A bit of a guess at who might be at the tournament and by current FIFA ranking what pots they might be in, certainly of note is our record against Pot B and C teams.
1-0-5 v Pot B (i.e. this team we get will be favourite to top the group and we will probably not beat them)
4-0-4 v Pot C... it looks tight as. However Argentina and Mexico wins were a long time ago and frankly Belgium was too...
Under Klimkova we've got one win in five "winable" games (W1 D2 L1) (Scored 3, Conceded 3). 5 losses to much-favoured opponents as well. Didn't score against Iceland, Czech Republic or Wales. She's actually been at the head of the team for a wee while now, and for all the talk about wanting to be creative and attacking and playing with possession, it ain't happening. Let's not forget that we need to beat the Pot D team as well, we didn't beat Cameroon last time and most of those Pot D teams don't look like the rollovers we're used to playing in OFC.
Massively looking forward to having the World Cup in our own backyard and it will be a blast regardless but sadly I fear unless something changes that the Ferns are going to fail to fire again.
Good analysis. But don't forget home advantage. Gave 2015 U20 men's team a boost, and will do so for the Ferns. Don't know where they are playing their pool games, but a bit of mid winter wind & rain could be on the cards.
Yipe Ferns record of late ain't great but all those games have been outside NZ. To get a real proper gauge on the Ferns (and AWs for that matter) you'd be looking at 50% games spit H&A. But of course that never happens with NZ international football.
Need to expect some improvement & fast. But I'd still be optimistic Ferns can at least get out of their pool, depending on what Pot C & D teams they get lumped with. As above they have a 50% win ratio against Pot C teams. With luck avoid the 3 Euro teams & the Koreans. Pot D is African, Latino and weaker Asian teams. At home in NZ we should beat all of them.
Getting out of their pool is obviously the minimum otherwise Klimkova could be gone well short of her 5 year contract. Draw to be made in October.