One year on from co-hosting a spectacular World Cup, the Football Ferns have another major tournament to tackle. This time it’s the Paris Olympics. Not nearly as serious as the World Cup but still a big deal... although don’t get your hopes up because were drawn in a group with France (the hosts), Canada (the defending champs), and Colombia (the breakthrough World Cup darlings) which arguably means that every single game in that group will be tougher than every single game the Fernies played at the World Cup. That’s what happens when only twelve teams qualify. All killer, no filler (except for us and maybe the two African nations, Nigeria and Zambia).

Don’t get your hopes up... but don’t get despondent either. The Football Ferns are a good defensive team, they only conceded once in 270 minutes at the World Cup, and you never know what can happen in football. They drew 0-0 away against Colombia last year, albeit with neither team at full strength. But remember that this is also an important step within the next World Cup cycle. The 18-woman squads (compared to 23 for the World Cup) meant that tough decisions needed to be made, and it had always been suggested that they’d give the benefit of the doubt to younger players in order to prepare for 2026. No need for a major overhaul given that we’ve been quietly on this trend for a couple of years already... but if you didn’t think there’d be big names missing out then you weren’t paying enough attention.

Sure enough, the squad was (belatedly) announced last Thursday and there was one HUGE OMISSION. One ENORMOUS ABSENCE. And that unlucky person was... the coach Jitka Klimkova, lol. That news came just a few days before the squad was unveiled. Having been reinstated by NZ Football following the workplace investigation that caused her to miss the previous tour, it was then announced that she wouldn’t be going to the Olympics after all. According to the press release, the decision was made by “Jitka Klimková, in consultation with New Zealand Football”... but it’s pretty clear that actually this was a player-led decision. Nobody’s managed to get to the bottom of whatever actually happened yet, so we’ve gotta be careful not to speculate out of turn... however, Newshub (RIP) did at least reveal that there was some sort of “incident” and that Klimkova had “lost the dressing room”.

That idea is going to get some folks fuming in the comments sections about player power... but without any further information we’ve gotta withhold judgement. The only other time this happened in recent memory was around Andreas Heraf and those players were thoroughly vindicated once that whole drama came to light. Plus we cannot ignore the tame leadership of NZF in this situation, with their corporate jargon about bringing in “trained independent facilitators” to implement a “restorative process” in order to move towards “a more cohesive and high performance environment that is founded on high trust”. Perhaps this is a harsh thing to imply, but it could be that the trained independent facilitators are cheaper than paying out the three remaining years on Klimkova’s contract.

Because that’s what needs to happen here. Coaches don’t regain the dressing room after they’ve lost it. This is a dead end situation. You’ve probably read heaps of words on this very website trying to contextualise the supposed terrible coaching record of Klimkova (in short: she’s doing a middling job with an imbalanced squad that usually plays against more talented teams and usually loses to them... same as has always been the case with the Football Ferns)... but saying that the team’s struggles aren’t the coach’s fault is not the same as saying that the coach is doing a great job. There are lots of good coaches out there who can do as well or better. This is not the hill to die on for NZF. Swallow the medicine and hire someone else because the last thing that the Football Ferns need is to get stuck in limbo like the All Whites did with their nine-month All Whites coaching search – and this saga has already dragged on longer than it should have. If you’re trying to develop a relatively young squad then clarity and stability are essential. They’ve got neither while they’re stuck with an absent coach who the players don’t even want.

For now though, we focus on the Olympics. Michael Mayne will once again be the interim boss. It’s not been confirmed whether this squad was of his choosing or Klimkova’s but since Mayne was already one of JK’s assistants they’ve probably got very similar ideas anyway. Having said that, there was one major clue in that Japan series with Hannah Wilkinson not starting either game and only playing 45 minutes. Now she’s missed the cut for the Olympics. This seems to have been the main takeaway from the squad, which is silly because people have been (unfairly) blaming Wilkinson for the team’s lack of goals for ages and now suddenly they’re shocked that she’s been dropped. Wilkie’s not the only victim of the smaller squad. Michaela Foster, Claudia Bunge, and Annalie Longo are only in the travelling reserve category. As is Murphy Sheaff but she’s uncapped so she’s not complaining. Daisy Cleverley and Liz Anton missed out altogether.

None of these players from the World Cup squad one year ago got selection for these Olympics:

Erin Nayler (83 caps), Ria Percival (166 caps),Claudia Bunge (31 caps), Michaela Foster (18 caps), Daisy Cleverley (39 caps), Annalie Longo (133 caps), Olivia Chance (46 caps), Betsy Hassett (157 caps), Paige Satchell (49 caps), Hannah Wilkinson (125 caps), Liz Anton (20 caps)

Meanwhile here are the 2024 Olympians who weren’t part of the World Cup group:

Mackenzie Barry (16 caps), Macey Fraser (5 caps), Ally Green (14 caps), Katie Kitching (10 caps), Meikayla Moore (65 caps), Kate Taylor (17 caps)

So that’s 867 caps going out and 127 caps coming in. The squad sizes skew those numbers, with more players going out than coming in, so why don’t we average them out? Alrighty, that leads to an average of 79.6 caps gone compared to an average of 21.2 replacing them. A gigantic difference. Taylor was a reserve player for the World Cup so she still got the wider experience. She’s one of ten players who’ll be partaking in their first Olympic Games so that already tells you how different this group is from the 2021 edition (which was only three years ago). That previous Olympics had expanded 22-player squads as they incorporated the reserves yet only 7/22 players from that group are in this one. Not even a third of them!

Some of those older players might yet come back. Olivia Chance and Betsy Hassett are on maternity leave so there are potential comeback stories down the line for them. But Ria Percival has retired and we’ve probably seen the last of Erin Nayler internationally. This is almost certainly Ali Riley’s last tournament – something that she’s admitted herself. Dunno where Hannah Wilkinson goes from here, she’s best placed of this lot to earn her place back with some resurgent club form (though we don’t yet know where). In case there’s anyone still believing the lie that the Football Ferns continue to pick the same old players all the time, still keeping their head in the sand about what has been a hugely significant refresh of the women’s national football team of Aotearoa over the past few years, then at this stage we can only blame ignorance.

There was another sneaky bit of news from that announcement: the Fernies are playing Zambia in a warm-up game 12 days out from their Olympic opener against Canada. Zambia are one of the African representatives. They didn’t make it out of the group stage of their first ever World Cup last year, though they did win 3-1 over Costa Rica (after 5-0 defeats against both Japan and Spain). In Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji they have two of the most exciting attackers on the planet, both of them having recently made huge money transfers to the NWSL – literally the two biggest transfer fees in women’s footballing history. But they don’t have a huge amount of pro depth beyond that pair with much of their squad still based in the homeland. Friendly game that it may be, that’s the best chance the Ferns will have to win a game on this tour.

GOALKEEPERS

Victoria Esson – Rangers, SCO (23 caps/0 goals)

Anna Leat – Aston Villa, ENG (18/0)

[Murphy Sheaff - Kansas State University, USA (0/0)]

The shrunken size of an Olympic squad will have caused headaches in every position except this one for whoever actually picked this thing. Only two goalies are allowed but we just happen to have two who are currently head and shoulders above the rest. Vic Esson just re-signed with Rangers for another season after an excellent end to the previous one. She’ll be late back for preseason activities due to this tournament but hopefully that won’t keep her from getting the chance to play against Arsenal in the Champions League qualifiers at the start of September – with the winner taking on either Atletico Madrid or Rosenborg for a spot in the second round of qualifying. Quite possibly the toughest draw they could have gotten but Esson’ll be used to that underdog mindframe after these Olympics.

Anna Leat also just signed a new deal. She’s staying at Aston Villa and with cautious optimism it could be suggested that her decision to stay may mean she’s been offered number one status (with last year’s starter, Daphne van Domselaar, currently in the midst of transfer speculation). Leat’s nudged ahead of Esson in the Ferns pecking order after starting both games in Japan. Fair enough. Meanwhile, uncapped Murphy Sheaff will get to tag along as the travelling reserve keeper. Brianna Edwards is back playing again with the Illawarra Stingrays during the A-League offseason, after having taken a wee break from the game for a couple of months prior. That break allowed Sheaff to travel with the previous squad and she’s held that spot for the Olympics. Sheaff started ahead of Edwards at the U20 World Cup a couple years ago.

DEFENDERS

Mackenzie Barry – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (16/0)

CJ Bott – Leicester City, ENG (46/3)

Katie Bowen – Inter Milan, ITA (109/4)

Ally Green – AGF, DEN (14/2)

Meikayla Moore – Unattached (65/4)

Ali Riley – Angel City, USA (162/2)

Rebekah Stott – Melbourne City, AUS (102/4)

[Claudia Bunge – HB Køge, DEN (31/0)]

[Michaela Foster – Auckland United, NZ (18/1)]

Now we begin to get into the funky stuff. Three players here are concreted into the starting eleven: CJ Bott, Katie Bowen, and Rebekah Stott. Nothing needs to be said about them – along with whichever goalie is playing, that’s where the strength of this team lies. Bott could certainly offer more in attack, that’s something she’s still working on, but defensively she’s as good as anyone going around. Only one WSL player made more tackles in the defensive third last season. Bowen and Stott are courageous defenders with excellent distribution. We’re good there. Don’t worry.

Over on the left side, it’s been Ali Riley for as long as many of us can remember... but at 36 years of age Riley’s clearly lost a step and a pesky injury has prevented her from playing a single club game since April. Her coach at Angel City assures us that she’s fit enough for the Olympics but Mickey Foster’s presence in the reserves could yet come in handy if there’s a setback. It’s not clear when the injury happened because she’s said it’s something that she’s been having to manage for quite some time, which may explain why she’s only 262 minutes across five NWSL appearances this year – far from a regular even before her long absence. 2024 will be Riley’s fifth Olympics and very likely her final major tournament. In all honesty, she’s a little fortunate to have held her spot (she expressed gratitude for this when speaking with NWSL media)... but Ali Riley remains the captain of this team and her experience will be crucial in such a fresh squad.

That’s not the only left-back curiosity because Ally Green has snuck in ahead of Michaela Foster for the backup LB role. Green’s done pretty well for the Ferns over the past six months, beginning with some excellent showings in Olympic qualifying. She’d also been having her best season in Europe until AGF signed another left-back during the winter break and then she hardly featured again. Only three substitute matches since the turn of the year and none since the end of March. Then again, Foster’s been in her offseason since March (and recently popped up for a quick stint with Auckland United for some match fitness) so none on of our left-backs have been up to much. So why Green ahead of Foster? Because Green’s faster and has increasingly begun to see time on the left-wing as well. Foster’s slowness tends to be much more of an issue internationally than it is in the A-League. Her set piece taking will be missed but there are other good deliverers in this squad (Green herself takes a mean corner kick). But Foz is still travelling in case the captain takes a turn for the worse.

Another debate will have been Meikayla Moore over Claudia Bunge. In a normal squad there’s room for both. In this squad, there was not... and Moore had a better club season, simple as that. Bunge was dropped by HB Køge for the last few months of their campaign, while Moore started ahead of her in the second most recent Ferns international (against Japan in June). It’s harsh but it’s one of those ones where someone had to give way. Likewise, Grace Neville and Liz Anton didn’t fit in the 18... with Mackenzie Barry taking that defensive utility spot instead. She’ll be considered the right-back deputy in Paris, though obviously can also do a more than adequate job in the middle as well. All five of Barry’s national team starts have come at right back.

MIDFIELDERS

Macey Fraser – Utah Royals, USA (5/2)

Katie Kitching – Sunderland, ENG (10/4)

Malia Steinmetz – FC Nordsjælland, DEN (31/0)

Kate Taylor – Unattached (17/1)

[Annalie Longo – Cashmere Technical, NZ (133/15)]

Nowhere is the youth and inexperience of this squad more notable than in the midfield, where the retirement of Ria Percival, the maternity breaks of Olivia Chance and Betsy Hassett, and the injuries to Annalie Longo have removed the core of the team that’s been there for the last five years (itself emerging after the retirements of players like Katie Duncan and Kirsty Yallop). Longo recovered from her ACL injury in time to play a couple of games at the World Cup but then recurring muscle issues restricted her to only 13 games during the Wellington Phoenix’s season and it’s been ten months since she earned her last cap. Longo’s been staying busy with Cashmere Technical lately, proving herself fit enough to add her considerable knowledge to the squad as a non-playing reserve. But only in that capacity.

But if the midfield is the most inexperienced, it’s also the most exciting. Malia Steinmetz has well and truly established herself as one of the first names on the teamsheet with her defensive midfield efforts – she recently won the Danish Kvindeliga title with FC Nordsjælland (a blessed change after being stuck on losing teams throughout her three A-League seasons). If the previous tour is anything to go by, we can expect to see a 4-4-2 shape at the Olympics. That’s probably the most suitable tactic for the challenges they’ll face. Thus means the question is: Who plays alongside Steinmetz?

It should be Macey Fraser, who recently moved to the Utah Royals in the NWSL for an A-League Women’s record transfer fee. She’s the most creative option, therefore the most fitting option alongside a ball-winner like Steinmetz, though don’t overlook Fraser’s own tackling abilities and out-of-possession workrate. That stuff is only going to get better as she settles into the American league too. Alternatively, Kate Taylor is on the verge of an overseas move that hasn’t yet been announced, having made an impressive transition from combative defender to combative midfielder about a year ago. Steinmetz and Taylor together doesn’t offer a lot of with the ball but they’d be wrecking-balls without it, a natural evolution of the Steinmetz/Percival combo that we very briefly got to see at the last World Cup. Then there’s Katie Kitching who is more of an attacking mid and could even get a run out wide. Very tidy technical player. Another one with a great workrate. The two Thailand games saw Steinmetz and Fraser together for the first time. Then against Japan, with Fraser unavailable, Kitching and Taylor got a start each.

What this means is there’s no place for Daisy Cleverley despite a pretty good season with HB Køge... albeit not quite good enough for them to offer her a new contract. Cleverley’s one of those unfortunate cases where she’s good at a lot of things but not great at anything, so when the Ferns are looking for midfielders to complement what Steinmetz does, DC doesn’t exactly standout. And with such a small squad there’s no room for players who aren’t in contention to start. Cleverley has only started two of the past 20 internationals (both against Oceania teams). The likes of Fraser, Taylor, and Kitching have all come onto the scene within the last two years. Cleverley just hasn’t done enough to hold her spot ahead of them in this new era of blossoming depth.

FORWARDS

Milly Clegg – Racing Louisville, USA (8/1)

Jacqui Hand – Unattached (27/8)

Grace Jale – Unattached (32/9)

Gabi Rennie – Åland United, FIN (37/2)

Indiah-Paige Riley – PSV Eindhoven, NED (24/6)

Thus we come to the forwards. The goal-scorers and creators in a team that usually does neither. Jacqui Hand and Indi Riley are getting there but the only proven international goal-scorer we’ve got at the moment is Hannah Wilkinson and she’s been dropped – Wilkie’s 32 goals are more than these five forwards put together in a similar number of caps... and only 5/26 of those five’s goals were scored against non-Oceania opponents. On the other hand, none of this quintet are older than 25 so they’re all relatively early in their careers with room to grow.

As far as Wilkinson being dropped goes, she probably should be there on the weight of her talent but this squad has been picked with the future in mind. Wilkinson said on Instagram that she felt “blindsided” by the decision (whilst saying she’ll also be the team’s biggest fan) but there have been creeping inklings. Her three-game suspension after that red card against Chile didn’t help. She returned for Olympic Qualifying, occasionally cutting a frustrated figure yet still proving to be one of the team’s more potent options (with two goals and two assists in 156 minutes). She scored in the 4-0 win against Thailand but was also part of the line-up that failed to repeat the dose in a 0-0 draw a few days later. Already mentioned that she had a very limited presence against Japan where she didn’t start either game. And while she did scored 10 goals in 23 games for Melbourne City, she underperformed against her expected goals margin and when push came to shove in the playoffs she found herself either out of the eleven or out of position... then was released (and replaced by Mariana Speckmaier) when the season concluded. It’s still harsh to be dropped in alignment with a major tournament but Wilkinson has not been in peak form over the past twelve months which has slid her down into the zone where this decision became a possibility.

Hannah Wilkinson is a solid international with a proven record for scoring goals, including big tournament goals. She’s also a limited player in other aspects, particularly in the air and with her hold-up play (which can be a surprise given her strength and height). She’s borne the brunt of a lot of people’s frustrations in the way that number nines are often unfairly blamed for team-wide attacking deficiencies... she’s also been the best option in that position throughout a very dark period of Footy Ferns attacking dearth. In the end, this almost isn’t really about her at all. It’s about the fact that we’ve finally got some good young forwards pushing through (with plenty more on the way).

Milly Clegg scored her first international goal against Japan last tour. We’re yet to see her and Macey Fraser on the pitch at the same time for the national team but we should do so very soon (although maybe not in the Zambia game because Fraser’s dealing with an ankle knock). Clegg is a generational talent. Only 18 and already with an NWSL contract. She was part of U17, U20, and senior World Cup squads all within the space of 12 months (scoring at each of the first two) – and she’s still eligible for another U20 WC later this year.

Jacqui Hand has consistently impressed for the national team (she set up Wilkinson’s World Cup goal in Auckland) and has also shown similar potency for her club teams in Finland and England. Gabi Rennie for a long time felt like a player getting opportunities that either she hadn’t yet earned or that perhaps weren’t being translated from the training pitch to the games. That’s changed since she graduated college in the States and moved to Åland United – the same club that Jacqui Hand also made her pro start with. Rennie’s been a fixture on the right wing for AU and has plain and simply been crushing it (six goals and five assists in 12 games across league and cup comps). Indiah-Paige Riley was a breakthrough star at the World Cup and carried that smoothly into a move to PSV where she scored plenty of goals last season.

Then there’s Grace Jale who is possibly a little lucky to have made it after having a far less effective ALW campaign that Wilkinson did. Jale scored three goals in her first four games for Perth then didn’t score again (or even get an assist) in her remaining 15 appearances. Of course, the difference between Wilkie and Jale is that Jale is also capable of playing on either wing (in fact, has probably been picked for that role first and foremost with Hand and Clegg likely to be the strikers). We need wide mids same as we need strikers. Riley has played all over the place for NZ but it’d be cool to see her lock down the left-wing where she operates for PSV. Hand can play on either side too, in case of a formation change. Rennie is best on the right but can do a job across the line. Jale played right midfield in both Japan games under Michael Mayne. Don’t forget Ally Green as a smokey on the left, nor Katie Kitching as a hybrid wide midfielder. Another crucial aspect to a small squad is having positional versatility in order to cover as many situations as possible. The players who have been selected all possess that. Now we get to see if they can translate that into a few goals in Paris.

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