The side is building up for the 2015 Pacific Games, which will be hosted in Port Moresby, where they hope to earn a gold-medal on home soil.
“It’s no easy task but we couldn’t say no to the invitation from my friend Bernd Stange, the German coach there,” says coach Wynton Rufer.
“It’s just to get that type of international game under the belt which is very important for next year’s Pacific Games.”
The Oceania Player of the Century took over as national team coach in February, and also led the U-20 team at the OFC U-20 Championship in May with the goal of building a strong squad of players to contest at next year’s games, as well as get the qualifying journey for Russia 2018 underway.
Singapore are currently ranked 152nd in the world to Papua New Guinea’s ranking of 200, and while he acknowledges the gap, Rufer believes it will be a good test for his players.
Papua New Guinea have been in camp in Australia’s Gold Coast and played their first friendly match against local side the Lions, losing 2-1 but gaining valuable experience according to the former professional.
“The conditions were very difficult because of the cold, and PNG players are just not used to the cold so the boy’s just really struggled with that in the first half,” he says.
“But we’re not really worried about it because in the end it was just getting the team on the pitch, it’s the first time since 2012. It was a good hit-out, we lost 2-1 but we’ve very happy for the start.”
Singapore will be a step up from that, as evidenced by the recent S-League All-Stars match against touring Italian side Juventus.
“We have watched the video of the S-League All Stars that played Juventus a few weeks ago, Juventus won 5-0 against the Singapore team coached by Bernd Stange.
“I believe he had about six of his national team players, so we know it will be a tough task for us.”
For their part Singapore are also building up to an objective of their own, with the nation set to host the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup at Hougang Stadium at the end of the year, and will play a friendly against Hong Kong three days after meeting Papua New Guinea.
“The national team has benefitted greatly from the recent training tour to Austria and the Singapore selection’s friendly against Juventus,” Stange says.
“These upcoming international friendly matches will serve as a way for us to have more time to play and train together. This can only be good for us as it allows the players to get used to playing together as a team with the style I am implementing.
“We are looking forward to playing against Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong.”
Papua New Guinea will play Singapore at Hougang Stadium in Singapore on Saturday 6 September with kick-off scheduled for 7.30pm local (9.30pm PNGT).

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