Football Ferns vs the ‘Tildas: Game Two, Lots To Ponder
The problem with this Footy Ferns series against Australia is that they’re better than us. By a decent margin. They’re out there plotting how they’re gonna progress through the knockouts at the next World Cup while we’re just hoping we can win one game. Yet another example of the Ferns playing teams who are either considerably stronger or considerably weaker, making it hard to gauge exactly where they’re at.
The Ferns have had a few more games within their weight class lately, games in which they’ve done pretty well. A 2-0 win and a 2-1 loss against South Korea. A 1-0 loss to Iceland. 0-0 vs Czechia. This was not that. But it always helps to keep mixing it up, stay learning, put the team in different situations to see how they react, etc. And although a 3-1 defeat in game two didn’t quite have the same drama as the last gasp defeat of the first match between the Fernies and Matildas there was definitely plenty to learn.
Not so much from the game itself. You know how the All Whites dismantled the Solomon Islands the other week by thoroughly crushing them in that one specific area of aerial crosses? This was the same thing. Nobody in the Ferns team could stick with Sam Kerr for pace or for her leaping ability and she helped herself to a first half double, plus some slow reaction to a bit of broken play allowed Hayley Raso the space to shoot and she whipped it into the bottom corner in between those Kerr strikes. To be fair, they were three superbly taken goals from Australia. Their finishing came up short (until it didn’t) on Friday night but on Tuesday night they had more than enough clinical moments to put the game out of reach by the half.
The most frustrating thing was that there simply wasn’t much the Ferns could do about it. Sure, they might have had better blocking on Sam Kerr from corner kicks. Can’t compete against the leap but if you can stop her getting to that point then job done. Maybe don’t concede corners so willingly in defence in the first place too. But that doesn’t help the open play issues they were having, issues stemming directly from a lack of pace across the team. You can’t just will yourself into being faster. Can’t organise pace.
It could have gotten ugly for a while there but in the end it didn’t. A Hannah Wilkinson goal just before the break and then some positive impact from a bunch of subs steadied the proverbial ship. Gotta also acknowledge that Australia took their foot off the gas with the lead but it was much better in the second half and the Ferns even had a few chances to sneak a second goal back which could have really made things funky. The final score was the same as the half-time score. 3-1 to Australia, just as Tom Sermanni predicted in his pundit’s chair pre-game (fella knows his stuff, aye?). A comfortable loss but by no means an embarrassing one.
Alright then so what did we learn? It felt like the biggest lesson of all in game two, one which we weren’t expecting to need to learn, was about playing without Ria Percival. It’s been independently confirmed by both NZ Football and Tottenham Hotspur that Percival tore her ACL in Townsville so that’s going to mean at least the rest of 2022 on the recovery trail. ACL injuries are disturbingly common in women’s football and there are several Ferns who’ve suffered the same ailment in recent years. Hannah Wilkinson and Olivia Chance both healed theirs in time to play at the last World Cup.
Chance did hers in late-April 2018 and was back playing twelve months later (and it did feel like Everton were overly cautious with her return). Wilkinson did hers in October 2018 and produced a minor miracle to play at the World Cup just nine months later. Only off the bench and she was clearly very rusty but still. Percival has the benefit of the Spurs medical team. She’ll be back as good as ever. But her run of 29 consecutive starts for the Footy Ferns ended in Canberra and her absence was chasmic.
Percival brings energy and physicality to any team she’s a part of. Without her, the Ferns lost something dynamic. A midfield combo of Katie Bowen, Betsy Hassett & Daisy Cleverley has its many benefits but it lacks balance. There isn’t a rough tackler or a defensive-minded option in there. Percival isn’t really a DM but she does play like a DM further up the pitch whilst covering an unthinkable amount of turf. She’s also very proactive, pressing forward and trying to be as disruptive as possible. Without her that midfield became kinda passive just waiting for the game to come to them... by which time it was too late.
The Ferns don’t have an obvious replacement for what Percival does (which is pretty unique tbf) so the plan is going to need to change. We know that now. That probably means a defensive midfielder and while Rebekah Stott could maybe play as a 6 in a pinch, the best option that Aotearoa has there is 7-cap Malia Steinmetz. That’s a lot to ask of someone who was only in-and-out of a pretty average Western Sydney Wanderers team last ALW season... but then having seen the impact she made off the bench in both these games as well as a standout performance against Czech Republic you also have to wonder what the hell they were thinking at WSW that she wasn’t utilised more. That might be a WSW problem rather than a Steinmetz problem, you know?
The other thing to wonder about is whether Olivia Chance is of more use in midfield (where she plays for Celtic after all) rather than on the left wing. There’s plenty of benefit to her on the wing. Great left foot. Most creative passer in the team. It means playing wider rather than centrally but it also means she’s more available in the attacking third. Chance is just straight up one of this team’s very best players at this point so there’s give and take however she’s unleashed.
Liv Chance’s brilliant pass for Wilkinson’s goal came from a central area... but it came while she was playing LW. She’s still gonna get into those areas, still gonna make things happen in attack regardless of position. The reason she might be better suited to midfield has nothing to do with creativity, it’s because she’s the Ferns’ most composed passer and far too often in games like these the team simply doesn’t have enough of that patience and control when in possession. We’re supposedly playing Norway in June (just in time for Ada Hegerberg to show back up – the Lyon forward scored a hat-trick in her first international for five years last week). A Malia Steinmetz-Katie Bowen-Liv Chance midfield trio feels like the best arrangement there.
We did actually get a decent 25 minutes of Midfield Liv in this game to see the difference. Chance switched deeper as Hassett and Cleverley were replaced at the break and Grace Jale came on in the front three. She then move back to the left-wing with twenty to go as Rebekah Stott came on. So the idea is clearly in Jitka Klimková’s mind already (as of course it would be).
Defensively there were some solid stuff aside from the aforementioned inherent weaknesses. Claudia Bunge and Meikayla Moore have both had strong tours, even if Bunge did look slightly more brittle than usual when exposed in the open field. That’s the kind of thing that can happen when you’re up against players from Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, Lyon, etc. Comes with the territory.
We’re starting to see a few A-League players from the recent season pop up at overseas clubs. Ally Green is one of them, signing with Vålerenga. Claudia Bunge definitely feels like a player who is ready for the next level. You can’t really develop players at international level – the best thing for the Ferns is to get all these players (and more) at the highest club levels possible. Including the veterans... Ria Percival has played the best footy of her career since moving to Tottenham. We’ll see how that goes.
However the front three remains a worry. The strongest case for keeping Liv Chance there – and it’s a very convincing one – is that, while we do have some decent midfield options, the attacking depth is not up to a whole lot. Gabi Rennie is a fantastic attacking prospect but she’s still at university playing against women her own age. It’s a huge leap from there to international football. Ava Collins is in the same bag. Jacqui Hand missed this series with covid, she’s only just graduated and is still looking for a pro gig. Grace Jale just finished her first pro season. Emma Rolston has a longer resume but has fewer Ferns caps than Rennie. All very inexperienced.
Hannah Wilkinson is the no doubter centre-forward but trying to get the best out of her with the Ferns is already an ongoing project that only gets tougher with a bunch of inexperienced wing-women. At least the blueprint is there for Wilkie from that Melbourne City season. And to be fair while she hasn’t quite translated that into her recent Ferns performances... she had a couple nice moments breaking that high Aussie defensive line and deservingly added her 27th career goal for the national team. On the one hand, 27 goals from 105 caps is not a good enough strike-rate for someone of her talent. On the other hand 18 of those have come against non-OFC teams which is miles better than any of her Ferns contemporaries.
Paige Satchell has put some distance between herself and the rest of the forward contenders though we didn’t see much of her in game two, subbed off early with what apparently seemed to be an irregular heartbeat or some kind of cardiac issue. She was doing the Valsalva Manoeuvre on the pitch which suggests that she knew what was up and it’s something she was prepared to deal with. She remained on the bench after being replaced so seems all good. Just one of those things that can stir up at the wrong time.
Satchell’s raw pace and improving play-making has made her the locked-on right winger but she’s a work in progress player too. This is just something that Klimková has to deal with. We just don’t produce an abundance of quality attacking players... although the ages of the forwards in our squad and some of those coming up through the grades suggests that this might be changing. Gonna be a race to the finish line to see that reflected in the Ferns before the 2023 World Cup although keep in mind that JK is contracted until the World Cup after that.
As for the goalkeeping situation... Vic Esson was superb in game one. Erin Nayler was pretty good in game two. Nayler wasn’t asked to make the same calibre of saves. She had no chance with any of the goals but was more or less flawless with the rest of what came her way. Distribution was better than it has been too. But the best Ferns goalkeeper remains Anna Leat. Nothing’s changed.
This series wasn’t often pretty. The Ferns came close to a hilarious win in game one but were always at arm’s length in the second. So it goes. Progress isn’t always reflected in results though and it does feel as though we gained a little more clarity a few important areas. Incremental growth. The sort of thing that will be much more noticeable the next time they play and that’s the key for this team: constant fixtures, constant tours, allowing them the time and space to figure out how they can be more competitive the next time they come up against a team of Australia’s calibre in a major tournament. We’re still deep in that process. Always remember: don’t overreact to friendlies.
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