There were happier ways that the Football Ferns could have brought the historic year that was 2023 to a conclusion... but this was probably the most truthful way. Another impressive knuckling-down defensive slog against a higher-ranked team in which a single spare error cost them their clean sheet amidst nowhere near enough attacking output to overcome that. Good but not quite good enough. Promising but not rewarding. A work in progress.

That’s fine. Fact is, this is an exact representation of where the Football Ferns are at. More to the point we already knew this, the World Cup made it abundantly clear. Now we’re at the start of a new World Cup cycle with a clear idea of what the team’s strengths and weaknesses are and no silly illusions of grand expectations. There’s a new bunch of emerging leaders who will form the skeleton of the Fernies over the next four years. Katie Bowen, Rebekah Stott, Malia Steinmetz. Maybe even Anna Leat based on this tour... and we’ll see where we’re at with CJ Bott next time. There are still a few of the older brigade with plenty more to offer. There’s no shortage of younger players really now beginning to command selection, especially from outside the group that went to the World Cup. More professional players than ever with a second NZ A-League team on the way in 2025. This is a good place to be.

But it’s a slow process and there’s plenty more work to do. If this Colombia tour saw them regather the defensive solidity that we saw at the World Cup, after the aberration of that Chile tour, then they’re still no closer to figuring out the goal-scoring problem. Admittedly they’ve played against some world class defences/goalkeepers in this stretch but, regardless, only scoring one goal in their last six games is hardly acceptable behaviour. That one goal was a penalty too, so there’s been nothing from open play. Then again, four clean sheets in their last nine is excellent. Half full or half empty. Or both. It is what it is.

The goals are going to remain an issue for a while yet. Jitka Klimková has tried all sorts of tactics, she’s tried all sorts of line-ups. Ultimately we just don’t have the players. Most of the forwards who’ve been getting minutes are at the early stages of their careers and should continue to improve. There’s far more depth now than there was after the 2019 WC which will drive the standards upwards with competition. But none of that happens overnight.

Another way to look at it is this: given the well-known struggles that this team has in and around the attacking penalty area, and the inexperience in their attacking group, what exactly made you think they would score against Colombia? The Ferns finished this game with a front three of Ava Collins, Ruby Nathan, and Paige Satchell. Collins only just finished up playing uni-ball in America. Ruby Nathan is a few games into her first professional season and was on debut. Paige Satchell was the most likely of the trio but 2 goals in 48 internationals tells you something (that you probably already knew). There’s always a chance... but it wasn’t much of a chance.

There were some bright signs from Grace Jale and, especially, Jacqui Hand in there. Satchell gave them some energy off the bench in both games. Collins was very decent in the first one. Overall it was more of the same though. 180 minutes without a goal. We all know what the deal is. Nothing has changed. Don’t get angry at something you already understood.

So how’d this one go then? For starters, there was one change to the team from game one and that was an enforced one with Rebekah Stott out with illness and Kate Taylor therefore getting a go instead. That meant further starts for Mackenzie Barry and Ava Collins. It meant Grace Jale up top with Jacqui Hand again. It meant a continuation of the 4-4-2 formation that seems to give them much more of that defensive grittiness that was the theme of the game one round-up. It also meant Katie Bowen wearing the captain’s armband in her 100th appearance. She might’ve gotten the armband anyway but without Stott (or Riley or Percival) it was a guarantee – crowning a resurgent year of form from Bowen in which she’s truly emerged as one of the key leaders in this Ferns environment.

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Strangely, the game was played behind closed doors. Nobody on the NZF side seemed to even realise that until a few days beforehand and considering the great crowd that they got in the first match – Colombia’s return home after a brilliant World Cup campaign – you’d have assumed they could’ve carried that on. But okay yeah nah. Not that it was a quiet outing. An amusement park behind one of the goals kept the noise carrying, even on a Tuesday afternoon local time.

Having been caught out by the altitude in the other game, it was good to see the touches being a little stickier. Far from perfect and there were still passes drifting beyond the reach of their intended targets but it was much better than last time. Also much better were Colombia who kept lots more possession in the initial stages, showing a pretty handy ability to overload their press. Particularly in the middle. That led to a few turnovers (Indi Riley lost a couple and she wasn’t alone, Kate Taylor also spraying a couple passes)... yet those turnovers were also the only time when Colombia actually looked like they could break through. Likewise, the Ferns didn’t create much but they were winning a few tackles up top and that’s where their occasional threats emerged from.

Within ten minutes it was kinda obvious that Defence > Attack for both teams. In other words, the result was going depend on which team made fewer mistakes. Considering the inexperience in the Ferns side that was both a good thing and also a worrying thing. Further still when Malia Steinmetz was subbed off after only 20 minutes – must have been a precautionary thing because she didn’t look hurt, though she did have her hands on her knees just prior to the sub so maybe she was struggling with the altitude. Anyway, it gave Katie Kitching seventy minutes to show what she’s capable of after only getting a short cameo on debut.

Colombia had made six changes to their starting team from game one, with that previous XI having closely resembled the team that walked out against England in the World Cup quarter-final. They then made another change at half-time. Klimková also made a HT sub with Paige Satchell on for Indi Riley. It might be that Riley was on a minutes restriction from her club, it might also be that she wasn’t a hundred percent fit – she did miss PSV’s most recent game though not sure if that was fitness related or travel related or perhaps simply rest/rotation related. Whatever the reason, it was a very quite couple of games from IPR following an impressive World Cup.

Still we strode on with the same impasse. Hand and Satchell did a few promising things. Kitching looked pretty tidy doing that pass-and-move stuff and flexing some fine passing vision, she’s going to be fun to keep an eye on for Sunderland. Things were opening up a little bit, with Anna Leat having to tip one shot around her post after an overlap down the NZ left side. Jacqui Hand had a shot pushed over, a good strike after a Satchell had picked her out with an early pass (earlier than it needed to be, probably)... but too close to the keeper. On came Daisy Cleverley and Ally Green in a repeat of a double sub from the previous match.

Alas, by this point it did feel like the Ferns were having to dig in. Their lack of depth on the bench became pretty daunting when clinging to a clean sheet with only debutants and a reserve goalie available on the bench. Eventually that led to the winning goal in the 71st minute. The kiwis were able to repel a defensive corner but the ball was delivered back into the box from the other side and, in a rare bit of hesitancy, Katie Bowen allowed the ball to bounce past her thinking that Anna Leat would have it covered and Anna Leat assumed that Bowen would dispatch it to safety thus was slow to react. Onus is on the defender to play what they see in that situation. Bowen had been phenomenally good across these two games but one lapse cost us in this one. There was that defensive error to split the sides. Bugger.

The Ferns finished stronger in game one by creating a few slick chances. They did not have the same downhill finish this time. Ruby Nathan got a debut with ten to go which allowed for a switch in formation to a 3-4-3. Barry sliding into CB alongside Taylor and Bowen (with Bowen in the middle). Green and Hassett as wing-backs. But nope. They still didn’t have the ingredients. They didn’t have the currency. In fact they were lucky not to concede in the dying moments after everyone went forward for a free kick, taken by Anna Leat in the attacking half, then Colombia cleared and countered. Leat and a sprinting Satchell did just enough to disrupt things and keep it at 1-0. And that was that.

Some more thoughts...

The Colombians really love a jersey swap, aye? Don’t often see that so much in friendlies, especially not in women’s footy. Looked like at least half the NZers ended up with a Colombian jersey. Including Ruby Nathan – giving away the shirt she wore on debut... but then she’s probably got a spare anyway and the Colombian one will look way cooler in a frame on the wall. It’s the rarer keepsake.

Terrible news in between the games that Marisa van der Meer, it turns out, tore her ACL in warm-ups prior to the first match. Finally got that deserved call-up to the national team and instead of a debut she gets a season-ender. This only about a month after Wellington Phoenix teammate Grace Wisnewski suffered the same injury, while Annalie Longo has only recently returned from that injury and scholarship player and NZ age grade winger Olivia Ingham is in the latter stages of her recovery. At least she’ll have plenty of people to talk to at the Nix. Women’s football have an epidemic of ACL tears and the Football Ferns are not immune. Ria Percival, Hannah Wilkinson, Olivia Chance, Amber Hearn, Katie Rood... all of them have torn ACLs within the past five years. Wilkinson’s done it twice in her career.

So... is Anna Leat the new number one? She’s now started three games in a row after getting both against Colombia – the first time she’s gotten multiple starts on a tour before. All the Leat context was offered up in the game one write-up but it remained to be seen if Vic Esson might still make it a job share like we’ve seen pretty regularly from Klimková. Well, she didn’t. And Anna Leat was as reliable in this game as she was in the last one. Let’s see how this one unfolds.

An important bit of context for these games, and for the youthful look in the squad (even if a few of the youngsters didn’t actually get gametime in the end), is that the next time the Ferns are in action will be for the Oceania Olympic qualifiers. Early February, with NZ in a group alongside Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Then semis and a final. Five games in the space of two weeks. There is a specialist window there which allows NZ Football to call-up players for a maximum of 16 days but given the opposition and considering how generous NZF can tend when dealing with clubs it would not be a surprise if that group is considerably below top strength. Could see plenty of young pros and recent age grade players getting a few caps there. Note that the A-League plays all the way through, with the Phoenix scheduled for two games during that span – although they might be able to wrangle a postponement if enough players get called up.

When the men’s Olympic qualifiers were on this year they let them have rolling squads that could be completely changed from game to game. Darren Bazeley used 23 players across just three matches with three others as unused subs. A similar situation would be handy since some of those senior Ferns might want to get amongst it to boost their stats. There’s not a woman amongst them who wouldn’t fancy adding a couple goals to their career tally. Both Grace Jale’s international goals were scored in the 2018 Oceania Nations Cup, as well as one of Paige Satchell’s two.

Paige Satchell was pretty good here again. But Paige Satchell was pretty good within the existing paradigm of still not providing goals or assists. Not really sure what to make of that other than that she’s best in shorter stints of pure energy (which Klimková already knew because nobody has made more sub appearances for the Ferns in 2023 than Satchell with 11... compared to just two starts). Let her get cooking at London City and see how things are looking in February.

By then we should have added at least half a dozen more professional players to the longlist between the American college graduates and whichever domestic players get scooped up overseas. Feels reasonable to expect a couple, in keeping with the likes of Kiara Bercelli, Emma Pijnenburg, Olivia Page, and Jana Niedermayr at the start of this year. None of whom are in the senior team picture yet, by the way (though all are youth reps). The Welly Nix are scouting for an injury replacement or two as well.

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