New Zealand teams don’t go to these youth World Cups to make up the numbers. Ever-expanding professional opportunities in Aotearoa and beyond mean more top level players are having their talent nurtured from a younger age. The 2024 version of the U20 Women’s World Cup saw a New Zealand squad travel with 15/21 players already having either a professional contract or professional playing experience. It wasn’t that long ago that the Football Ferns were picking swathes of amateurs in their squads and now we can pick an U20 squad that’s almost 75% professional.

The profiles are different too. This team had cruised through qualifying showing off a depth of attacking versatility that’s very different to the days of yore when centre-backs and goalkeepers were usually the standout players. In five games at the Oceania U19s last year, they scored 45 goals and conceded zero. Then they added Milly Clegg to that mix for the World Cup. Senior teams from NZ seem to struggle with goals but this group offers hope for that cause.

Chuck in the professional experience. Chuck in the expanded U20 WWC (up to 24 teams for the first time) diluting the group stage enough that the NZ team were seeded in the second pot for the draw. Chuck in coach Leon Birnie’s past experience taking the U17s to third-place back in 2019. Chuck in all the other times NZ youth teams have made knockouts in these things in recent years. Chuck it all together and mix it up and there were heaps of reasons to be excited about what might unfold in Colombia.

The Games

Then they lost 7-0 to Japan in the first game. Now, Japan are spectacular. At all levels they seem to be getting back towards being one of the top women’s footballing nations and the U20s in particular seems to be where they peak – having won the 2018 edition and been beaten finalists in 2022. They turned up with expectations to compete for the grand prize and with their sharp movements, silky techniques, and attacking intent they absolutely shredded the kiwis. Full credit to a very good side from a nation that’s doing a lot of things right these days.

But jeez it was stark from the Junior Ferns. The omens were already dim when striker Ella McCann tore her ACL prior to the match. It wasn’t announced until afterwards but she was there on the sidelines leaning on crutches wearing a very large knee brace and the three-lettered diagnosis is always the fear in those situations. McCann wouldn’t have been a starter with Milly Clegg in the side but she might have been a useful bench option. More devastating is that she’d only just signed a scholarship deal with the Wellington Phoenix a couple weeks prior and now she’ll have to miss the entire season. At least it was a two-year schol deal so she’ll be back next time. The Welly Nix season hasn’t even begun and already Marisa van der Meer and Ella McCann are out with ACL tears.

Coach Birnie’s starting line-up took a 4-2-3-1 formation. Maddie Iro was a slightly surprising selection in goal given that Aimee Danieli has made an A-League appearance and been part of a Football Ferns squad. That’s pretty exciting because Danieli’s clearly a player with quality and potential so if Iro’s rated even higher then that’s encouraging. Iro’s come up through the Canterbury United scene (club: Cashmere Technical) though is currently playing college and some semi-pro stuff in the USA. Random fact: Maddie Iro was part of the Christchurch Girls' High School first eleven cricket team that won the 2020 Gillette Venus Cup – one of her teammates was Libby Stead, daughter of Blackcaps coach Gary Stead.

In front of Iro were right-back Zoe McMeeken, centre-backs Ella McMillan and Ella Findlay, and left-back Suya Haering. Emma Pijnenburg and Helena Errington were the midfielders. Manaia Elliott on the right wing, Kiara Bercelli on the left wing. Ruby Nathan played in behind Milly Clegg. Western Springs defender Findlay is the only one of those outfielders who does not have a professional contract right now.

Except... that idea is kinda misleading. Those pro deals are amazing for getting them into the right situations to develop as players but they don’t necessarily mean much for their ability to win games right here and now. Emma Pijnenburg is the only one of them who actually plays regular first team football at a level above the A-League. Even ALW folks like McMeeken and Elliott aren’t first choice players for the Phoenix. Milly Clegg is the most pedigreed of the lot but she’s yet to make an NWSL debut and really only has that one Phoenix season under her club belt so far. Clegg does have significant international experience though, both at previous U17 and U20 World Cups and also at the FIFA World Cup in 2023 (where she didn’t get any game time) and the Olympics this year (where got plenty of game time).

Japan had ten shots within the first 14 minutes so that let’s you know what the experience was like. The NZers couldn’t hold possession, outside of a few Errington touches, and really struggled against the Japanese pressure. Passes were going astray. Clearances were rushed. Worst of all was the back four looked very disorganised with Japan’s off-ball runs able to drag them all over the place. With Iro hesitant to get off her line, there was space in behind all evening. NZ was able to keep the score at 1-0 for quite a while but then Japan scored three times in the final seven minutes plus stoppage time of the first half. Mistakes all over the place. Birnie finally brought Daisy Brazendale on for Nathan after 55 minutes to put some more defensive grit in the midfield but it was already too late. A nasty start to the tournament.

Unfortunately the next match, against Austria, exposed different defensive worries as the Junior Ferns twice conceded from set pieces within the first 15 minutes. Both were curling free kick deliveries that they just didn’t deal with. Japan had run us off the park with their superior speed and fitness. Austria did the damage with strength and power. There was no denying they’d needed to bulk up the midfield after that first outing so Brazendale came in for Nathan in the only change... and you know what? They were a lot better in open play. However it didn’t matter because they let themselves get boiled from dead balls instead. Such a strange trend considering Birnie’s legendary U17 side had been built upon sturdy, compact, defensive mahi.

New Zealand did have a chance to get back into the match right before the break when Pijnenburg bravely charged into a collision with the Austrian goalie to win a penalty. She dusted herself off to take the spot kick (still with some blades of grass sticking to her face from the fall) but the shot was saved. Then Kiara Bercelli turned the rebound home only for that to be disallowed for encroachment. Austria would score a third after 67 mins to kill things off, though Milly Clegg did get a late consolation with a superb header from an Errington corner kick.

This was a new trick from the Clegg bag to see her thumping them in with the skull like that. Just one more way in which she can score goals. Add that to the one she scored at the last U20 World Cup and the two she scored at the last U17 WWC. Four goals in FIFA tournaments and she doesn’t even turn 19 until November (although that’s not unprecedented because, once upon a time, Rosie White scored eight times in four age grade World Cups). But, yeah... 3-1 was the final score in favour of Austria.

This tourney did include third-placed qualifiers but two losses with that goal difference meant the Ferns were already adrift by then... and by the time the third game got started against Ghana they were mathematically eliminated. Ours was the last of the round to kick off so it was a known fact that we’d have needed four points to progress. That also meant opponents Ghana were gone, therefore this match was purely for pride. Ella Findlay and Suya Haering had both been subbed with head knocks against Austria so neither were available for game three. Olivia Page joined McMillan at CB while Rebekah Trewhitt played at LB. That meant an all-Phoenix defensive quartet. There was one other change with Ruby Nathan reinstated after being an unused sub against Austria, while the kiwis were also without coach Leon Birnie who’d had to return home with illness. Fingers crossed all is well there. Assistant Maia Vink took over in his place, fresh from having had to miss her Western Springs team in the Kate Sheppard Cup final two days earlier.

Again there were noticeable improvements. Bercelli even had the ball in the net early on but, same as in the previous game, her goal was disallowed. In this case it was a pretty clear offside after it’d rebounded her way off Nathan. Ghana presented a different test with their speedy forwards and Iro made a spectacular save to keep it scoreless soon after Bercelli’s non-goal. Chances at both ends. Very competitive. Ghana would also have a goal disallowed for offside on 29 minutes after carving a hole right through the middle of the NZ defence. No denying that Ghana were the more potent team, with both Page and McMillan needing to make goal-line clearances, but it remained 0-0 into the break. New Zealand were hanging right on in there.

Annoyingly, it was Ghana who made the superior adjustments at half-time. They came back out with renewed energy and pushed the NZers back against the wall before finally breaking through with a diverting touch on the end of a header from a 59th minute corner. That goal was a valid culmination of their pressure... but the lead only lasted five minutes before Manaia Elliott ran onto a super ball over the top from Pijnenburg to lob the out-rushing keeper on the bounce. Now we’re talking!

That got the chins up high. That got the energy flowing. Clegg almost got through onto a Bercelli pass but the keeper beat her to it. Vink chose to challenge that decision (this tournament trialled a challenge system for subjective VAR calls) but the decision was upheld... and then Ghana scored immediately after the pause in play. Looping header from a very good delivery and Iro couldn’t scramble back in time to get a hand on it. Clegg did have one other huge opportunity to score when substitute Olivia Ingham slid a sweet pass across goal but the keeper was where she needed to be to smother Clegg’s finish. Then Ghana went and scored a runaway goal in stoppage time with New Zealand throwing numbers forward in search of a leveller. 3-1 was once more the final score.

The Aftermath

Three games played and three defeats. Not what this team had in mind when they stepped off the plane in Colombia but both Maia Vink and Ella McMillan seemed pretty chirpy afterwards in their TV interviews, talking about the progress being made and the bright futures of the players and the way they improved from game to game. Vink highlighted the team’s passing stats. All of those points are valid, though it was still a defiant tone to strike after a loss which it doesn’t require much of a stretch to see as a missed opportunity.

The problem was obvious: this team conceded 13 goals in three games. That’s the most a Women’s U20 team from New Zealand has ever allowed and it’s not even close (they leaked eight in both 2010, also the only other time they lost all three group games, and in 2014 when they made the quarter-finals and thus played four games). To take it even further, the only NZ team of any age or gender to concede more goals at a major tournament was the 1997 Men’s U17 side who lost 4-0 to Mali, 5-0 to Mexico, and 13-0 to Spain. The Men’s U17s of 2007 also let 13 goals through.

Scoring goals wasn’t as much of an issue. They only got two that counted but they missed a penalty, were denied by VAR a couple of times, and forced a few good saves. Could have been a lot more but it’s not like they were sitting back scratching their heads about how to get shots away. They were scratching their heads about how they kept having to play from deficits because of that defence – which kept finding new ways to be vulnerable. Paul Temple won’t have enjoyed that given how much of a Welly Nix contingent there was in defence. But it wasn’t a lack of talent. It was more about cohesion and tactics (at which point we have to wonder if Leon Birnie’s health was a factor – though it’d be rude to speculate further without knowing more about that situation... again, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery).

This team’s struggles do make for a funky comparison to Birnie’s 2018 U17s. That team’s been popping up a few times lately with a few of the alumni doing interesting things. Kelli Brown has signed with Perth. Maggie Jenkins has signed with Gaziantep ALG Spor. Maya Hahn is back in the Bundesliga with Turbine Potsdam (where she’s a teammate of Suya Haering). It took awhile for that group to find their feet as professionals. Part of that was timing, with the Wellington Phoenix emerging a few years later. Part of that was that they sorta felt like the end of an era. That team were happy to play tight and combative footy yet every NZ Football team since then has hyped up how they want to compete with teams in style as well as substance. There’s a focus on their passing numbers, like Vink quoted after the Ghana defeat.

These two strategies don’t have to be mutually exclusive so there is the possible question of whether we’re being too ambitious at the expense of defensive solidity rather than inclusive of it. The Men’s U17s conceded 10 goals in three World Cup games last year. The 2023 Men’s U20s started well but then lost 5-0 to Argentina and 4-0 to USA at their World Cup (conceding 11 times in four games overall). The Men’s U23s let in eight goals in three Olympic matches a few months ago. We’ll see how the Women’s U17s do in October.

This is all fodder for pondering. These youth World Cups are development exercises first and foremost and this squad already has a jump on most others for producing professionals. Nothing to freak out about... as they said the performances did improve with each game and there were some lovely moments of footy in amongst. Also, it could be a lot worse. Australia were at this same U20 WWC and they lost 2-0 to Colombia, 2-0 to Mexico, and 2-0 to Cameroon, meaning they returned home with three defeats and didn’t even score single goal. Remember we had a couple of draws against Australia in a preparation series earlier in the year.

More Thoughts

Ultimately, these squads are remembered for the players that emerge from them. Milly Clegg is the undoubted star prospect of this group and even the ball didn’t go her way very often she still managed to score a goal. Plus you’ve gotta hand it to Clegg for the way she kept battling through a lot of physical treatment with hard tackles and heavy landings and all sorts. Always a willing runner too. These are traits that’ll suit her very nicely playing in America.

Clegg was one of three players to play every minute. Maddie Iro was another. The keeper had some hiccups in the first game but was very good thereafter. Helena Errington was the other everpresent. Sometimes as a deep midfielder, sometimes as a number ten, but always out there. She got an assist for Clegg’s goal and was at least able to show off some of the poise, passing rhythm, and ball retention that makes her arguably the most exciting prodigy behind Clegg in this group. Emma Pijnenburg is also in that conversation and she also pocketed an assist. The balance in that midfield was better when the hard-tackling Daisy Brazendale was also there but Pijnenburg certainly had her moments getting to play in her preferred midfield spot (she’s been used as a fullback by Feyenoord so far)... albeit that missed penalty will linger in the mind.

Not the best tourney for Ruby Nathan who, alongside Clegg, was one of the only two senior capped players here. With Clegg hogging the striker spot, Nathan was left to hunt elsewhere to limited effect. Manaia Elliott was typically industrious and indestructible and well worth the goal she scored. Kiara Bercelli needs to time her runs better as those two disallowed goals attest but she’s a hard-worker and a sneaky good passer – it’ll be curious to see if she hangs around the Sampdoria first team this year having been out on loan last term. Would have liked to see more of the likes of Olivia Ingham, Zoe Benson, and Lara Colpi though. They were victims of a set hierarchy and limited rotation across the three games but each had their bright moments.

Zoe McMeeken is at her best when she’s unpredictable. At times against Ghana she was drifting into midfield or stepping up the wing and making things happen. At other times this tournament she was too focused on her role and that more conservative approach diminished what she did. Those loping strides make her very quick. If she gets comfortable in the A-League next term then there’s potential for a real breakthrough... and with Michaela Foster apparently not returning that could be the open door that ZM needs. Suya Haering was quiet without much of a platform to shine. The centre-back combos kept changing which didn’t help the team’s cohesion... though Findlay had some solid actions, offering a bit of height.

Olivia Page was similar. Only got cameos in the first two games but started the third, playing mostly at CB but also shifting out to LB after the subs started happening, and she was one of NZ’s best in that match. Strong and decisive and confident in a way that wasn’t necessarily true of all her teammates. She’s at Sheffield United in the English second tier so this might offer some momentum as she seeks a league debut for the Blades (Page only played cup games last year). Marie Green was only used sparingly – despite being a regular CB partner of Ella McMillan at the WeeNix. McMillan potentially shapes as more of a defensive midfielder down the line, with her short stature an issue in defence (at 1.62m she was the third-shortest in the squad behind Colpi and Benson... McMeeken and Nathan were the tallest at 1.78m, closely followed by Page at 1.77m). Also, Rebekah Trewhitt featured quite a bit and managed to land a few of her trademarked crunching tackles with minutes as a fullback on either side.

Two years ago the U20s mostly settled back into National League footy after their World Cup. There aren’t too many whom that applies to this year. The Wellington Phoenix contingent will all get their opportunities while Amber Bennett could get some Canterbury United reps (she was the third-choice keeper here). Ella Findlay at Western Springs is another. Zoe Benson for Eastern Suburbs. And... that’s it. Pijnenburg’s got a Dutch Eredivisie season to play. Bercelli goes back to Italy. Haering to Germany. Clegg will be aiming for an NWSL debut. Page in England. Colpi recently signed in Switzerland. Nathan’s just re-upped with Canberra United. Plus we don’t even know what Helena Errington has in store. She’s already had a taste of European footy training with Sporting CP and has made a few spare appearances for the Wellington Phoenix. She was the lone “Unattached FC” rep in the group but you can bet she won’t stay a free agent for long.

The games and the tournament and the achievements are cool but the best thing about U17 and U20 World Cups is that we’re served up these squad lists of the footballers that have been hand-picked as the very best in the country at their age group. We then get to track their careers from there. This group weren’t so good with the games and tournament and achievement stuff but they’re going pretty good on the career tracking metric. We keep on truckin’.

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