We’re now only days away from kickoff at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and preparations are complete. No more friendly games, no more training camps. Just fierce anticipation for the main event.

The Football Ferns polished things off with a behind-closed-doors 1-0 loss to Italy at Keith Hay Park on Friday which won’t have counted for caps but will have counted for one last valuable runaround against a team likely to be playing knockout footy in a couple weeks. Valentina Giacinti scored the only goal in the 23rd minute

The other details in the NZF match report came in the form of a team list... with the Ferns picking almost the exact same line-up as we saw against Vietnam. The two exceptions were CJ Bott and Rebekah Stott sitting out for rest, thus Michaela Foster and Claudia Bunge took their spots (presumably with Ali Riley sliding to right back to make room). Same 4-3-3 formation. Liv Chance, who is still managing that knee injury, came on for Indi Riley at half-time as did Anna Leat for Vic Esson in goal. Annalie Longo, Milly Clegg, Gabi Rennie, and Paige Satchell also got minutes off the bench. Surprised not to see Grace Jale again considering her former prominence. The change in formation hasn’t helped her case while Milly Clegg appears to be ahead in the striker consideration. Then perhaps it’s a matter of Rennie and Satchell offering more in the high press?

Ah but we’ve all spent long enough analysing and overanalysing the Football Ferns throughout this World Cup preparation. We know their strengths and weaknesses. We’re aware of the lack of wins/goals in recent years. All things considered they’re in pretty decent shape ahead of this tournament despite the performance dramas – and frankly if they turn it up at the WWC then none of those previous results even matter. The only thing they should be judged upon is the next two weeks. There’s nothing left to learn until kickoff against Norway on Thursday evening.

But there’s plenty to learn about the teams that they’ll be playing. Because the Ferns may have not be rocking up with an intimidating win streak... but neither are Norway, the Philippines, or Switzerland. In fact there’s a stark lack of recent wins between the lot of them - with the exception of the Filipinas squeezing a few victories against fellow Southeast Asian nations. Can’t hold it against one team then shrug it off for another, right? The form book goes out the window in tournament footy as do world rankings... so let’s dig a little deeper into how the rest of Group A is tracking for this World Cup.

NORWAY

• World Ranking: 12

• Head Coach: Hege Riise

• 2019 World Cup: Quarter-Finals (Lost 3-0 to England)

• Key Players: Ada Hegerberg (Olympique Lyon), Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona), Guro Reiten (Chelsea)

• Norway vs NZ: Thursday 20 July at 7pm in Auckland

The highest ranked team in the group but only a second seed thanks to New Zealand’s co-hosting benefits. If you stump up the efforts to stage these things they give you a tidy draw as a one-seed which is nice. Norway are 12 overall on the FIFA rankings – although don’t make the mistake of leaning too hard on those numbers once tournament play begins. They finished top of a qualifying group that also featured Belgium, Poland, Albania, Kosovo & Armenia and had zero dramas in doing so, winning nine games out of ten with the only blemish being a 0-0 draw away to Poland. They scored 47 goals and conceded only two.

Their squad is thoroughly stacked. Ada Hegerberg is a Ballon d’Or winner and has won pretty much everything with Olympique Lyonnais – as well as being the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League. Caroline Graham Hansen and Ingrid Ensen are fresh off Champions League triumph with Barcelona, with CGH’s attacking prowess reaching a new level during the past season. They have several players at top English clubs including Guro Reiten & Maren Mjelde (Chelsea), Vilde Bøe Rise (Manchester United), and Frida Maanum (Arsenal) and their domestic league is one of the better ones going around as well. In fact several of the kiwi players have spent time at Norwegian clubs including CJ Bott who won a few trophies with Vålerenga. Vic Esson also spent a few seasons with Avaldsnes to get her pro career up and running.

But while Norway will be firm favourites to take out Group A it’s also fair to say that they haven’t always been the sum of their parts. Hegerberg stepped away from international footy for a couple of years due to frustrations with how the team was being supported (or not) by the national body. That all seems to have been patched up now but results haven’t quite been immaculate lately. At the Euros last year they were bounced in the group stage which included an 8-0 defeat against eventual champs England. That was a second straight group stage exit after having made at least the semis in nine of the previous ten European Championships.

They fared much better in the 2019 World Cup making it to the quarters before losing 3-0 to England. They actually knocked Australia out on penalties in the round of sixteen. However they’re coming into this tournament with only two wins from their past nine matches. Admittedly there were some difficult opponents in there but Norway have traditionally backed themselves against such foes. This was a team which through the 1990s was one of the very best on the planet (they won the 1995 World Cup, for crying out loud). Current manager Hege Riise was a key player in that era and remains the country’s all-time leading appearance maker with 188 caps (although Maren Mjelde is closing in with 165).

The problem with Norway is that their undeniably stacked squad is mostly stacked in the attacking areas, which has left them with no worries scoring goals but several worries in preventing them when they meet those top level nations. That’s led to them having to try and balance things out in a way that doesn’t necessarily suit their forwards. One sneaky thing will be to see if they stick with Maren Mjelde as a defensive midfielder as they’ve trialled recently.

Norway beat the Football Ferns 2-0 in a game in Oslo in June 2022. It was a solid enough win for Norway although the Ferns played alright that day. It was early days in the Klimková era and despite getting blanked they did create a few chances from the wide areas which was something that had been lacking to that point. Also gotta consider that the Ferns were without Ria Percival, CJ Bott, and Ali Riley for that game. Prior to the last World Cup the Ferns beat Norway 1-0 courtesy of a Rosie White goal.

Helpfully for the kiwis, Norway do have that consciously pragmatic approach. That hiding against England at the Euros really did a number on them and since then they’ve changed managers and switched formations (alternating between 4-3-3 and 5-4-1) with an aim to frustrate opponents. That should hopefully mean a close, low-scoring game in the tournament opener which, to be honest, is the only way the Ferns are getting anything out of it. This is a much better draw than it could’ve been for New Zealand although from the flipside perspective it’s also the best possible draw that Norway could have asked for. They probably won’t have too many expectations come the knockout stage but fans will definitely be expecting them to progress from this group and probably in first place.

THE PHILIPPINES

• World Ranking: 46

• Head Coach: Alen Stajcic

• 2019 World Cup: DNQ

• Key Players: Sarina Bolden (Western Sydney Wanderers), Hali Long (Kaya FC), Meryll Serrano (Stabæk)

• Philippines vs NZ: Tuesday 25 July at 5.30pm in Wellington

A couple of years ago this team was nothing relevant beyond its own shores but ex-Australia coach Alen Stajcic has overseen a drastic rise in prominence in leading the Philippines to their first ever World Cup. He’s implemented a dogged defensive structure and also tapped into the vast Filipina diaspora around the globe with a number of dual-nationals in this squad. Ranked 46th by FIFA, they’re one of the lower placed teams in attendance as well as being one of eight nations making their World Cup debuts – part and parcel of expanding the tournament from 24 teams to 32 teams this time around.

Rankings are fickle. Already mentioned that with Norway but it’s even more so for a team like The Philippines, partly because they’re from Asia and therefore get fewer games against similarly ranked teams (African women’s teams are notoriously underrated for that reason – Zambia are the lowest at WWC2023 at 77th yet they recently beat powerhouses Germany in a warm-up game) and also because that’s a soft 46 given their trajectory. Two years ago they were fluctuating between the 60s and 70s so this is very much a team on the rise.

The Philippines qualified by making the semi-finals of the 2022 Asia Cup. They lost 4-0 to Australia in group play but bookended that with a 1-0 win over Thailand courtesy of an 81st minute Chandler McDonald goal and also a 6-0 win over relative minnows Indonesia (whom Aussie beat 18-0 with Sam Kerr scoring five times). In the quarters they drew 1-1 with Chinese Taipei but advanced on penalties, then lost 2-0 to South Korea in the semis... but the job was already done by then. Had they lost that quarter, they still may have made the World Cup anyway with one more spot plus a couple intercontinental playoff places available. Not that it mattered.

The Filipinas squad is a funky one with players drawn from all around the world and not just in terms of where they’re employed. Quite a number of this squad were born in the United States. How many is ‘quite a number’? Almost all of them. Anicka Castañeda is the only one of the 23 who was actually born in the Philippines, while they also have Jaclyn Sawicki (Canada), Angie Beard (Australia), and Meryll Serrano & Sara Eggesvik (Norway)... leaving 18 others from the American diaspora. Shout out to the dual-nats.

Angela Beard is an Australian international who earned three caps for the Matildas but has been leaning towards switching her allegiances for a couple of years. She hasn’t yet played for the Philippines but she was a part of a training camp last October so she’s not a fresh introduction. Beard is one of several familiar A-League players in this group with her Western United teammate Jaclyn Sawicki here as well as star striker Sarina Bolden who played for Western Sydney Wanderers (alongside Malia Steinmetz).

Coincidentally, Angela Beard also had a spell at Fortuna Hjørring in Denmark alongside fellow Aussie internationals Indiah-Paige Riley and Clare Wheeler. All three are going to this World Cup but none of them will be teammates. Angie Beard is with the Philippines, Clare Wheeler is in the Aussie squad, while Indi Riley is of course with the mighty Aotearoa team... and could come directly up against Beard in pool play.

The Philippines played against New Zealand in September 2022 and lost 2-1. It was a game in which the NZers looked stronger however they leaked a goal to Sarina Bolden in first half stoppage time and had to fight back for the victory. Meikayla Moore scored from the penalty spot on 70’ before Ali Riley won it on 83’ with only her second ever international goal. Got to say that was a significantly understrength Ferns team that day. Even by recent Ferns standards they were missing bundles of players with a covid outbreak affecting the team on top of existing injuries. There were only five common starters between that game and the Vietnam warm-up last week (which we have to assume is the preferred starting eleven heading into the tournament). Interestingly, that Filipinas win is the only one that the Ferns have had under Jitka Klimková without Vic Esson starting in goal.

Vietnam makes for a sneaky comparison because of course they’re from a very similar part of the world to the Philippines and the Ferns will have scheduled that game with this one in mind. A cheeky dress-rehearsal of sorts. The Philippines met Vietnam at the Southeast Asian Games back in May and beat them 2-1 thanks to a late winner from Hali Long. But they also only beat Malaysia 1-0 thanks to a 90+8th minute goal (Sarina Bolden, of course) after losing 1-0 (also to a late goal) against Myanmar in their opener. That meant they missed qualification to the next round and Vietnam ended up going on to win the trophy.

The pinnacle achievement for this team, other than making it to a first World Cup, was winning the AFF Women’s Championship in 2022 (also mostly for Southeast Asian teams, although Australia did send an U23s team). Beat Thailand 3-0 in the final to raise the trophy. Sarina Bolden was tied for-Golden Boot. Admittedly they were hosts for that event and when playing outside their confederation the results have not much stingier. In the past 12 months we’re talking about two wins, two draws, and six defeats against non-Asian teams. The two wins were both against Papua New Guinea. The two draws were against Chile and Costa Rica (with defeats in the second games of both series). Iceland beat them 5-0 at the Pinatar Cup in February, a team that New Zealand drew with a few months later.

With all due respect, this is the most winnable fixture that the Football Ferns have ever had at a World Cup (and it’s actually the expanded tournament more than the host status that’s to thank for that). For a country that has never won a game at a World Cup (fifteen games and counting)... this is the one. Three points from this fixture and it’ll be a successful tournament for the Fernies. Obviously it’d be cool if they then carried that onwards into the third game with a shot at making the knockouts but one thing at a time here folks – let’s get that maiden victory first.

The Philippines will be well-organised at the back and deceptively tricky in attack. They’re also entirely untested at this level and, if the Vietnam game is anything to go by, will be in for a troubling time from the Aotearoa winter. Plus the Ferns already beat them a year ago with a significantly weaker team. Yes, this is the one.

SWITZERLAND

• World Ranking: 20

• Head Coach: Inka Grings

• 2019 World Cup: DNQ

• Key Players: Lia Wälti (Arsenal), Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (Barcelona), Ramona Bachmann (PSG)

• Switzerland vs NZ: Sunday 30 July at 7-m in Dunedin

The third seed in Group A was the slipperiest one. The Ferns probably got the ideal fourth seed in the Philippines when you consider the style of play as well as the rankings. There were lower ranked African teams but NZ doesn’t have a good record against African teams, while they absolutely definitely didn’t want to be lumped with Portugal as a playoff-winner (Portugal who beat the Ferns 5-0 soon after the draw was made). That was as good as could be expected, while the second seed of Norway was somewhere in the middle. Much better than getting Canada or Netherlands... but not as good as, say, South Korea whom NZ has gotten a couple results off under Klimková’s coaching.

As for the third seed? This is where it was all balanced out by one of the worse options on the table: a sturdy European team with a high ranking. Denmark would’ve been even tougher but Switzerland are a lot closer to Norway in quality than they are to Aoteaora, if we’re being honest about it. Costa Rica or Jamaica would’ve been far happier outcomes. But hey we already broke it lucky with the first seeding so can’t complain.

All that is to say that Switzerland could absolutely win this group... but it’s tricky to know what to expect from Inka Grings’ squad. At least by the time that New Zealand line up against them in Dunedin in the final matchday of the group phase they’ll have already had two long glimpses at them against familiar foes.

Having said that, a few NZ players already know one of two of this team very well. Alisha Lehmann is one of their best known forwards, she’s a teammate of Anna Leat’s at Aston Villa. Ramona Bachmann is their star striker with 130 caps and 57 goals – she was a teammate of Ali Riley’s both at Rosengård and also at Chelsea (Bachmann now plays for PSG). They won’t have met yet but defender Luana Bühler just signed to join Ria Percival at Tottenham. That’d be the same Ria Percival who spent several years playing for FC Basel in Switzerland, which was in fact where she first transformed into the combative midfield force that she is today.

There’s a spread of Swiss players around Europe with about a third of the squad based domestically while others are cast across all those main leagues: Germany, Spain, England, Sweden, France, Italy, etc. Ana-Maria Crnogorčević won the Champions League with Barcelona, she’s a winger/wing-back who tends to take a much more attacking role for the national team – as 70 goals in 145 caps can attest. Crnogorčević and Bachmann are both 32 years old so while this may not be their last World Cup it’ll probably be the last within their respective creative peaks. Also gotta keep a very close eye upon Arsenal’s Lia Wälti in the midfield, who has overcome an ankle injury in order to be here. Pound for pound she could end up being one of the stars of the whole tournament if Switzerland are able to get on a run.

Switzerland finished second in their group, two points behind Italy despite having a better goal difference. They actually beat the Italians in Palermo in November 2021 (2-1 thanks to early goals from Coumba Sow and Ana-Maria Crnogorčević) but lost the return fixture 1-0 to an 83rd minute deciding goal and in between came the real stinker: a 1-1 draw with Romania that ultimately cost them top spot in the group. They won everything else. 8 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat from 10 games scoring 44 goals and conceding only 4. That second placed finish meant they had to go into the playoff rounds with all the other runners-up, albeit they were the top ranked second-place team hence they skipped the first round of their section. So it was that Wales beat Bosnia & Herzegovina 1-0 after extra time and five days later Switzerland beat Wales 2-1 after extra time. Fabienne Humm scored literally seconds before the game was due to reach a penalty shootout.

Thing is, their qualifying group was quite weak and that goal difference was padded out by a 15-0 win over Moldova in the last round. They did get that win over Italy and getting past Wales was no easy feat. However their results outside of qualifying suggest they’re much more used to low-scoring close games than blowout wins... and in more recent times they’re not so used to winning at all. The Swiss are hitting this World Cup up on the back of seven games without a win. The Wales game was their last victory and it took a 120+1’ winner to separate the teams. Since then we’re talking about 2-1 defeats against Denmark and Iceland, as well as draws with Poland (twice), China, Zambia, and Morocco. Those draws range from 0-0 against Poland and Morocco to 3-3 against Zambia.

Switzerland didn’t make it past the group stage at the Euros last year... although to be fair they did get served with the group of death. Five minutes into the tournament they were 2-0 up against Portugal but the Swiss went on to let that lead slip for a 2-2 draw and then were beaten 2-1 by Sweden and 4-1 by the Netherlands afterwards. Switzerland are hosting the 2025 Euros so that’s nice for them. As for World Cup history, this is only the second time they’ve progressed to the main tournament. The last time was in 2015 where they beat Ecuador 10-1 in their second game (Fabienne Humm scored a 247 second hat-trick) with narrow defeats to Japan and Cameroon outside of that. That goal difference was enough to advance back in the days of third-placed qualifiers and they lost 1-0 to hosts Canada in the round of sixteen.

New Zealand hasn’t met Switzerland in a senior international since the Cyprus Cup in 2014, where the Swiss came out on top with a 2-1 victory. Hannah Wilkinson scored the goal for NZ. One year earlier there was a 2-1 win at the same tournament though – with Wilkinson and Betsy Hassett both on the scoresheet. And at the 2011 Cyprus Cup came another 2-1 win, this time via goals from Hassett and Kirsty Yallop. Chuck in a pair of 3-0 wins in the 1980s to complete the set, not that those ones have any bearing on this one. Good to know that there are two players in this Ferns squad with multiple goals against this opponent... even if it’d be safe to say that Switzerland have improved since then. All of those games came prior to their 2015 World Cup debut.

If both teams beat the Philippines in their earlier fixtures then regardless of what happens against Norway this game will be like a knockout to make the knockouts. Sadly the Dunedin in July factor won’t really matter against a nation famous for their ski slopes (as well as clocks, cheese, and neutrality). But there is a good chance that both sides prioritise defensive solidity which, once again, is the kind of game that the Ferns want if they’re going to get something out of it. Switzerland have the capability to blow teams away and there’s a chance that second-place is decided by whomever beats Philippines by the most (hint: it probably won’t be us), but against more difficult sides they don’t seem to find much separation. It’s entirely feasible to predict them winning all three games and finishing top. It’s also feasible to imagine Switzerland leaking a late winner against the Ferns and dipping out early.

If you rate the reads on TNC then Patreon is the place to go to support the mahi

Deffo sign up to our Substack newsletter too, plus whack an ad and tell your mates about us

Keep cool but care