Despite their victory being celebrated, the PNG U16 Women’s Football Head Coach, Rachel Wadunah has some discrepancies with the performance of the team in their OFC Qualifying match against America Samoa yesterday.Even though the PNG girls recorded a crushing win over the American Samoans with an 8 goals to 2 victory, the coach described their overall match performance as poor and not to her expectation. “The game plan that I put out for the girls to play did not happen. They did not stick to the plan and follow the simple instructions I gave out; however, I am happy with the girls for winning this game, but their general performance in this game did not turned out the way I wanted it played,” said Wadunah. She said that they will return to training and improve on those areas lacking from their recent match and hopefully do better in their next match against the Cook Islands U16 Women’s team, who are currently the top team to beat. The Cook Islands are currently leading the competition and certainly a much tougher opponent for the PNG girls, according to the coach. “The next match is a very important match for us. Cook Islands are a much better and stronger side, which they showed in their first match against American Samoa. We will get the girls to work hard and improve on areas they lacked in the game for the next two days in training and hope they do well against the Cook Islands,” added the Coach. The current PNG U16 Women’s team had only 2 weeks of preparation leading up to their OFC Qualifying games and they are still working on putting together combinations and other areas of their game, as most of these young girls in the team are from the District. According to Wadunah, this current PNG U16 women’s football squad is made up of players from Port Moresby, Lae and Madang. Based on the performances of the U16 Women’s team, it clearly shows that PNG has a lot of raw and potential talent that needs the right support to help them build their pathway and grow into better players to represent the country. Wadunah emphasized that the PNG Football Academy program is the way forward to help nurture and develop young raw talents into making a name for themselves in Football. The Coach concluded by saying that the result shown in match by our U16 Girls’ team yesterday, clearly shows that the Women Football National Teams from the Juniors to the Bilums (Senior Women) are by far doing the country proud by putting on winning performances in any competition they take part in. This is evidence of good support leading to success and as such, she is calling on the Government, Corporate Bodies and Sporting stakeholders to step in and help support Women Football in the country.

A great start for the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Under 16 (U16) Women's team in the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship Qualifying Tournament played at the PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby city yesterday.The PNG U16 Women’s Football team ran riot over American Samoa U16 Women’s team in the first half of their qualifying match with a 6-Nil effort. A first half treble of goals to Chriszanne Sifas, a double to Oscalyn Gunemba while Joyleen Lise scored a goal to complete their first half with the 6-Nil lead. The much smaller and faster PNG girls outpaced their much heavier opponents all throughout the half spending most part of the game camped deep in their opponent’s territory. The second half of their football match was a bit competitive as both teams defended well. However, it was American Samoa that came back strong scoring 2 of their goals in the early stages of the second half to trail by 2-6. Both teams were guilty of many mistakes with forced passes and passes not finding their marks, with missed goal scoring opportunities. However, the PNG girls finished the match strongly by scoring two late goals to finish the match with an 8-2 victory. PNG will face-off with Cook Islands this Friday with the winner to qualify for the OFC Championships. Cook Islands are currently leading with 10 goals, 2 goals ahead of PNG. The PNG girls will need to keep the Cook Islands scoreless in their game and score at least 3 or more goals to finish at the top and qualify for the OFC U16 Championships.

The Community Policing Initiative under the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) is gaining momentum and contributing to reduce crime rate in the city at a minimum level. Under the Medium-Term Development Plan 4 (MTDP 4), it highlights that Metropolitan Cities must introduce programs or initiatives that will help minimize or eliminate crime in the cities. This is according to National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Superintendent, Warrick Simatab, when interviewed by PNG HAUSBUNG today. Simatab is very pleased with the roll-out of the Community Policing Initiative or Program that is gaining momentum in Port Moresby and Lae cities. The City Warden program, as well as the Community Watch program established in various suburbs and centers around the city, has been very helpful to police operations. He further states that policing work is not only the responsibility of police but for every resident in the city, if they are serious about minimizing the rate of crime. So far, he is very pleased with the response of a few communities that are working in close collaboration with the police in ensuring that the safety of their communities and families remains a top priority. “We the police have now changed our way of approach to dealing with any situations or matters that breach the law. We are now becoming more proactive rather than being reactive,” says the Metropolitan Superintendent.