PNG coach Cole pleased with PNG’s efforts

Despite the 9 goals margin against Brazil, Papua New Guinea U20 women’s soccer coach Lisa Cole was pleased with the effort put in by the home side.

PNG lost to Brazil 9-0 last night in their first FIFA U20 Women's World Cup match at the Sir John Guise (SJG) stadium in Port Moresby.

Cole said she was very proud regardless of the result and effort that the girls displayed.

“It’s a big task playing your first world cup against a team such as Brazil.

“Obviously we wanted the score to be a little bit different but I’m happy with the effort.

“Our aim was to continue to fight from the beginning till the end and we really want to make sure that we improve from one half to the next half,” Cole explained.

Cole added that regular Ramona Padio has an incredible amount of experience and she’s a fantastic player but unfortunately her fitness standard isn’t up to this level.

The coach said she is a player that they still need to develop and make sure that she finds her fitness to complete at this level.

“In the first half we dropped deeper than we were supposed to in our pressing so we need to make some adjustments early in the half.

“We saw in the second half that we started to press a little bit higher so when the ball’s traveling we are supposed to give pressure there.

“These are areas we will need to improve on for our upcoming matches.”

PNG plays Sweden in their second match of the World Cup on Wednesday at the SJG stadium.

Author: 
Quintina Naime