There have been a few sneaky aspects to the Football Ferns and their struggles to bag positive results. One of the main ones is that they consistently seem to be missing several key players. Not just one or two but often three or four or five. That ain’t an easy thing to deal with when we’ve got such a limited professional playing pool.

Likewise, they have got this pesky tendency to play against higher ranked opposition – we seem to be one of those countries that other countries enjoy meeting, what with our solid defensive structure but also our regular defeats. however it’s also true that this team has been quite decent whenever they do have most of their best players available, and especially so against teams ranked below them.

Take, for example, the extended absence of Ria Percival for the past 16 months. Or CJ Bott’s knocks. Liv Chance has had a couple herself while Vic Esson had an injury that cost her the Portugal and Argentina games. Only in the last six months has Rebekah Stott gotten back to full fitness after her cancer recovery and also ankle surgery in her last club preseason. There’s a solid case to be made that those five players are the five best that the Footy Ferns have right now. How many times have all five started together under Jitka Klimkova’s management? Never. How many times have four of the five started? Only twice and both were victories. One was against South Korea in November 2021. The other was, well...

We know that the Fernies have not been winning enough games for a long time now. We also know that for literally the first time during Klimková’s tenure they currently have a full strength squad. They also just had two full months of practice time in which to really embed some tactical ideas and one of those ideas appears to be a return to the 4-3-3 shape that JK initially began with before discarding it in favour of a stauncher 4-4-2. But finally having the time to knuckle down and train those various combinations has allowed the Ferns to circle back around to Plan A from two years ago.

There’s lots more to say about the tactical aspects of what we saw against Vietnam but first there’s something even more important to acknowledge: they won. It was a Football Ferns victory in Napier. They gave Vietnam a whallopping, absolutely rolling them in the first half in particular, and while they didn’t make it as emphatic on the scoreboard as they should have... a 2-0 victory definitely counts as a hiding by Footy Ferns standards.

This team needed that victory. They needed to have a game in which they played well and got the rewards, in which they proved that they can score multiple goals, in which they did that whilst also keeping it stoic at the back for a clean sheet. There’s plenty of valuable confidence to be gained after snapping a 10-game streak without a win (and 11 games without a cleanie). It’s a result that sheds much of the weight of previous under-performances, putting momentum into their World Cup quest, and best of all was that they got to share it with 6215 hearty fans at Maclean Park.

You want a serious stat, here we go: this was the first Ferns win on Aotearoa soil for eleven years. Admittedly that drought only added up to 12 games, with seven of those coming within the past eight months, but still... you had to go back to a 1-0 win over China in June 2012 for the previous home victory – Amber Hearn scored the decisive goal that day.

The other thing about beating Vietnam is that this should prove a very encouraging dress rehearsal for what they’ll get against the Philippines in group play. That’s the most winnable fixture the Ferns have got (or indeed have ever had at a World Cup) and they ought to back themselves after defeating a similar team from a similar part of the globe. Vietnam and the Philippines actually played each other at the Southeast Asia Games as recently as May with the Philippines winning 2-1 thanks to an 80th minute goal from Hali Long... although Vietnam went on to win the gold medal. Of course the Ferns also beat Philippines 2-1 last September despite being without the services of several key starters.

Righto then, what did we learn against Viertnam? Most of all we learned that the months of training camp have been immensely useful for the Ferns, who immediately looked at home in that 4-3-3 formation. It’s a shape that allows for that third central midfielder whilst also giving the wingers more freedom. Biggest winners there are Malia Steinmetz and Indiah-Paige Riley.

Steinmetz has been one of the more impressive players under Klimková yet the return of Ria Percival might’ve made it tough to find a spot in the starting team for her in the old shape. But this way Steinmetz gets to sit deep as the holding mid while allowing Percival to roam and press and also letting Betsy Hassett join the festivities. Three midfielders means fluidity. It means extra support runs when on attack and it means extra defensive coverage when not. They’re free to press proactively and there should be more passing options in there too.

And that doesn’t have to come at the expense of a forward either. Indi Riley seemed to be on the fringes of selection when the squad was named but a quick change in shape and suddenly she might be a starting level player. Might be... because Liv Chance has to come into this equation somewhere. Maybe in midfield or maybe on the left wing. But it’s a huge boost from what we’d seen before from Indi Riley, who hadn’t yet shown anything other than flashes in her games for New Zealand. The deeper more disciplined right midfield role clearly didn’t suit her talents and her club form for Brisbane Roar wasn’t fantastic either (she scored in her first game back then had no additional goals or assists the rest of the way).

Well, frankly, Indiah-Paige Riley did more in this one game against Vietnam than she had in all her previous caps combined. Talk about good timing. Also with Jacqui Hand doing similar things on the left side it gave the Ferns some actual variation to their attacks. Both Hand and Riley are direct. They’re not super fast but they’re quick by NZ standards (Paige Satchell excluded). They get the ball in good areas and they attack their markers, trying to make things happen. Which they did. The first goal was a bit of a fluke but the second goal that NZ scored was a beautiful flowing possession move which ended with Riley squaring across goal for Hand to tap home. Fantastic work.

Direct runners out wide and midfielders making late runs into the penalty area? What a joy to behold. And that’s before we get to the other angle of attack which was the fullback play. There weren’t heaps of overlaps, that’s always hard to do so with direct wingers, but Ali Riley and CJ Bott were always up there in support with a readiness to whip in a cross or work another one-two. Hannah Wilkinson happens to be a pretty useful target for those crosses and won several strong headers from those exact situations.

Clearly much tougher tests will follow than what a frozen cold Vietnam XI served up in Napier but we already knew that, didn’t we? That’s not the lesson to take from this. The lesson is that over the last two months of mahi it really seems like Jitka Klimková has found a way to put her best players in the best spots to succeed. Whether that makes a difference against Norway and Switzerland remains to be seen, though it should at least go smoothly against the Philippines. The Ferns are in a stronger position now than they were two days ago... hence this friendly game was a roaring success.

Ria Percival makes such a big difference to this team. She’s not the best passer going around – although she was on corner kick duties to provide some promising dividends – but she’s got that high level experience to continually take the right options. Plus her off-ball work is unfathomable. Crunching tackles, tireless closeouts, constant and inspiring energy. You wouldn’t have known this was her first start in any professional football since April 2022. Percy doesn’t need to serve up any razzle dazzle for the Ferns – she simply needs to deliver this type of assured enforcement in midfield and that’s absolutely perfect.

Also note that Ria Percival was the captain for this game. When the squad was announced she was mentioned as “co-captain” which has since been confirmed to mean exactly that. Ali Riley and Ria Percival are both going to share those duties as they embark upon their fifth World Cup campaigns (same as Annalie Longo but she doesn’t get to be a captain oh well). That might seem a little trite to some folks... but winning sports teams have multiple leaders and this is a way of recognising that.

Lots of Klimková’s recent efforts have been around raising the mana of what it means to be a Football Fern. The squad announcement made a point of involving heaps of former players, while the team walked out for the Vietnam game in #24 jackets with the two and the four featuring the names of every single player to have represented the team written in small print. The 24 itself was in reference to these past players, from the legends to the one-cappers, being the honourary 24th player in the squad. It’s a nice touch. The kind of self-mythologising that the All Blacks are very good at, helping players to understand that they’re a part of something bigger than themselves when they represent their country.

There were things to complain about from this performance too. The inability to really put Vietnam to the sword, especially in the first half, betrayed the same poor finishing antics that have cost the Ferns against better teams. Too many ballooned shots or miss-hits whipped off target – and they may not get away with such profligacy against Norway/Switzerland. But don’t get too down about that. This isn’t a good finishing team. Heck, they’re not a very good attacking team in general, to be honest... but what they are is a good defensive team (when everyone is available) therefore the Football Ferns formula for victory is not to win 3-2 or 4-3. If the other team scores twice then we’re not gonna win at all. The formula is to score one or maybe two spare goals and then defend like hell to make sure that’s enough.

If one of those goals happens to come from a slippery corner routine in which the ball is cut back low and deep for CJ Bott to cross it in from a different angle only to catch more heel than instep and accidentally drag the cross yet it catches a slight deflection and beats an unsighted goalkeeper then that’s fine too. Doesn’t matter how they score them. The first was a fluke. The second was a beaut. They should’ve scored more but they still won with room to spare. Nothing discouraging about that.

A few more notes to work through... it seems that Katie Bowen has beaten Claudia Bunge to the second staring centre back role. Bowen is better on the ball though Bunge is the better defender and also arguably offers more of a threat going forward for set pieces (granted Bowen should’ve had an assist for that nudge towards Hand, who missed an open chance after having scored from almost the exact same blade of grass moments earlier). There’s no wrong answer there as long as Rebekah Stott is alongside.

Also it was curious to see which players didn’t feature at all. With six substitutes used, there were only six further players doing unused sub duties. Those included goalkeepers Anna Let and Erin Nayler who are going to be stuck on the bench for as long as Vic Esson is having this kinda impact...

The other four players who didn’t get a run out: Grace Jale, Paige Satchell, Liz Anton, and Daisy Cleverley. The latter two are understandable since they’re backups in positions that don’t get rotated often. The first two have been pretty prominent players in recent times though. Jale had been the starting right midfielder and looks like she’ll lose the most stature from the change in formations... although Jale is still capable of doing a job across that front three so it’d be a surprise if she doesn’t get World Cup minutes. Perhaps she had a slight injury.

As for Satchell, the way that the Ferns played included some impressive short combo passing which in all honesty just isn’t Satchell’s game. She thrives upon chaos. A game with high possession stats is going to be a game where others are preferred. A game in which the Ferns are short on ideas and desperate for a roll of the dice is when Paige Satchell’s value becomes relevant. That’s probably how she ought to have been used all along but until the likes of Jacqui Hand and Indi Riley and even Milly Clegg broke into this team the lack of attacking options often led to Satchell being asked to be a player that she isn’t. She’s in this squad on merit because of the chaotic energy she brings with that raw pace and deceptive strength. When she plays it’ll be for that same purpose.

Liv Chance didn’t start in light of the knee injury she’s been working through but she did play the second half of the second half and didn’t look hobbled in any way. Sweet as, nothing to fear there. Same with Ria Percival getting through 67 minutes and also Annalie Longo marking her return with a lively cameo off the bench. With this particular formation, that energiser off the bench might be Longo’s best role especially with the likely limitations of her current match fitness. Nothing to fear there either – it simply means that the Ferns have midfield depth. In hindsight, the selection of both Longo and Cleverley in the squad may have been a tip off that they were planning on a three-mid formation.

And now here we are on the verge of the World Cup itself. There’s no more time for preparations but suddenly the Ferns don’t seem so far behind. The squad is fit. They’re coming off a clean sheet victory. It’s all as good as we’re going to get it heading into the main event. All rather exciting, ain’t it?

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