Aotearoa at the U20 WWC: Game One vs Netherlands
That first game was about what we had reason to expect. The U20 kiwi women rocked up in France with an exciting team but a ruthless draw. First up was the Netherlands and if you were committed enough to get up in the middle of the night (putting those World Cup reps to further use) then you were treated to a team from Aotearoa that brought structure and sensibility to their game but also a positive mindset and the intent to play some footy in the other half of the field.
The Dutch had most of the ball in the first half, establishing pretty early on what this game was going to be like, but Liz Anton and Claudia Bunge were setting the tone at the back with some heavy challenges and controlled defence. The kiwis had no choice but to let the team in orange pass it around a bit but they kept their shape in the press, able to force a few nervy moments for the Dutch keeper with a couple rushed clearances with a kiwi shadow coming down upon her.
That’s mostly how it was but NZ did have a couple outlets where we were able to make things happen. Paige Satchell’s pace is legendary in local football circles. You saw here that it holds up globally too. Plus fullback Aneka Mittendorff’s long throws were causing havoc time and time again.
But yeah, when the Dutch were able to get their quick passing going they were a little too much to handle and after a few testing moments, Anna Leat made to sweat in goal once or twice, Fenna Kalma stabbed one in from close after Denisa Pelova had evaded Malia Steinmetz’s challenge. It was coming, to be honest. The kiwi midfield just couldn’t hang onto the ball against a quality Dutch side and you kinda felt it might get worse once the first goal went in.
Haha, mate. Have some faith. Instead Hannah Blake levelled us up on the brink of the break with an absolute stunner of a strike, coming from a lovely flick-on header from Sam Tawharu off a Mittendorff long throw, where Blake rolled her defender and then somehow smashed the ball back across the goal despite the angle. An outstanding goal, that one. Coming in, the speculation was that Blake was the player with the most cutting edge, the likeliest to supply those rare NZ goals on the big stage. Well what do you know? Here was the vindication.
Only problem was that Blake also came into this game with a bit of a back injury and she’d need to be replaced by Jacqui Hand early in the second half. Which was a bloody shame because Gareth Turnbull’s side made a couple adjustments in that 2H, getting a little more active in shutting down the Dutch team higher up the park, and there were some near-glorious moments to follow. Grace Jale, Sam Tawharu, Paige Satchell and Maggie Jenkins all had chances to sneak a lead – a real bummer that our best finisher wasn’t there with them.
Still, for a long time it felt like the team from Aotearoa might hold on for the draw, which’d be a brilliant result that’d leave them in good position to advance to the quarters. We tend not to get to have nice things at World Cups though. New Zealand teams come back with moral victories far more often than they get actual, tangible, literal victories. With 12 minutes left, Eva Van Deursen had a little too much space on the edge of the box and she whacked one inside the far post well beyond Leat’s reach. The Netherlands won it 2-1.
This does leave us with an enormous task to make the knockouts. The top two teams in the group go through and recovering from that first up loss is usually a killer. France are up next and they’ll probably be even better than the Dutch. They beat Ghana 4-1 overnight so yeah, gonna be rather hard. A draw would keep things alive, a defeat could end it with a game to spare.
But we didn’t send this team over with those expectations. It’d be nice, sure, except that we still need to be realistic about it all. With all that’s been going on in NZ Football recently and especially on the female side of things, it’s most important just to see a team that goes out there and tries to scrap it up with the best in the business, a team that isn’t intimidated and a team capable of inspiring fans, peers, coaches and administrators.
To that point, Gareth Turnbull deserves plenty of credit for shrugging off the influence of his former boss and getting his team pressing forward with intent. There’s pace and there’s power in this NZ U20 side, and they’ve got to be using that if they’re going to bring any scalps back to Aotearoa. Netherlands didn’t make that easy with their slick technique and a lot of advanced possession but you could see the desire was there to rustle them up.
Anyway, next up is France at 5.30am on Thursday morning. As long as everyone’s fit then there’s no real need to change anything but we’ll leave that up to the gaffer. Smack an ad if you made it this far and pop a few bucks our way on Patreon if you think TNC’s worth it.
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