How Papua New Guinea are preparing for historic shot at World Cup glory

T wo games of football – that is what it will take for Papua New Guinea to make history. As they take the field in New Zealand this week for the World Cup intercontinental playoffs, two wins would see the Pacific island nation reach its first World Cup.

The journey has been far from easy. The national team did not play a match from July 2019 until April 2022 but with New Zealand co-hosting the tournament this July and August, PNG seized the opportunity to qualify by winning the Oceania Nations Cup last July. Since then, results have slid, with Nicola Demaine losing her job as manager and little to no football played over almost three months.

This was the context into which Spencer Prior arrived in November. The 51-year-old brings a wealth of management experience with Australia, Young Matildas and Thailand women’s team.

“We’re trying to do in four months what other teams have spent four years preparing for,” he says. “It’s been a real whirlwind trying to get them fit, trying to get them some tactical understanding of what we want to do … I don’t think we’ve wasted a single minute.”

Prior brought in his own staff, including assistant Nicola Williams after she left Leicester City. They have added local PNG coaches, to help them develop and because of their knowledge of the players. The team have been based in Sydney and New Zealand, tapping into top-class facilities and participating in three-week training blocks to prepare.

“The positive is that it’s a blank canvas,” Prior says. “I think part of the reason that I was put in was because of my experience with Thailand’s women’s team; going into a programme and getting an understanding of the culture, first and foremost. To earn the players’ trust and then start to put