to start to be competing against teams from Asia; you got to play teams from outside your region if you want to get to the next stage which is qualifying for the world cup. You got to look beyond the region,” Prior said.
He said PNG lost to Philippines in a friendly match leading up to the actual world cup qualifying match against Panama. Philippines trial match was the only team outside of Oceania region that PNG played since 2017.
He said it was the players’ effort that got the team all the way to represent Oceania in the world cup playoff.
“I can’t take anything away from the players’ effort. I want the focus to be on how incredible they were.”
Prior added that the team will now focus on high performance that includes getting the players to train in best facilities and also prepare in advance for big games in the future.
Moreover, PNG captain Rayleen Bauelua said it was a though journey for the team but she is proud of the effort and hope the country is also proud too.
She said the ladies have tasted the international football and will be working really hard to come back and do better the next time.
“We’ve had a taste of this and we want more, so we are going to work really hard on that, come the next round to make sure we win. I hope that you guys (PNG fans) are proud of us,” Bauelua said.
She thanked PNG for standing behind the team as a nation and hope the team will make the dream of appearing in the FIFA women’s world cup one day.
