Football Ferns in Rio: Game One vs USA
Of all the kiwis competing in Rio, the Football Ferns have one of the biggest available bandwagons. After several years of building this team and holding their own at major tournaments, they once again find themselves at the Olympics and this time there’s some genuine dark horse potential about them, especially with the way this tournament is set up. The Ferns aren’t the most talented team at the Olympics but they’re a team in the true sense of the world and the Iceland and Wales sides at Euro 2016 will tell you how far that can take you. Definitely ones to watch.
The women’s tournament at Rio is a little different to what you’d expect. Where the World Cup has 24 teams, the Olympics only have 12 here and eight of them will make the quarters – the top two in each of the three groups and the two best third placers. What that means is that, like we saw at the Euros, a single win should be enough to put any team through.
What it also means is that there aren’t as many top teams to go through as at the World Cup. Japan, the runners up at that tournament, didn’t even qualify after Australia eliminated them in the Asian conference while South Africa and Zimbabwe are probably the easy beats. Naturally, New Zealand is in the group that doesn’t include either of the African qualifiers but Colombia are definitely beatable. Even France aren’t as far ahead as you’d think either and the Footy Ferns could give them a real go. First up though: the United States of America. The best women’s team on the planet, possibly ever.
But before the Football Ferns kicked off against the world champs, we saw a few other games that more or less confirm what we were expecting at Rio 2016. Sweden needed a scrappy goal to get past South Africa but those three points set them up well in their group, Brazil meanwhile strolling past China 3-0. Zimbabwe did okay against second-favourites Germany until the last quarter of an hour when they fell apart and ended up going down 6-1. Hey but hilariously the Aussies lost 2-0 to Canada in their first game, a bit of an upset there despite Canada being the reigning bronze medallists. Janine Beckie scored after only 20 seconds for the fastest ever goal at the women’s Olympic tournament. Christine Sinclair, one of the game’s standouts, added a second with ten minutes left – all this despite Canada going down to ten players with Shelina Zadorsky’s red card in the 19th min. Oh, and Canada missed a second half penalty in there as well. New Zealand drew with Canada at the World Cup last year so take that.
To the topic at hand now, New Zealand were up against it with a full-strength American side named. Most of this squad is the same from that which won the World Cup. Alex Morgan and Mallory Pugh playing up top which is where this team can maybe be got. If it has a major weakness it’s that they don’t really have a trusted goalscorer now that Abby Wambach has retired – although you count out Carli Lloyd at your own demise. She last year won the women’s equivalent of the Ballon D’or. Pugh is one of the most promising young players out there at just 18 years old (although this was a quiet one for her, mostly pushed out wide and she was subbed off early in the second half).
For the kiwis, it read: Nayler/Percival, Erceg, Stott, Riley/Duncan, Hassett, Bowen, Longo/Wilkinson, Hearn. Plenty of ability in that midfield there, plus strike-power with Wilkinson and Hearn up top. Having Rosie White and Sarah Gregorius to bring off the bench is a healthy option too and it shows how well NZ football is growing that we now have players who feature for clubs in top competitions sitting on our bench – Gergorius plays for Elfen Saitama in Japan and While for Liverpool in England. America, by the way, has won four of the five women’s football tournaments in Olympic history.
Last Olympics, America had a crap start when they coasted in a little complacently and fell 2-0 down to France after quarter of an hour. They ended up winning 4-2 but it was a scare that they weren’t prepared to suffer again. They even said as much in the pre-game. So after a couple of minutes of New Zealand trying to hold the ball and being pressed deeper and deeper into their own half, the Americans came out swinging. Swinging in crosses, that is.
The Ferns couldn’t seem to handle them either, our relatively short defence also getting beaten out physically there by the likes of the powerful Carli Lloyd and the speedy Alex Morgan. Tobin Heath was creating havoc out on the left hand flank and it was her free kick that Morgan headed wide from the near post, a chance that really ought to have put USA up 1-0. In fact it could have put them up 2-0 had a chance just minutes earlier not been headed straight at Erin Nayler by Julie Johnston, the follow up also blocked by Nayler and then cleared.
But the goal did come and there wasn’t much the kiwis could do about it. Heath jinked and jived, sending one defender to the ground and floating one to the far post where Lloyd was just too strong. A looping header above two defenders left Nayler no chance. Bugger.
At that point it felt like it’d be a riot but New Zealand steadied and maybe USA took their foot off the pedal a little. They weren’t able to hold the ball all that well, generally losing it as soon as they pushed it over halfway but at least they were repelling the Americans a bit. A few hard fouls showed the yanks that it wasn’t coming easy as well, Betsy Hassett with a thoroughly deserved yellow for clattering Heath, as you do. Ali Riley also picked up a first half yellow but what that was for it was hard to say. Getting slapped in the back of the head, apparently.
The Football Ferns came in with a clear style of play, passing it around at the back but mostly bypassing the middle to get the ball to Wilkinson and Hearn up top – which didn’t often work but the pair hassled hard. That means you don’t have as many options through the centre but it does clear up the mids to drift forward or wide, Hassett in particular getting involved out on the left to good effect a couple times. Some sloppy passing by the Americans handed over possession in some handy areas and Wilkinson and Hearn were able to buy a few throw ins and free kicks – Katie Duncan’s set piece delivery wasn’t quite hitting her targets but they looked dangerous. Problem was that those set pieces were about all we could muster, particularly as they were the one time we could safely commit numbers forward.
The best chance fell to Hannah Wilkinson taking one down with her back to goal and trying the turning volley, which was roughed up. Barely a half chance, yet at the same time the Americans had maybe one decent opportunity themselves in the last half hour of the first half. That is decent. With the margin of qualification sure to be tight in this tournament, goal difference is going to matter. America also has the potential to thrash the rest of the group so a slight loss wouldn’t be game over. If the equaliser was gonna come though, Wilkinson was the outlet. As far as targets go up front, she does more than decently. Wilkinson was probably the only player in the team with the physical advantage over her marker.
1-0 down at half time after that start was all good. 2-0 down a minute into the second half, not so much. It was a terrible start to the half, throwing away so much that was earned in the first stanza by giving the ball away sloppily a couple times, losing their shape at the back, getting sucked in by the attackers and leaving way too much space for Alex Morgan who then beat Nayler at the near post. Pretty rubbish, unfortunately.
That took the steam out of the game with the two goal cushion. The pace of it slowed. There were a few chances that fell NZ’s way, like Amber Hearn firing wide or Wilkinson almost getting on the end of a through ball, in the end giving up the foul in a tussle with Johnstone. Sarah Gregorius replaced Katie Bowen on the hour and ten minutes later Kirsty Yallop came on for Katie Duncan, who left injured.
When New Zealand did find their way forwards though (the odd counter attack looked alright), the crowd had their backs. More than you can say for USA goalie Hope Solo, who was thoroughly booed whenever she touched the ball, hehe. With about ten to play, the Ferns had their best bit of attack thanks to a corner earned by Riley down the left, skinning her defender before cover came across and blocked the cross. But the corner from Yallop was a wicked one and after a bit of scrambling in and around the box it led to another corner, which was also whipped in with danger but America were able to clear.
The final sub was Jasmine Pereira replacing Wilkinson. Pereira brought a good bit of late energy though it was so hard for the kiwis to find options through the middle on attack. A deep cross from Percival was claimed by Hope Solo rushing out and then a deep free kick from Yallop went nowhere. It looked like Hearn took a kick on the latter but it was off the ball and the ref missed it.
On the whole, a 2-0 defeat isn’t the worst – in fact it’s about dead average and leaves us in roughly the same situation we started the tournament, which is okay. No damage done and the Ferns know that if they can win one of their next two games then they should position themselves for a quarter final. We play Colombia at 11am on Sunday and France at 10am on Wednesday.
It’s a shame about that second goal, since Erin Nayler otherwise didn’t put a foot wrong and the central defensive partnership of Rebecca Stotts and Abby Erceg was mostly very good. USA had 63% of the ball and would have had even more territory than that, this was a tough test and the Ferns will need to be better in their other games, which they should be. Defensively you can trust this team to hold their own. It’s more a matter of how they’re gonna get the ball in the net, which was the same problem they had at the World Cup last year.
So no, the Footy Ferns didn’t get the upset that they were hoping for. What they did get instead was a benchmark for this Olympic tournament and that could serve them well in the next two games. This game was a freebie. From here on, it’s business time.