Transcript
LISA COLE: I think there's a lot of nervousness still with the players because this is the biggest event they've ever played in and they want to do well but it's turned positive. If you've asked me earlier in the week I would call them more scared than nervous - now there's a good nervousness, excitement about getting out on the field and playing.
VINNIE WYLIE: And the benefits of course of being the host nation is you are in the tournament, you've had that chance to compete, which of course is something that hasn't been the case before?
LC: Yeah, if we're not the host nation then we're watching the games on TV like everybody else. I think FIFA has granted us this tournament to give a country like Papua New Guinea, with a tonne of potential in women's football, the opportunity to see what this looks like and see what happens when you invest in a team and young players and what the future could be if we continue with our investment and continue to bring these girls along.
VW: You've taken the team to America for a tour, you hosted a tri-series in Papua New Guinea, you recently got back from a tour of New Zealand, where you tried to mirror that World Cup format of a game every few days, so is your team as prepared as they could be?
LC: I'm the coach so of course I would always like more games and I would like a little bit more time. A year isn't really enough time and we probably had nine months of good training to get this team together. A lot of teams will start the new cycle right after the World Cup, so they'll have a two year cycle that they're preparing to play in a World Cup but we're as prepared as we can be based on when we started and where we are currently as players and as a country in football. The girls will give their best, they're fit and we're ready to make sure the country's proud of the effort we put out. We're not sure about the results but we will play from beginning till end.
VW: And quite the beginning: you've got Brazil first up on Sunday and a couple of other tricky ones as well?
LC: Yeah we didn't get any easy draws in the World Cup. Obviously all the teams that get to this level are very good but to face a country like Brazil, where soccer is life at some points for players and people, and then Sweden, who won the Euros - which is the best team from Europe - and you can think of all the great teams from there and then North Korea, who just won the Under 17 World Cup and does a fantastic job with their youth development. For me the great thing about that is that we literally playing the world's best, and hopefully we will get on the field and find ways to compete, at least in moments, in those games.
