Ferns at crossroads ahead of World Cup
Football Ferns captain Ali Riley doesn’t want to be dwelling on their shock 5-0 loss to Portugal in five months’ time, when her team are playing in a home Fifa Women’s World Cup.
But as soon as the final whistle blew on Friday night at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, it was clear this was a make-orbreak moment for New Zealand’s women’s football team.
The pain of their worst defeat in 12 years either fuels them between now and July 20, when they face Norway at Eden Park in Auckland in their World Cup opener, or it leaves them in too deep a hole to climb out of, with only a handful of matches remaining between now and then – two of which come tomorrow and Thursday against Argentina.
‘‘We live and we learn,’’ was how Riley began when she spoke after the final whistle on Friday.
‘‘It wasn’t good enough. We’re positive and we preach togetherness and culture and those things are still very important to us, but we have to make it count on the field. We have to be better.’’
She could not fault the team’s spirit, and they would not make excuses – they would reflect and ask themselves how they could improve.
What frustrated Riley the most was her team’s inability to adapt to the situation in front of them, once a contest that was even for a lot of the first half became one-sided in Portugal’s favour.
One of the few positives from Friday was the return of fullback CJ Bott after five matches away.
She got through a mountain of work down the right flank and her enhanced role as a wingback was one of the clear benefits from coach Jitka Klimkova´’s shift to a three-at-the-back system.
‘‘We’ve always spoken about how we want to be a versatile team,’’ Bott said afterwards.
‘‘We don’t want to be a team that’s identified by one system, so we are just trying to work on a few different things, so we can pull out a few surprises at the World Cup if need be.’’