Ferns coach defends tactics

Football Ferns coach Andreas Heraf says he would rather play defensive and lose 3-1, than have a crack and potentially lose by more.

The 50-year-old, who has also worked as New Zealand Football’s technical director since arriving from Austria in August, made a series of curious remarks after the Ferns lost 3-1 to Japan in Wellington yesterday.

They attracted a record crowd of 7236 for a women’s football match in New Zealand, but many would have left scratching their heads after the Ferns setup in a 5-4-1 formation and held just 27 per cent of possession.

Heraf said the approach was to work on their defence with an eye to next year’s World Cup. More broadly, he said New Zealand could not compete with the talent countries such as Japan have.

‘‘We will never have that quality to compete with Japan and even be better than Japan. That’s not working.

‘‘[Japan] have I think 127 million people in [their] country, we have 4.5 million, so there must be a difference. There is more money, more facilities, better coaches in the country.’’

That was quite a statement to make for the person responsible for not only coaching the Ferns but overseeing the entire high performance programme in New Zealand.

It was only Heraf’s fifth game in charge of the Ferns but he rebuked a question that suggested he was starting his tenure from a negative mindset.

‘‘What would you prefer?,’’ he replied.

‘‘To try to play some football?,’’ was the response from the journalist.

‘‘And losing 8-0?,’’ Heraf responded. ‘‘When have they lost 8-0?,’’ the journalist asked,

‘‘No but you could lose 8-0 against a team like they [Japan] are. It’s not a negative mindset. It’s a smart one.’’

So fear of a hefty defeat appeared to be behind the defensive tactics.

They could well have lost by six if Japan had put away their chances.

They were up 3-1 by halftime thanks to a Mina Tanaka hat-trick. The first 45 minutes also saw Meikayla Moore score for the Ferns, as well as hitting her own post when trying to clear a cross. Japan also had a good penalty shout waved away.

In the second half, Japan missed an open goal and hit the post.

Another exchange with Heraf centred around how people might perceive the team after such a porous performance in front of so many fans.

‘‘Could you imagine how negative the mindset would be if we lost 6-1 for example?,’’ was his response.

At a glance

‘‘It’s not a negative mindset, it’s a smart one.’’

Andreas Heraf defends his tactics

Japan 3 (Mina Tanaka 17’ 34’ 44’) New Zealand 1 (Meikayla Moore 18’). HT: 3-1.