Japan humble cautious Ferns
On a landmark day for women’s football in New Zealand, the Football Ferns were unable to produce a performance befitting the occasion.
The 7236 who watched the Ferns limp to a 3-1 loss to Japan at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Sunday was a record for a female football fixture in this country.
But they had very little to cheer about with the Ferns completely dominated throughout. Japan’s Mina Tanaka led the way with all her side’s goals in the first half.
It wasn’t through lack of individual effort from the players that the Ferns came up short on the pitch, rather the conservative way coach Andreas Heraf had them setup.
From the opening kickoff, the Ferns dropped all 11 players behind the ball, with No 9 and captain Amber Hearn the most advanced about 35 metres from her own goal.
There was a flat back five, with a flat midfield four in front of them as Heraf went for an ultra defensive approach. It led to a game which at times resembled more of a defence v attack training run than a competitive fixture.
One might have thought the Ferns would have had a go in front of their home fans for the first time in three years, and the first time in Wellington since 1991, but the approach was clearly to get to halftime at 0-0 and maybe pinch a goal themselves.
That thought was wiped away in the 17th minute when a deflected Tanaka shot looped over Erin Naylor into the New Zealand goal.
New Zealand did nick a goal about 60 seconds later. From the resulting kickoff, they won a fortuitous corner after hoofing the ball down field. They crowded the six-yard box as the cross came in, forcing Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita into an error which allowed Meikayla Moore to slam the ball into the back of the net from close range.
Japan went back to dominating thereafter, looking comfortable in possession (76 per cent in the first half) and capable of prising open the New Zealand defence at will.
They again earned a deserved lead in the 34th minute when Rin Sumida played a delightful ball over the top of the New Zealand defence. Tanaka took a touch before lifting the ball over a diving Naylor.
Tanaka completed her hat-trick one minute before halftime, getting ahead of Moore to nod in a sumptuous cross from the right.
Both teams made personnel changes at halftime, and New Zealand did try to press a bit higher at times, but more often stayed in the same defensive shape.
Japan continued to play beautiful football and look capable of scoring many more goals. The Ferns continued to defend and look vulnerable. But New Zealand at least kept the visitors scoreless in the second half.
Afterwards, Heraf, who has also worked as New Zealand Football’s technical director since arriving from Austria in August, said the approach was to work on their defence with an eye to next year’s World Cup.
More broadly, he said New Zealand could not compete with the talent countries such as Japan have.
‘‘We will never have that quality to compete with Japan and even be better than Japan. That’s not working.
‘‘[Japan] have I think 127 million people in [their] country, we have 4.5 million, so there must be a difference. There is more money, more facilities, better coaches in the country. The gap is that big, so for that I think we tried to do our best and the girls have done that.’’
Heraf rebuked a questioner who suggested he was starting his tenure from a negative mindset. ‘‘What would you prefer?’’ he replied. ‘‘To try and play some football?’’ was the response from the journalist. ‘‘And losing 8-0?’’ Heraf responded. ‘‘When have they lost 8-0?’’ the journalist asked.
‘‘No, but you could lose 8-0 against a team like they [Japan] are. It’s not a negative mindset, it’s a smart one.’’
Japan 3 Zealand 1 New