Call for cool heads as U17 team prepares to play hosts
NEW Zealand women’s head coach Leon Birnie is calling for cool heads as his team looks to make history at the FIFA under17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
New Zealand made headlines on Wednesday when it defeated Finland 10 in Montevideo and will look to back up that performance today when they take on the hosts Uruguay at the same venue.
New Zealand has appeared at every edition of the tournament but is yet to progress to the knockout stage.
Birnie said it is hard to know what the team will face when it arrives at the Estadio Charrua as the home team fights to stay in the tournament.
‘‘We have spoken about the atmosphere, but being in it, is completely different,’’ Birnie said.
‘‘We don’t know what it will be like until we get there. We have done everything we can to talk through what to expect and explain some scenarios.
‘‘This is a footballmad country and there was 9500 fans the other night when they played Ghana — these girls haven’t experienced an atmosphere like that before.’’
The young Football Ferns got off to an ideal start when a stunning goal from Kelli Brown was enough to earn them three points against Finland, and now they have a great chance of advancing to the knockout stage.
Birnie is expecting a completely different challenge from Uruguay compared to their opening game against Finland.
‘‘Finland are a really structured team whereas Uruguay have much more flair and some individual players who are going to create things. We are going to have to be very good defensively oneonone.’’
The coach is not reading much into the 50 drubbing the home team suffered in its opening game against Ghana.
‘‘Don’t even worry about that 50 result against Ghana. Ghana just blew them away and that is something that we didn’t expect.
‘‘Uruguay are a much better side than that. For us, we are totally focused on this game and we had to bring the girls back down to earth.’’