FC President and FIFA Vice-President David Chung has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian Football Association President Arifin Husin Djohar in Jakarta.
Chung, who is in Jakarta with the Papua New Guinea U-23 team in his other role as Papua New Guinea Football Association President, signed the MoU on Wednesday and believes it is the start of a long-term relationship which will see future youth teams head to the Republic of Indonesia “The young men here in Jakarta are testimony to PNGFA’s mission for the future and if they do well it will set a bench-mark for the future,” Chung said. Chung said the historic signing has opened the door for the OFC as well and is an opportunity he wants to make full use of. The signing was staged during the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup Group C qualifying match between Indonesia and Iraq at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. “Papua New Guinea’s youth soccer pathway continues to strengthen and I’m sure it will give extra incentive for young footballers to aspire to,” he said. Chung hopes the continued growth of the PNGFA’s infrastructure continues at the Lae Academy, training centre in Kimbe and the recent development work in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Meanwhile PAPUA New Guinea found goals hard to come by despite looking stronger over the Maldives in their opening MNC Cup Under 23 soccer match in Jakarta yesterday. PNG lost 1-0 and now face a stronger Indonesian outfit in their second match today. Speaking from the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, PNG team manager David Brand said it was a frustrating afternoon for the players who had every opportunity to put away the match but always fell short of the target. “We were on par with them throughout the match but credit to the Maldives for scoring the only goal from an error amongst our central defenders,” Brand said. He said there is definitely room for improvement and anticipated a much tougher outing against the home side. He said the PNG strikers Tommy Semmy and last year’s NSL golden boot winner Jamal Seeto weren’t given much room to do what they do best. Brand said the mid-field with Ronald Conn and Jacob Sabua were good in patches and took time to settle in against the skilful Maldives players. Brand added that despite the Maldives first-half goal, the lads took it to them in a better second-half especially with captain Koriak Upaiga leading by example for his younger teammates. He said coach Bob Morris and his assistants Brazillian Giovanni Fernandez as coach mentor, Reginald Davani and Trevor Ire would go back to the drawing board to plan how they handle the home-side. He said Fernandez is a soccer consultant with the Asia-Pacific Academy based in Christchurch, New Zealand. PNG has a break tomorrow and play their last match against Laos on Sunday. Brand thanked SVS, BSP and Air Niugini for supporting the team endeavours. Comments are closed.
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