Fiji’s Vodafone U-16 Women’s team are ramping up their preparations for the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2019 tournament in Tahiti to be held next month.
Coach Marika Rodu said his players have been working hard with a special emphasis on their fitness level for the past three weeks.
“Most of them are form four, form five students, coming off external and internal exams. So we took a few fitness tests and we identified that they are very low in terms of physical fitness,” he explained.
“The girls are getting fitter and they are learning quickly the style of play we want,” said Rodu.
With most of his payers new to the game, the coach has been focussing on the basics of football.
“I have worked on their fitness and now my focus is more on the technical aspect of the game,” the Fiji U-16 Women’s coach said.
“Improving on their basic skills of passing and receiving the ball, trying to apply the philosophy of possession that we want to develop and slowly we are now shifting our focus the tactical aspects of it.
“We are starting to rebuild our game from the back and in the next three weeks we want to see that we also touch on the finishing and also a bit of the defensive work,” he added.
Rodu will name his final squad this week.
“We have 35 players in camp and I am looking at the best players which will be named this week,”
Drawn into Group A, Fiji will face Tonga and American Samoa.
Their first match will be against Tonga at on the 7 December before they face American Samoa three days later.
For more information on the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2019 click on the link below
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