Papua New Guinea Football Association released a trimmed down U23 men’s training squad for the Oceania Olympics Qualifiers yesterday.

Coach George Cowie, trimmed the squad down to 24 after having a two day trial with 40 players from various associations, and after watching several NSL matches.

Players that have made the squad are: Anton Pipi, Pedro Ajakop, Mathias Apo, Sam Kini, Koriak Upaigu (Welgris Highlanders); Gure Gabana, David Mutta, Lawrence Moses, (Hekari
United); Jason Wesley, Andrew Marampau (Inspac Rapatona); Tau Winnie (Gelle Hills); Niel Hans, Tarcicius Mandarip (Madang Besta); Ronniel Egins, Fabian Bagi, Michael Foster (Morobe Kumuls);
Alex Davani (Brisbane Strikers), William Mobbs (Wollongong); Sebasco Steven (NBPO).

The squad is currently in camp at the Lae Academy, where it will undergo two weeks of intensive physical conditioning training, functional and tactical training.  It will
also play two friendly matches against the Morobe Kumuls franchise in Lae.

The team will then travel to Port Moresby and hopefully play two friendly matches with Hekari United and Inspac Rapatona or Gelle Hills before taking on the Solomon Islands Under
23 in two charity matches on the 19 and 21st of February this year.

The final team will then be trimmed down to 20 players and depart for Fiji on the 24th February. It is hoped that the team will play another international friendly match in Fiji
against a select side before playing its first match against Solomon Islands on March 1. PNG will be playing Fiji on the 3rd, New Zealand on the 5th, Vanuatu on the 7th and Cook Island on the
9th of March.  The winner of the round robin pool games will qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Coach George Cowie is happy so far with the selection and the training, and believes that PNG can cause a few surprises this time around. There is plenty of fighting spirit,
aggression and determination in the players selected. He said that the NSL is a very good platform for PNG Soccer and if it weren’t for the NSL, it would have made his job more
difficult.