OlyWhites need Only 100 per cent effort will do for Ferns
OlyWhites coach Danny Hay says there will be no fear factor for his side at the Tokyo Olympics in July, after they were handed the kindest draw possible for the men’s football tournament.
The national under-24 men’s team, that can be boosted by up to three over-age players, learned on Wednesday night it will play South Korea, Honduras, and Romania in group B of the 16-team tournament, with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals.
None of those will be easy matches for the OlyWhites, who have taken part in the Olympics twice, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, drawing once and losing twice each time, a record which makes a maiden win at this level their main aim.
But when they could have been facing France, Japan, and Mexico, had they been drawn in group A like South Africa; Argentina, Australia, and Spain; had they been drawn in group C like Egypt; or Brazil, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, had they been drawn in group D like the Ivory Coast, there was reason for Hay to be more grateful than not.
‘‘Irrespective of the names, we know that we’re going to be coming up against some very good players, and they’re going to be tactically very astute, so it’s going to be a great chance for us to test ourselves,’’ he said yesterday.
‘‘But the thing about this group of players is there’s no fear factor. We want to approach the game differently to how past New Zealand teams have wanted to. We want to try and be far more attackminded, and we want to try to take the game to opposition sides.
‘‘Yes, there will be respect, but we’re going to go out there and try to show what this group of players are actually capable of doing.’’
The OlyWhites will begin their campaign on July 22 against South Korea, the winners of the Asian qualifying tournament, who are set to be their toughest opponent.
On July 25 they will then face Honduras, a team New Zealand has beaten at the last two Fifa under-20 World Cups – 3-1 in 2017 and 5-1 in 2019 – which involved players from the same age groups that will make up the bulk of the two nations’ Olympic squads.
Then on July 28, they will face Romania, who qualified by beating heavyweights England and Croatia to make the semifinals of the 2019 Uefa under-21 Championship, where their squad featured several players who aren’t eligible for the Olympics as under-24 players, having been born before January 1, 1997.
‘‘I look at the group that we’ve been drawn in, and I know for me – and I know the players will be exactly the same – we’ve got a real opportunity to create history,’’ Hay said.
‘‘First and foremost to win a game at the Olympics – that’s what we’ll be targeting, because no New Zealand men’s side has done that before – then obviously to try to get out of the group as well.’’
The Football Ferns’ first official match in more than 500 days is set to be their most important one at the Tokyo Olympics.
On the opening night of the women’s football tournament, July 21, they will face Australia’s Matildas in a transTasman showdown – a fixture that looms as their best chance for a win in group G.
After that comes the reigning world champions, the United States, who they have beaten once – in their first meeting back in 1987 – and perennial European powerhouse Sweden, who they have never played before.
They also haven’t beaten Australia since 1994, when their current coach, Tom Sermanni, was just beginning the first of two stints in charge over there.
But having just arrived in New Zealand for the first time in more than a year, with the transTasman travel bubble now open, Sermanni was up for the challenge that lies in front of his side.
‘‘When you look at the history between Australia and New
Zealand, the games are always competitive, so it’s a game where we’ve got a chance,’’ he said.
‘‘But like for any of the games, we need to be at 100 per cent. We need to turn up on the day and everybody needs to get out there and perform.
‘‘I’ll make no bones about that, we can’t go out and have an 80 per cent game or even a 90 per cent game.’’
No matter what happened when the draw was made, the Ferns were going to end up with three difficult opponents.
Brazil, Canada, China, Great Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands were the other teams they could have been stuck with – a group they have managed just four wins against in the nine years since the London Olympics.
The Ferns hit the ground running in their opening match at their last major tournament, the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup, creating several good chances and keeping the Netherlands, the ultimate runners-up, at bay until stoppage time, where they conceded a painful late goal.
Sermanni said they would need to repeat that performance, and then some, in three months’ time, if they were to have any chance of finishing in the top two of their group, or, more realistically, as one of the two best third-placed teams, in order to advance to the quarterfinals.