THE Juan Carlos Buzzetti coached Fiji under-23 team will enter the Pacific Games with only eight days of full preparation.
The Fiji under-20 reps from the recent FIFA World Cup in New Zealand joined camp on Monday to complete the squad.
The Pacific Games doubles up as the Oceania qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Fiji is in Group A with Tahiti, Vanuatu and Micronesia while Group B has New Caledonia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Buzzetti admitted that they were behind in their preparations.
He said they hoped to qualify for the finals.
“Looking at the other countries we are behind in our preparations,” Buzzetti said.
“Because the problem we had was that the U20 World Cup was on and we could not have the full training squad in camp.
“We also had to release the players every weekend for the district competition. So practically we have only eight days to fully prepare the Fiji U23 team.
“For the Olympic qualification it is not much really but we will depend on the quality of the players we have that can jell together in the remaining days and do something properly.
“We should qualify for the semi-finals for the Olympic playoffs and the gold medal playoffs.
“But we want to make sure that we do one better and qualify for the finals because four years ago we were so unlucky.”
There will be separate semi-finals and final for the Olympic qualification and Pacific Games since New Zealand is not a member of the Pacific Games Council and is not entitled to any medal.
Fiji faces Vanuatu in its opening match next Friday.
