The Footy Ferns Have Begun Their Olympic Journey The Same Way The World Cup One Ended
The Football Ferns departed the FIFA World Cup in June 2019. The Olympics take place in July 2020. That’s thirteen months between major tournaments, thirteen months to correct the things that held them back at the World Cup and hopefully catch some waves with the world watching in Tokyo. Well it’s been almost five months since that World Cup exit now and the Fernies were finally back in action, officially signalling the shift from one focus to the next.
The occasion was a cheeky little invitational tournament in China with a game against the hosts and then a game against either Canada or Brazil; Canada as it worked out. The squad that Tom Sermanni picked for these two games had most of the big names but a mini defensive crisis opened up some fresh opportunities while a desire to expand the depth in the squad and create more competition for places saw some much needed rotation along the fringes as well. Results weren’t as important as those steps along the journey but any chance to play against quality opposition (all three of these teams made the World Cup knockouts) is a chance to claim some victims for a team that is so often caught between being too good for teams worse than them and not good enough for teams better than them.
That’s the trick with the Ferns and to graduate from being a battling bunch of underdogs to a team that is genuinely feared by the bigger nations is pretty simple: start scoring some bloody goals. They scored one at the World Cup and it was an own goal with ten minutes left in their third game. They had four shots on target across those three matches. There were reasons why their strikers were all less than at their best and the manager has to cop some heat for his selections for not mitigating all that too. But that’s just where we are right now. Creating chances and then taking a few of those chances. It’s the biggest hurdle towards the Ferns being able to achieve their goals in major tournaments.
Against China, Tom Sermanni handed out three debuts – Claudia Bunge was named to start and Jana Radosavljević and Nicole Stratford both came off the bench, the first Ferns debuts since Nadia Olla and Grace Jale at the Nations Cup a year ago and more debutants in one game than Sermanni had in his sixteen previous games combined. To be fair the World Cup kinda takes priority over such things but that’s why this tour was so useful. It was really the first opportunity that Tommy Shades has had to blood new players (and offer experience to fringe players, equally as valuable) against teams of the level that the Ferns are striving to reach.
Bunge and Stratford are both defenders so their inclusion was more to do with the absences of Abby Erceg, Meikayla Moore, and Anna Green... especially with a back three still in favour for Sermanni (the Ferns have alternated between back four and back five formations throughout Sermanni’s time in charge). Hannah Wilkinson also started just her second international since recovering from that knee injury, she played up front alone with a bit of a tweak to things there looking for more of a focal point. Steph Skilton also an interesting starter having mostly been a bench option for Sermanni in his time.
But the journey has a way to go yet because the same old issues remained. The Ferns actually created a bit. That’s a big positive against a Chinese team that isn’t what it once was but is getting back up there again and this was in their home conditions too of course. Wilkinson enjoyed the physical advantage against smaller defenders and Ria Percival was busy as always, being a presence getting forwards as well.
But they couldn’t put anything away and having held China quiet for the first hour of the game they lost coverage of China’s far and away best player in Wang Shuang and suddenly they were behind. Can’t really be doing that, you know. Paige Satchell missed a great chance to level it up late on and then Wang Shuang scored another on the counter attack right at the end with the Ferns having committed players forward. Sermanni raved about the level of performance and was left bemoaning an unfair result... but if you don’t score goals then this is what happens. It’s not enough to have these moral consolations, the Ferns have been there and done that before. Unlucky defeats aren’t so unlucky when they keep on happening and since beating England 1-0 in the shadow of that World Cup they’ve now lost six games in a row, being held scoreless in five of six and the one game they scored in it was an own goal. Results weren’t the main focus of this tour but you can see the troubling nature of that pattern, right?
The sixth of those defeats was against Canada in the consolation game. Canada had been beaten 4-0 by Brazil in their semi-final (China then beat Brazil on penalties in the final)... they then went and beat New Zealand 3-0 here. Christine Sinclair scored in the first half before Janine Beckie got a double in four minutes midway through the second spell. Not much to say about the performance. We lost 2-0 to this lot at the World Cup so not a lot has changed and the game wasn’t even on telly for some reason either so yeah. Once again, results weren’t the priority but losing both games and by a combined scored of 5-0 after the disappointments of the World Cup ain’t exactly endearing.
So the conundrum of goals remains unsolved. But amidst Tom Sermanni saying he has an “open mind” about Olympic selection there were some curious distributions of minutes out here in this tournament. Only four players played all 180 minutes: Erin Nayler, Ali Riley, Rebekah Stott, and Ria Percival. Unsurprisingly all of those players are ones with big defensive responsibilities in a team already weakened at the back. CJ Bott and Steph Skilton weren’t far behind in the minutes either. Sarah Morton and the two reserve keepers were the only three not to take the field at all.
Some of those veteran midfielders and attackers on the other hand, they got a bit of a wake-up call here. That’s partly down to the rotation of getting different women a go but Betsy Hassett and Rosie White only played the China game. Olivia Chance only played the Canada game. Annalie Longo played 25 minutes in the second game and that was it. Sarah Gregorius came off the bench both times but played a combined 15 minutes. Meanwhile the likes of Katie Rood, Jana Radosavljević, and Hannah Blake all got extended runs out there.
For the first two in particular that’s pretty important as both Rood and Rado are playing regular professional footy, albeit in the second tiers of England and Germany respectively, and each have been scoring goals for their clubs as well. That’s the kind of production we cannot be ignoring (neither were in the World Cup squad, though Rado was still working her way back from a knee injury at the time). And Hannah Blake’s been scoring goals at college level in the States too. Even if they’re not considered on the same tier as Wilkinson and White and Gregorius, it’s important to have internal pressure for places within these squads. Players have to feel that accountability for their performances. We simply have to start scoring goals somehow.
A lot of this also falls on Tom Sermanni. It’s his job to facilitate the team in a way that best allows for goal scoring chances and so it was funky to see him tweaking that formation a little too. It didn’t have the required result but it shows that he’s not resting on any laurels here. He knows what the issues are and he’s trying to fix them. The solution is as much about finding creativity in the midfield as it is finding consistent finishing up top... and Olivia Chance feels like a bit of a wildcard in that equation. Bringing Jana Radosavljević into the mix could be a difference maker too.
However the number one breakout player of this tour was without a doubt Claudia Bunge. Fair play to the likes of Steph Skilton and Katie Rood for getting more prominent roles than they’ve been used to lately but Bunge was a star on debut against China, playing with the poise of a player with fifty caps to her name. She’s one who has done the full progression from U17s to U20s to FFDP and is now captaining Northern Lights in the NWL and it’s not hard to imagine her graduating into the professional ranks soon either. Just a shame that she was injured in the second game and could only play 37 minutes, coming off soon after Canada scored their first goal. By the way, Bunge sat a uni exam in between these two games. That’s all class right there.
That’ll be that for the Ferns in 2019 but you’d hope they have a nice and active 2020 leading into the Olympics just as they did for the World Cup. There’s a lot of work to do and it won’t happen accidentally. This Chinese tour was another frustrating one as the goals evaded the Ferns and results went crooked but there were some pretty valuable things to take from it also. But the team needs to stay active in order to capitalise on all that. We’ll see how it goes.
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