Football: Clean slate for PNG with Rufer

Wynton Rufer

Wynton Rufer has taken on one of the biggest challenges in Oceania, and possibly world, football.

The former All Whites and Bundesliga star has taken charge of a Papua New Guinea national team notorious for decades of underachievement. He was promoted to the senior side after working with the under-20s.

It's a huge challenge. The national team had not played for more than two years when he came on board and PNG will host the Pacific Games next year for the first time since 1969.

"The potential there is phenomenal," says Rufer. "They've got fantastic athletes with real ability. And PNG has almost eight million people - a lot more than any other Oceania nation. But it's pretty raw talent and what they lack is professional structures and experience. The biggest challenge is converting that potential into performance."

Rufer faced his first litmus test in September when the Kapuls faced Singapore, their first competitive match since 2012.

"A lot was on the line," Rufer says. "We needed to show people we could compete, and also give the federation confidence to back us."

PNG were down 2-0 after 23 minutes - "I was a bit worried" - but ended with a creditable 2-1 defeat to a team ranked almost 50 places above them. Rufer helped arrange their next match against the Philippines, as their coach Thomas Dooley had played in the Bundesliga alongside him.

It was a bigger challenge and they went down 5-0.

"I started with seven new caps which was probably a mistake, but you have to blood players," Rufer says. "We were down 5-0 at halftime. I put on my more experienced players and it was much better in the second half."

PNG were one of the Oceania Confederation's founding members in 1966, alongside New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, but have struggled to make any impact. While Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomons, New Caledonia and Tahiti have had their moments, PNG have barely figured, beset by organisational and administrative problems and the national team didn't play a competitive match during 2007-11.

They have a history of overseas coaching assistance with former Waitakere City coach Steve Cain (2002), Frank Farina (2011-13) and American Mike Keeney (2013) but still languish 199th out of 209 on the Fifa rankings.

There is a hope, however, that things are improving. Oceania president David Chung, who is also PNG Football Association president, has overseen the construction of a new multi-million dollar playing and training facility and the semi-professional Papua New Guinea National Soccer League was established in 2006.

However, as Rufer admits, there are always "plenty of challenges and dramas".

Last month, a regional airport 40km outside Lae, the second-biggest city, was stormed by 30 heavily-armed bandits who overwhelmed the security guards and held passengers captive while they looted the airport in a smash-and-grab operation.

Roads outside the main centres can be little more than mud tracks and the level of law and order varies across the country, with a group of Australian travellers caught up in a machete attack last year.

PNG has tremendous mineral wealth and other natural resources, but most of the population live in rural villages and have little exposure to the outside world.

"When I took the under-19 team to New Zealand, half of them got a passport for the first time and about three-quarters were going overseas for the first time," Rufer says. "It was a huge culture shock. When we were in Singapore, we went up some of the big skyscrapers and their faces looked like they were going inside a spaceship."

Rufer, who is contracted until the end of the Pacific Games and spends a week each month there, is loving the experience.

"It's great to be involved with a national team. It's quite ironic - I've applied for jobs with the under-17s, under-20s and All Whites in New Zealand and not even got an interview but that's the way it goes. A national team job is a dream job."