Fever pitch for WSL four as world’s best face off
LIVERPOOL LADIES forward Rosie White says she and her New Zealand teammates are underdogs going into the Rio Olympics as they look to progress out of arguably the toughest group in the tournament.
The Kiwi international faces the daunting task of coming up against 2012 gold medallists USA and muchfancied France in their four-team group, with Colombia making up Group G, at this, the sixth Olympic women’s football competition since the first one at Atlanta in 1996.
The Reds striker is in her first full season on Merseyside, having joined the club midway through the 2015 campaign after graduating from American university UCLA.
She admits the Football Ferns have it all to do if they are to progress to the knockout stages.
“We have pretty high hopes of how we’re going to go, but we’re always going to come in as underdogs in a group like this, which can only do us favours, I think. We’ve got nothing to lose,” she said.
“If we want to do well at the Olympics, then we’re going to have to do well against these teams, and we’re feeling pretty confident, having had some good results this year.”
New Zealand open their campaign against the gold medallists from London 2012, USA, who haven’t lost a competitive match since the final of the 2011 World Cup to Japan in Germany. There’s an outside chance White could come up against former Reds defender Whitney Engen, who was named in coach Jill Ellis’ 18-player squad, despite a difficult start to the season with her club, the Boston Breakers. The prospect doesn’t daunt the young forward who, with more than 80 caps at just 23 years of age, is looking forward to her second Olympics. “Its something I’ve always wanted. I always said when I was younger ‘I want to go to the Olympics’, but I never really knew what for,” she said. “It’s such a pinnacle event for New Zealand, I’m really buzzing for it and I just can’t wait.”
Determined
The Ferns will be hoping they can better their performances at last year’s World Cup in Canada, White’s major tournament debut, when they were eliminated in the first round after failing to win a single group match.
Former AFC Wimbledon defender Tony Readings, who Dons fans will remember captained the side in their first-ever league game against Sandhurst Town back in 2002, is the man leading the team into the tournament.
He took over in 2012 from fellow Englishman John Herdman, who now leads the Canada women’s national team.
White believes Readings can get the best out of her team and says they are determined to put the performances of last year behind them and prove they can compete with the best.
“We were pretty gutted about what happened at the World Cup, and I think we’ll use that as extra motivation because we don’t want to feel like that again,” she said.
“We’ve been right on the edge of doing some pretty cool things in past tournaments, and hopefully we can push our way through this time.”
White will be one of 216 players from 12 countries taking part in the women’s football tournament, which kicks off two days before Friday’s opening ceremony.
Four players will represent the FA Women’s Super League in Rio.
Chelsea’s Hedvig Lindahl and
Manchester City’s Kosovare Asllani will step out for Sweden, while Arsenal’s Josephine Henning is with Germany. Liverpool’s White makes up the quartet, with the final being played at the Maracanã on August 19.