Football Ferns vs Japan: So That Didn’t Quite Go As Expected…
Seven thousand two hundred and thirty six people turned up at Westpac Stadium in Wellington to watch the Football Ferns take on Japan. The biggest crowd a home women’s international has ever attracted in Aotearoa. In that regard this game was already a success before it kicked off. The new CBA had been signed earlier in the week – don’t wanna go raving about it when the text hasn’t even been made public but it’s beyond doubt that there have at least been a couple tangible steps forward towards football equality in NZ – and this felt like an important moment for the national women’s team.
But the game itself always had the potential to take the shine off of things. Not to actually ruin anything but definitely to make it a little less glossy. Japan are a better team than New Zealand, after all. They won the World Cup in 2011, we’ve never even won a game or made the second round. Them’s just the facts.
Unfortunately it seems the manager was slightly obsessed with those facts (and a few other facts, population figures for example). The team that was named was immediately a strange one, having Ali Riley ruled out injured was a bugger and obviously Abby Erceg isn’t available any more. Ria Percival and Olivia Chance were injured. There go four starters from the previous game. So you’ve already got a weakened team and for some reason Katie Bowen and Anna Green are left on the bench. Two seasoned professionals, Green didn’t even get on the park. That’s before we even get back to players like Katie Rood and Aimee Phillips getting left out of the squad altogether.
Then the XI that was named didn’t seem to have much balance to it. Credit to Amber Hearn on a deserving nod as captain while Sarah Morton made her debut at left back. The rest of the defence was as expected but after that it was attacking options all over the place. Turns out part of that was Steph Skilton having been converted to a defender since anyone last looked. Skilton rose to prominence as a striker but lined up in a back five against Japan (NZF had named her as a defender in their squad release and I called that out at the time but hey what do you know?). So Nayler in goal, obviously, with Bott, Moore, Stott, Skilton and Morton at the back. In front of them was a second flat row of four midfielder: White, Hassett, Gregorius and Wilkinson… with Hearn up front all alone.
The game kicked off and the Ferns settled into those two flat lines, defending deep and allowing Japan plenty of possession. Like, ridiculous degrees of possession. Might as well have been watching Barcelona in their Guardiola/Messi/Xavi/Iniesta prime, quarter of an hour in and it was close to 80%. Meikayla Moore was lucky not to score an own goal when she slammed one off the post while Erin Nayler was forced into a couple sharp saves. Eventually the pressure all tolled and a deflected Mina Tanaka shot looped up off Moore’s leg and sailed unstoppably under the crossbar for 1-0.
A corner down the other end was lobbed in dangerously by Rosie White and then a quick scramble and, bloody hell, it was 1-1 thanks to Moore. Ol’ Mouse with the thumping finish from about two yards out! That sure got the crowd pumping after the tentative beginnings… but we were swiftly back into regular proceedings.
Japan dominated the ball and were given the space in the midfield to pick out passes. The two lines stuck close together but defending as mechanically as they were the Japanese playmakers were still able to drift in between the lines and cause trouble. Then the expertly-delivered chipped balls over the top of the defence started flowing. It was all too much. Tanaka completed her hat-trick before half-time and, honestly, it could have been more. Skilton should’ve conceded a penalty and there were a handful of chances that were either well saved by Nayler or squandered by the attack. Not that it mattered because they could always try again in thirty seconds. Japan had eight shots on target in the first half alone, not to mention 76% of possession.
The thing is, defensive football is not inherently a bad thing. Sometimes it really is the smartest option, sometimes it’s simply a necessity forced upon you by a dominant opponent. In this case it was entirely voluntary, which was frustrating to say the least, pretty much ensuring that Japan attacked in waves upon waves in the first half.
That’s something that we’ve seen too often in Aotearoa. Anthony Hudson spoiled many a game for the All Whites by doing very similar things. It’s a risky tactic because of how much pressure you’re expected to withstand without cracking, without making a single individual error, and it’s also extremely risky because, well, it’s so bloody negative. Almost to the point of cynicism. And negative thinking is not what inspires players to thrive and succeed to their potential. You’ve got to get immense buy-in from your team if they’re going to pull that off, not even a shred of doubt. To be fair that’s something that Hudson did do quite well (though it clearly didn’t translate to the fans)… but Heraf just had his best player re-retire because of the atmosphere around the team so… how exactly is this supposed to work again?
When you’re playing that deep you’re inviting the game into your half. Which then makes it even more difficult to get out of your own half. You need to have outlets and a single striker up against four defenders fifty yards away is not gonna be much use. Yet that’s all that was left for the Ferns. It’s one thing to play compact and conservative knowing that you’re up against it but how about giving yourself a little hope too? A better way to do this would have been something like a 3-4-3 or even Anthony Hudson’s favourite 3-5-2 formation, allowing for a good spread of coverage across the park and allowing a couple wingbacks to surge forward in support, linking with midfielders and offering purpose to your possession. Otherwise it’s just whack it up there and see what happens. They even did that from kickoffs… they literally hoofed their kickoffs into the corners like it was a Hurricanes game and Beauden Barrett was kicking for territory.
So, no, this was not a particularly good performance. Japan won 3-1 with the second half a dull affair thanks to the twelve combined substitutions that were made – typical friendly game petering out into not much. Even then it could well have been five or six goals. It could even, Andreas, have been eight.
And yet which players are you going to single out for causing that? Who was it who put in a subpar effort that allowed Japan to dominate so much? Sure wasn’t Hannah Wilkinson playing out of position as a right midfielder and throwing herself about, trying to charge forward with the ball and disrupt things. Meikayla Moore and Rebekah Stott had pretty excellent games in defence, CJ Bott was ferocious at right back. Skilton and Morton weren’t as involved with Japan attacking down the other side mostly but they held their own while Erin Nayler was superb in goal, none of the three strikes anything she could have prevented. Amber Hearn put in a shift for what must have been about five total touches while Gregorius and Hassett toiled hard and Rosie White’s drive made a noticeable difference. Katie Bowen was sharp coming on at half-time. Nobody actually appeared to play that poorly so you’ve got to throw it back on the coach and his tactics.
What’s most disappointing are the comments he made afterwards, implying that it was either play the most defensive football imaginable or lose 8-0 because Japan are just so much better. This whole article so far has focussed on the ways in which Heraf actually made the Ferns play worse by being this defensive, which is a splash of cold water already but then add on the defeatist attitude, bordering on complete condescension, and this coming from a man who is also the technical director of New Zealand Football!? That’s the worst part. He’s supposed to be overseeing the whole damn operation and he has zero faith in the nation’s players. It’s sad, to be honest. Just sad.
Signs are much better from his mate Fritz Schmid with the All Whites, at least. But after the happy yet tactically naïve times of Tony Readings, Heraf was supposed to bring this Ferns team into a new and more successful era and he’s already kinda admitted he doesn’t think we’re capable. Granted this was a weakened team but you also left the country’s best defensive midfielder, Katie Bowen, on the bench so that excuse is immediately voided. And the tiny island nation of Iceland destroys the population argument right now too.
That attitude quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because lining up the way they did against Japan, they were only ever going to lose. Then Heraf points at that and says: ‘at least it wasn’t worse!’ But it didn’t need to be that way in the first place. It strikes as yet another coach who thinks that football is about what you do without the ball. Who thinks that football is about how you stop the opposition. Another coach who wants too much control in how his team plays.
My question is this: Is football in Aotearoa really so deep in the dark ages that we can’t develop our own coaches? Is it really about qualifications or is there an inferiority complex out there where NZF feels like we need some kind of foreign guardian to guide us out of our ignorance? Because the qualification thing feels like an excuse rather than a problem, simply find a place that’s running some programmes and send a bunch of people there. Done. Obviously it costs money but so does not qualifying for World Cups. It’s much better than bringing over coaches from Europe and then paying them to tell us that New Zealanders don’t know how to play football. Jog on, mate.
Sorta makes you refigure that Abby Erceg re-retirement, doesn’t it? At the time I had some sympathy for Heraf as a manager trying to enforce stricter accountability upon a team that, let’s be honest, has largely underperformed at major events. But now he mostly seems like a grumpy bugger, stripping away all that accountability so that at least they don’t lose 8-0. Japan were technically excellent but they’re not unbeatable. The Ferns allowed them to do this thing the easy way.
What a waste.
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