Cole anticipates tough qualifiers

Digicel national women's Coach Lisa Cole is expecting tough competition at the 2022 OFC Women's World Cup Qualifiers next month.

 

Seeded in Pool C with the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, Cole told FijiLive the qualifiers won’t be easy as every team will come prepared and Fiji women’s team will be playing in a competition after three years.

 

"Our first game is on the 14th. We play Solomon Islands. And then we follow that up with New Caledonia."

 

"Yeah, it's been hard because a lot of teams haven't played; the last games that I've been able to look at are from 2018 and 2019."

 

"So it's hard to have a good idea about what they'll look like at this point."

 

"Fiji has played both the teams in the past and has felt the pressure, how strong and determined they are."

 

"Qualifiers will pose a huge challenge but at the same time, it will grow the football knowledge of these girls."

 

"Every team will come hard on us because we are the host nation, but also we have not played test games internationally like the other teams. We did play but it was just recently against school teams in Australia."

 

"So we've been really just focusing on ourselves and putting together our best effort."

 

"And I think if we do that, we come out hard and we play well then the game should take care of itself."

 

"Yeah, we don't currently have GPS available within the program. That's something we would like to have but we don't currently have that," she added.

 

The Fiji vs Solomon Islands match will kick off at 7pm on 14th of July at the ANZ Stadium in Suva. 

 

By Romeka Romena