Lack of precision costs Football Ferns at World Cup

The Football Ferns have been bounced out of the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France, losing 2-1 to Cameroon in their final group match.

Ajara Nchout scored with the last kick of the game for Cameroon after the Ferns levelled the scores with an own goal in the 80th minute yesterday.

The loss at Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier left New Zealand with three defeats in France, their equalworst showing at a World Cup, alongside the campaigns of 1991 and 2007.

The win for Cameroon in their Group E match sent them into the last 16 of the 24-team tournament.

Nchout, whose opener was cancelled out by Aurelle Awona’s own goal 10 minutes from time, found the back of the net five minutes into stoppage time to put the African side on three points.

Ferns coach Tom Sermanni found no fault in his players’ endeavour but admitted a lack of precision cost them.

“We were chasing the game and we pushed players forward because we had to take those risks,” he said.

“But, to be honest, if we’d just done a couple of things a little bit better when we took those risks, we would have scored the second goal.

“So there’s a couple of things to learn from that but the effort of the players and the commitment they showed was outstanding, I couldn’t ask any more of them. The only thing I could have asked is if we’d just done a couple of the things we’d talked about a little bit better then I think we would have won.”

It appeared as if both sides would be exiting the tournament as the dying seconds approached with the score still locked at 1-1 but Nchout then popped up to make a national heroine of herself with the matchwinner.

“None of the results went our way but you can’t underestimate how much work we’ve put into all of the games. We’ve worked hard and it’s just the little differences that have affected the results,” Olivia Chance said.

“I think we’re going to have to go back and work really hard to make sure that this doesn’t happen again because it really hurts. There’s a lot of girls here that have been to multiple World Cups and we’ve let the opportunity slip this time, so we’re extremely gutted at the moment.

“We just need to let this sink in, remember this feeling and let it drive us for the Olympics. We really need to knuckle down and make sure we’re back to winning at the Olympics.”

The Netherlands topped Group E with a 2-1 win over Canada yesterday. In the last 16, the Netherlands play Japan, Canada take on Sweden and Cameroon face England.