Ferns facing tough draw; Oly Whites in luck
The Football Ferns are set for an uphill battle at the Tokyo Olympics after being placed in the hardest possible draw to start the tournament.
The women’s side have drawn Group G where they will face reigning world champions the United States, world No 9 Australia, and world No 5 Sweden, who they have never played. New Zealand are ranked 22nd.
The football matches will be the first to get underway in Tokyo with the women’s event starting on July 21, two days before the opening ceremony.
The Football Ferns will kick off first against Australia before playing the US three days later and Sweden on July 27.
They’ll need to finish in the top two or as one of the two best third-placed teams to advance to the quarterfinals.
“We are in a group with three other very strong teams, including the world champions, but these are the opportunities we want to prove ourselves at the highest level,” said Football Ferns head coach Tom Sermanni.
“After not being able to play for the past year it is brilliant to finally have our opponents for Tokyo 2020 confirmed and we couldn’t have picked a better first opponent.
“The whole squad are now just enormously excited to get to Japan and get the competition underway.”
The Football Ferns’ best finish in their three previous Olympic campaigns was a quarter-final finish in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Oly Whites national under-24 men’s team have had much better luck.
They have managed to avoid heavyweights Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Spain and France to be drawn with South Korea, Honduras and Romania.
They’ve never made it past the group stages previously.
“I’m delighted to be talking about international football after the past year,” said head coach Danny Hay.
“The whole squad has been waiting for the opportunity to represent the country and are hugely excited about going to Japan to do so.
“There are no easy games in international football but it is fair to say we did manage to avoid some of the traditionally bigger nations.
“We can’t wait to get over there.”