On behalf of The Niche Cache, you’re officially pardoned if a couple friendlies against Olympic champs Canada don’t quite wet your Football Ferns whistle. The whole conundrum that the Fernies find themselves in is that they’re far too good for Oceania but not yet good enough for major tournaments. The jump between those two standards is huge and they rarely get to properly test themselves against teams of a similar level. Canada are not a team of a similar level. They just won the damn Olympics. And to make matters worse, because of the pandemic the Ferns are having to take a weakened squad into these games.

It’s nice to be able to have games. First and foremost that’s the priority, especially with new coach Jitka Klimková on board and seeking to put her stamp on things. But beyond that a Ferns team that has not won a game since beating England 1-0 in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup is not gonna be massively well served by losing a couple more games to add to a current winless streak that already stands at 12 games. We’re past the point where we should get excited merely for the opportunity to play the world’s top teams. The Fernies play the world’s top teams all the time. It’s condescending towards ourselves to get all hyped up over games like that.

Chances are, it’s a financially motivated decision. Canada are taking a leaf out of the American book and trying to play a bunch of games around the nation to showcase their golden Olympians and the Ferns are just taking what’s available. Which is fair enough. There are also a few personnel connections with Canadian footy with both their men’s and women’s national team coaches having worked for NZF in the past. It’s just a bit annoying, is all. Then again nobody’ll be saying that if the Fernies spring a massive upset. If that happens then it’ll be worth it all and then some.

The All Whites just went to Bahrain with a squad of players that excluded anyone based in Australia or Aotearoa and they won a pair of games and impressed along the way. It was fantastic from the lads... but the Ferns simply don’t have the same quantity of overseas pros at their disposal. Currently there are seven kiwis on full A-League W contracts so they’re all out of it. Claudia Bunge, Paige Satchell, Rebekah Stott, Hannah Wilkinson, Marisa van der Meer, Liz Anton, and Malia Steinmetz. Then you chuck in anyone currently based in Aotearoa, of which there’ll be a few angling for Wellington Phoenix contracts, and there go Anna Green, Annalie Longo, and Mickey Robertson from the Olympic squad just for starters.

You could wrangle a very solid starting team out of established overseas pros... but not a squad. Hence what we’ve ended up with is a team with eight players from USA universities. Players who have all played youth stuff for New Zealand, a couple of them even senior stuff, but who in most cases are a couple years away from contending for places in the Ferns squad under regular circumstances. An amazing opportunity for some of them to lay down a case with the 2023 World Cup in mind but yeah it does mean that the squad as a whole could do with more time in the oven because it’s pretty undercooked. Literally half the players selected have six or fewer caps with six of them uncapped entirely. That’s the state of it. Let’s go through the squad.

GOALKEEPERS

Victoria Esson – Avaldsnes, NOR (3 caps/0 goals)

Anna Leat - West Ham United, ENG (5/0)

Erin Nayler - Unattached (73/0)

You know what, there’s nothing much to see here. The same three keepers from the Olympic squad were all available so here we go. Vic Esson has been playing week in and week out for Avaldsnes as they near the end of their season in Norway. Anna Leat made her debut for West Ham in a League Cup group stage game a few hours before this squad was made public. She’s only sat on the bench in WSL games but is working hard under the trusted tutelage of West Ham’s new-ish manager: NZ’s own Olli Harder. As for Erin Nayler, there was a question mark there because she’s been unattached since leaving a disappointing stint at Reading FC at the end of the last English season, and the Welly Nix women would surely have gotten at least some thought in her mind, however the word is there that she’s pursuing her next move in Europe or America so the long-time numero uno is good to go. Moving on now.

DEFENDERS

CJ Bott – Vålerenga, NOR (27/1)

Katie Bowen - Kansas City, USA (73/3)

Tahlia Herman-Watt - Arizona State University, USA (0/0)

Meikayla Moore – Liverpool, ENG (44/3)

Ali Riley - Orlando Pride, USA (137/1)

No Abby Erceg, damn. With all the chaos going around in the NWSL at the moment she’s probably fair in hanging back and taking care of North Carolina Courage business this window. The team’s head coach just got sacked for past misconduct (if you missed that story there are some words on it in a couple of our recent Substack newsletters – sign up to the list within), leading to a whole league-wide reckoning, and she’s the captain of the team. This is an extraordinary circumstance so we’ll leave it at that.

Unfortunately that does take 140+ caps of experience out of a team that’s already missing the likes of Stott, Bunge, Green, and Anton... of the eight players unavailable from the Olympic squad four of them are centreback options plus Stott was already out for Tokyo. Hence Meikayla Moore is the only true CB in this squad. That’s a worry. That’s not good. Especially since Moore hasn’t played as much for Liverpool early this season as hoped – a new coach came in and she seems to be having to earn her way back into the eleven again. Eh, she did it last time. Got a good ninety mins in the Conti Cup most recently.

So who else plays CB? Katie Bowen is the one who’s been nominated by the sounds of it and she has played in central defence for the Ferns before... though from memory it was in a back three. Not sure they can do the back three thing here or it’d mean finding another fill-in CB. Maybe CJ Bott... except there isn’t exactly an abundance of wide defenders in this group either. CJ Bott and Ali Riley are the no-doubter starters (and both can play on either side though it’s normally Bott RB & Riley LB) yet the only other defender in the group is Tahlia Herman-Watt. 21 year old fullback/winger coming into her second season at ASU and who was a part of the Canterbury Pride team that won the last NZ Premiership where she started every game. Like all the college call-ups, she was definitely on the trajectory... but this inclusion has come pretty early for her.

Were there other college defenders in the mix? There might have been, dunno. It’s hard to follow the college stuff at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic where not everyone has returned to their studies. It was more a matter of seeing who got picked and trying to add context to those selections.

MIDFIELDERS

Amelia Abbott - University of Texas, USA (0/0)

Hannah Blake - University of Michigan, USA (2/0)

Olivia Chance – Celtic, SCO (22/1)

Daisy Cleverley - Georgetown University, USA (12/2)

Betsy Hassett - Stjarnan, ISL (123/13)

Aniela Jensen - University of the Pacific, USA (0/0)

Ria Percival - Tottenham Hotspur, ENG (153/14)

If there aren’t many defenders in the squad then it makes sense that there’ll be more midfielders and forwards. Ria Percival leads the way, Aotearoa’s most capped international footballer and someone who has been in top form at club level so far this season (except for her shooting, tbf). Percy can also cover the defensive areas but you get the feeling that she’s too important in the midfield to play anywhere else. She’s joined by fellow centurion Betsy Hassett, a more attacking option, whose league season in Iceland finished about a month ago... and just this week Betsy signed a new two-year contract with Stjarnan.

Then there’s Olivia Chance who surprisingly only has 22 caps to her name but has established herself as a first choice player in the last couple years. She’s been in top form with Celtic lately, scoring three goals and assisting three more as they seek the club’s first SWPL title. And Daisy Cleverley may technically be part of the university crew but she’s doing post-grad studies and with starts against both USA and Sweden at the Olympics she was arguably the player who boosted their stocks the most amongst the NZ group at that tournament. Very tidy midfielder with a good work rate and someone likely to be involved in most squads moving forward, she’s not in the same territory as her other college sisters.

Below that we get into more curious territory. Hannah Blake has actually played internationally before. Multiple times. As a teenager she was called up for a couple games against Thailand in 2017 (when Andreas Heraf first took over as interim boss) and made her debut off the bench in one of them aged 17 years and six months. Then she found her way back into the team for the post-World Cup tour of China in late-2019 and again made a substitute appearance. Blake is an attacking midfielder with an eye for goal (she scored a hat-trick at the U17 World Cup one time), though seems to play deeper for her uni team by the sounds.

No such experience for Amelia Abbott or Aniela Jensen however. Like THW, they’re proper bolters in this squad. Abbott was a part of the U17 World Cup side that finished third in 2018, while Jensen was on standby for that group. The cool thing about last year’s National League was that because of covid quite a lot of overseas students were back in Aotearoa and available to play so both Abbott and Jensen were able to impress at that level, Abbott as a sturdy midfielder for the champs Canterbury while Jensen was the star player for Central, impressing throughout despite playing for a very young team that was often overmatched (in fact along with Cleverley and Gabi Rennie she was one of three players from this squad who gained Premmy Files Teams of the Season honours).

FORWARDS

Ava Collins - St John’s University, USA (0/0)

Jacqui Hand - Colorado College, USA (0/0)

Maggie Jenkins - University of Central Florida, USA (1/0)

Gabi Rennie - Indiana University, USA (3/1)

Emma Rolston - Arna-Bjørnar, NOR (6/6)

Sam Tawharu - University of Iowa, USA (0/0)

Rosie White - OL Reign, USA (109/24)

It’s rare that we see any kind of depth in attack in Footy Ferns squads. There tends not to be an abundance of goal-scoring options at the disposal. Whether they’ll score goals or not is another matter but there are definitely attacking options in this one. And unlike the other areas of the park where the collegers are likely to be bench depth... there are likely to be spots up for grabs in attack. That’s because the no-doubter centre-forward, who has started each of the last six international fixtures, is Hannah Wilkinson and her signing with Melbourne City takes her out of contention for this particular tour.

Luckily Rosie White is back. A flare up of an old illness of some sort kept her out of the Olympics and most of the NWSL season with OL Reign. She’s still yet to feature in a matchday squad for the Reign but she is officially off the injured list and back at full capacity training. Might be rough to expect her usual levels from her straight away though, keep it in context for someone who has missed the last five months of footy.

Helpfully, Emma Rolston is playing regularly for her new club in Norway. Scoring goals for them too which is always beneficial... she’s the fourth top international scorer in the squad despite only having six caps to her name, granted those goals all came in heavy wins during the last OFC Nations Cup. Rolston’s start against USA at the Olympics, which came before she moved to Norway, was her first since in nearly three years for the national team but she’s clearly worked her way back into the mix and would still be there if this were a full strength team.

On that note... odd that neither Jana Radosavljevic or Katie Rood are in this squad given they’ve both recently moved to new clubs in Germany and England respectively, each dropping down a division after their last stints but no dramas there. However that could be an injury decision. Rado is still on the mend from a meniscus knock that ruled her out of Tokyo while Rood has missed time for Southampton recently.

Meaning that the rest of these ladies have just a handful of caps between them all. Gabi Rennie was the other breakout Fern at the Olympics with her goal on debut against Australia. She was a bolter in that squad but she’s not a bolter in this one. The exact type of striker who the Ferns have lacked in recent times and therefore the exact type of player who needs (and is getting) these opportunities. Well-rounded technical and a knack for finishing, get in. Maggie Jenkins has also got one spare international appearance which dates back to that Thailand tour (where Elise Mamanu-Gray, Vic Esson, Malia Steinmetz, and Liz Anton also debuted) but this is her first selection since. Jenkins was even younger than Blake when she debuted (16 years 5 months) and is another one from the 2018 U17s – one of four in the squad (Leat, Abbott, Jenkins, Rennie).

Sammi Tawharu and Ava Collins we saw playing National League for Northern and Auckland respectively last season. Tawharu looked excellent playing as a generous number nine, somebody who’d hold the ball up and bring teammates into play, while Collins is someone who’ll play a little less direct and try to bring more skill into the fold. To be completely honest, Collins is the most surprising inclusion here, especially given the lack of defenders picked... but that’s all the more reason to go out and make the most of this opportunity. Like many of the young strikers in this group she’s also someone who can played deeper or wider if need be. Dig that versatility.

And finally there’s Jacqui Hand who at 22 is a couple years older than most of the other student-athletes in this squad, she’s in the middle of her fourth season at Colorado College and as much as any kiwi player at an American university she seems to constantly pop up in the old twitter feed as having done something impressive. That’s anecdotal evidence so perhaps three goals and an assist in her last seven games will tell the tale more accurately. She’s also so excited for this...

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