Chance out to boost Ferns’ goals tally
Midfielder Liv Chance is more acutely aware than most of the Football Ferns’ urgent need to score more goals with the Fifa World Cup finals looming.
Chance came closest to scoring last Saturday in a 1-0 loss to South Korea in Christchurch, hitting the post in the 80th minute.
Having watched the tape, Chance felt her strike was ‘‘wellhit’’ and it was probably ‘‘my best opportunity of the three or four shots I had’’.
‘‘It’s just unfortunate that it comes off the post to an area that none of our players are in. It’s just one of those days that it didn’t fall for us.’’
She is hoping that the Ferns ‘‘have the opposite [tonight] when everything goes in’’ in their rematch with South Korea at Orangetheory Stadium.
They have scored just nine goals in the first 15 games of head coach Jitka Klimkova´’s tenure – an area that must improve if they are to win a first-ever World Cup finals game in 2023 and progress out of a group featuring Belgium, Switzerland and the Philippines.
Chance, 29, has scored just one goal – against Belgium in 2020 – for the Ferns in 36 internationals since 2011, but averages close to one every three games for Glasgow Celtic.
She said playing for the famous Scottish club had ‘‘allowed me to progress my creative side of the game with assists and goalscoring. I get into many good positions over at Celtic. It’s a big focus for me, I wanted to go to a team that I can improve that side, because I think that’s a key area of my game.’’
Chance said she wanted an attacking edge to be ‘‘a staple’’ for the Ferns too. ‘‘I have got high standards for myself, I am doing it at Celtic and I want to bring it to New Zealand more consistently.’’
Chance said the Football Ferns ‘‘created more [chances] than we have in the past’’ against the Koreans and had to ‘‘take the positives from that’’.
She suggested they shouldn’t get ‘‘too precise’’ about finishing. ‘‘It doesn’t need to be side netting, it just needs to be in the goal. It doesn’t matter how it goes in, and it doesn’t matter who does it. As long as we’re putting it in the back of the net, I’m happy.’’
Little wonder then that the Ferns ended yesterday’s session with shooting practice.
The Football Ferns will be without striker Emma Rolston, who is struggling with a longterm back problem and had to be replaced after 14 minutes at the weekend.
Klimkova´, after reviewing the first game, felt the Football Ferns made a ‘‘huge improvement’’ from their 2-0 loss to Japan in September in terms of ‘‘our compact shape and individual defending’’ and was happy that they ‘‘created a lot of chances’’.
’’Obviously our next step is to put those chances into the goal.’’