Football Ferns’ journey north in April driven by World Cup draw against European teams
The Football Ferns are set to play two friendlies in Europe in April as part of their preparations for this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup on home soil.
It was originally envisioned New Zealand’s national women’s football team would play entirely at home in 2023 in the lead-up to the tournament in July and August, where they will have matches in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.
But after they were drawn against two European opponents – Norway and Switzerland – in group A, it was decided they needed to also play against European teams beforehand.
The distance between Europe and New Zealand makes attracting such teams for home fixtures a difficult proposition. No European women’s team has ever played in New Zealand.
The opponents for April’s matches have been locked in, but are yet to be announced. All coach Jitka Klimkova´ would say is that one team has a similar Fifa ranking to the Ferns, who slipped to 24th in the latest update – as low as they as have ever been – and that the other has a lower one.
First up for the Ferns in 2023 will be a pair of matches against the United States in Wellington and Auckland later this month, where they will be without a host of regular starters, as they have been scheduled outside the windows where clubs must release players.
A full-strength squad will then assemble in February to play three matches in the space of seven days – one in Hamilton against Portugal, who will be in New Zealand to take part in a playoff for one of the last three places on offer at the World Cup, and two in Hamilton and Auckland against Argentina.
Next will come the April matches, which will be the last chance for players to impress Klimkova´ in match situations as they vie for selection in the final squad of 23.
A number of players’ club seasons will end between early April and late May and while they will all be given two weeks off once those commitments are
over, there is set to be a training camp running in Auckland in May and June as preparations ramp up, with players coming in on a rolling basis.
The deadline to finalise World Cup squads is typically two weeks before the opening match, which would be July 6.
Klimkova´ said she would likely wait as long as possible before finalising her selection, with midfielder Annalie Longo the one Fern facing a real race against time at present, as she recovers from a serious knee injury suffered in September.
The Ferns are set to complete their preparations for the World Cup with two friendlies in New Zealand in early July, though one of them is due to be played behind closed doors and may not be a cap-earning fixture.
They will then begin their World Cup campaign by playing Norway at Eden Park on July 20, then head to Wellington to play the Philippines at Sky Stadium on July 25, before completing their group stage fixtures against Switzerland at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on July 30.
They will be favourites to beat the world No 53 Philippines, having done so in Los Angeles last September, but they will likely need to also beat either No 13 Norway or No 21 Switzerland to advance to the round of 16.
The Ferns have played 15 group stage matches across five World Cups, including each of the last four, but are yet to register a win. Their best results are three draws, against Mexico in 2011 and Canada and the Netherlands in 2015.