The Aotearoa Under-20 women’s team played a couple of games against their U20 Australian counterparts over the past week and that’s a pretty significant thing. Not only because there’s an U20 World Cup coming up at the end of the year but also because this team was the first kiwi youth side to return since the pandemic wrecked the previous wave of Age-Grade World Cups.

Remember the 2018 U17 World Cup? When New Zealand won bronze medals, the best ever result for an Aotearoa football team at a FIFA event which will probably remain the case for generations? Like, there may never be an NZ team does better than that. Hard to imagine one anyway. Well, the bulk of that team should have been trying to back it up at the U20 World Cup in 2020. Then it got postponed until 2021. Then it got cancelled altogether. So they, same as the rest of their contemporary teams, ultimately missed out on that opportunity.

Which is a bloody shame. Would have been fascinating to see how that lot backed it up at an older age grade. But it is what it is. At least for the U17 men and women who missed out it’s not such a drag because they simply move up into the next U20 bracket. There are a couple of the 2018 U17s still eligible for this U20 generation – specifically Marisa van der Meer, Jayda Stewart, Grace Wisnewski, and Macey Fraser – but the rest have fallen to the mercy of the unceasing ticking of the cosmic clock. As do we all eventually, comrades.

The next U20 World Cup is being held in Costa Rica (a nation that keeps popping up lately) and Aotearoa has already qualified. They qualified without qualifying, the ticket earned by the previous U20s in winning the Oceania stage in 2019 being passed along to the next group after they ran out of time to schedule a fresh qualifying tournament. Three of the current squad were in the group that booked that spot: Marisa van der Meer, Charlotte Wilford-Carroll & Rene Wasi (plus Grace Wisnewski who is presumably gonna be in the mix come Costa Rica). The rest of them might wanna send thank you messages to Kelli Brown who scored 21 goals in that tournament.

Here’s the squad that took on Australia...

At which point we have to talk Wellington Phoenix because Gemma Lewis coaches both of those teams. She was already the U20s coach, then she added Welly Nix coaching duties to her plate. Prior to that she was guiding the FFDP crew.

A whole lot of players have been through at least two if not all three of those groups. Seven players from the inaugural Wellington Phoenix ALW were in this U20s squad with Wisnewski also eligible but presumably given this trip off after dealing with anxiety issues during the Nix season. What’s more is that there were three more Phoenix wahine in the Aussie team. Hannah Jones was the only one picked initially but then some covid cases led to Cushla Rue and Isabel Gomez being added to the crew. Jordan Jasnos missed out but is also in that age bracket.

Add them all together and there were twenty players in that Wellington Phoenix team and a full 60% of them were eligible for the upcoming U20 World Cup and exactly half of them were playing in this specific series. Really puts that Nix season into fresh context. Plus two more players in the NZ team were listed as being a part of the Wellington Phoenix Academy which has begun to ramp up its wahine side since the ALW team got greenlit. Tui Dugan, now at uni in the States, was present at the team’s initial unveiling too. Not to mention Marisa van der Meer who played for a rival ALW squad.

Elsewhere there were several players from last year’s FFDP programme: Aniela Jensen, Ava Pritchard, Charlotte Wilford-Carroll, Jana Niedermayr, Kate Duncan, Marisa van der Meer, and Rene Wasi. Three players were in from USA universities including attacking midfielder Aniela Jensen who was part of the Football Ferns squad that played Canada last October (though didn’t get capped). Rene Wasi has also been at uni and was pictured training with the Ferns while they were in town for the SheBelieves Cup but was listed here as unattached.

That World Cup is in August so we’re only four months out and we haven’t had a qualifying tourney with these players. Hence why we had this rather rare circumstance: a friendly series at youth level. Normally you get qualifiers and a few training camps and maybe some practice games immediately before a major tournament but this kind of bilateral thing (to borrow a cricket term) is not very common. However it was super important. Gotta set a tactical baseline, get some combinations going, flesh out the squad moving forward. Aussie are in the exact same position too, by the way, having already qualified for Costa Rica and in much need of tune-up matches.

Game one... did not go fantastically. Even with an unusually strong core of players with professional experience, thanks to that Nix team, things were pretty sloppy. Especially in defence. Kate Taylor was a bastion of consistency for the Phoenix yet had a bit of a shocker in Canberra conceding two penalties. Taylor definitely has a reckless streak in her, willing to attempt those desperation tackles, but this was more of a timing issue. Seemed like her distribution was off as well and you can probably blame both those things on the fact that the SheNix season ended a month ago. After all the exertion of that ALW campaign it took an effort to switch back on. Taylor was not the only one in that basket either.

The Junior Ferns trailed after only two minutes, conceding a Phoenix-esque goal in the second phase of a corner kick. There was another corner kick concession in the second half too. Plus the penalties. It was 3-1 to Oz at the half and it ended 5-1 with the scoring all completed after an hour. Heaps of subs from both teams at least ensured there wasn’t too much cohesion in the second stanza so that was kinda helpful.

There was actually some decent ball movement on display, the Ferns playing with good purpose and intent, even keeping some decent possession at times, but they were full of errors and the Australian attack was just way more potent. That’s the way it goes. The result wasn’t really the most important thing anyway, this game was much more about getting an idea of how the team want to play.

The answer to that: pure Gemma Lewis x Welly Nix. Looking to build from the back, defending aggressively on the front foot, trying to press from the front, etc. That same 4-3-3 formation with the dual pivots and an attacking mid. With a selection of Nix players spread through the team (although not as many to start game one as there would be in game two) they already have a head-start on that.

Rene Wasi started but went off with a precautionary injury quite early on. There were then four subs made at HT and another midway through the second. Very different team ending the game compared to the one that started it with Lewis getting a look at plenty of different options. The team in white is the XI that started the game, the team in black is the XI that finished the game...

In terms of standout players, the Charlottes were the picks. Wilford-Carroll had a strong and combative game in the midfield. Always happy to launch herself into any potential slide tackle. Got a good left foot too although her distribution was a bit messy at times. CWC has already been a really impressive player at domestic level and you can guarantee that The Niche Cache has receipts. She was one of those where you could see the difference between having an A-League season under your belt and not having an A-League season under your belt but that passing precision will come with further experience. CWC an excellent disruptive force in that midfield.

And Charlotte Lancaster played left-wing in the first half, then left-back in the second half. Brought good energy, showed great positional discipline despite having to switch it up mid-game, oh and she also scored an absolute belter of a goal...

That was game one. For game two Gemma Lewis made eight changes to the starting team (was going to be seven but Lancaster got injured in warm-ups) including swapping both midfielders (though Wilford-Carroll did feature off the bench in 2H). But the most consequential change was going from two ALW players in the backline to four. Zoe McMeeken and Marisa van der Meer on the edges, Kate Taylor and Te Reremoana Walker in the middle.

Backup goalies Rylee Godbold & Murphy Sheaff, as well as Aniela Jensen, Ella Findlay, Te Reremoana Walker, and Emma Pijnenburg, were the players who didn’t feature in the first match. All except Godbold and Findlay started game two, with Findlay coming off the bench late on. It appears that Ella Findlay replaced Macey Fraser in the squad after it was initially named, gonna assume that Fraser was injured as she’s one of the brightest players in this age group. Meaning that third-keeper Godbold was the only one in the squad who didn’t get any minutes, guts.

Again they conceded early. Ten minutes in and Sarah Hunter smashed in a ripper of a strike that didn’t give Murphy Sheaff any chance with the gloves. But that was the only time Sheaff would get beaten. A lone uncontrollable blip in an otherwise excellent performance, making the saves she needed to make, helping out in possession, and showing some impressive decision making as to when to come off her line. She also had an A-League calibre defence in front of her that was much better for the game one run-around (three of them Phoenix players who played an important role in that team’s first ever win at this very same ground vs Canberra United). That probably helped too, to be fair.

As a result we saw a much sturdier defensive base which allowed the Junior Ferns to hold a higher line and that in turn greatly aided the midfield who therefore allowed the attackers to do more things. Milly Clegg started up front and, let me tell ya, she was the revelation of the whole series. Great size and athleticism for a striker and most exciting of all is that she’s got that single-minded striker’s eye for a goal. She had a great chance early on rolling her defender but shooting narrowly wide. She made no mistake the next time for a wonderful goal...

Seriously, Clegg made that look so easy. Great touch and balance. Great composure and placement with the finish. Love the instinct to take the ball towards goal... and then the skill to make it work.

That goal was a 38th minute equaliser and whereas Aussie made three subs at HT, Gemma Lewis didn’t go to the bench until the 66th min – she’d made all six changes by that stage of the first match. This was a more serious attempt to get a result with it dangling right there for the taking and it worked. Plucked that apple right off the tree and took a big ol’ bite. 1-1 draw, final score. In fact the Junior Ferns were as likely to grab a winner as Australia were from the flow of the game – Kate Taylor put one over the top after a deep Walker free kick late in stoppage time that could have been a capital-m Moment.

Gotta take a draw though. No hesitation. That’s quite a turnaround after losing 5-1 a few days earlier. Clegg and Sheaff were the standouts, along with Mona Walker and a solid midfield effort from Aniela Jensen to boot. Not sure if Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimková was there to witness it but she might well have been given that the Ferns also played their second Aussie game in Canberra. No doubt she caught it on the livestream in the very least and a draw at U20 level would have been pretty encouraging given the gap that we were just reminded still exists between Australia and New Zealand at senior level.

Worth adding that Ava Collins, who has been with that senior team for the last few squads, is eligible for the U20 World Cup too. Chuck her and Macey Fraser and Grace Wisnewski into a team that already has a huge head-start on most waves thanks to the translatable framework of the Welly Nix and we’ll see what happens. These were the first steps. That World Cup is the destination. Should be a fun journey.

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