Very surprised at how strong our squad is. But looking forward to actually see us score some goals for once 🙃
Careful what you wish for. Cue the first bit of comical goal keeping or defending against the Ferns.
The last full Womens OFC qualifying tourney involving the Ferns was the Nov-Dec 2018, in Tahiti. Qualifiers for the 2019 WWC (France). From memory not long after the messy Heraf saga, and Sermanni came in.
Ferns GF 43 GA 0, from 5 games!
So an average 8.6 to nil scoreline. 8-0 over Fiji in the final.
Hopefully the Island teams have narrowed the gap a bit. Samoa & PNG seem the big improvers the last few years.
https://www.oceaniafootball.com/womens-olympic-football-tournament-preview-vanuatu/
The worst thing about that is Wilkinson has played against the islands a few times but still has relatively low numbers of goals to her name:
9 Goals in 6 games. (4 in one match against Vanuatu to start off her Ferns goal scoring career). Shes not scored in every Pacific Island game she's played in.
Whereas
Amber Hearn: 25 goals from 11 games.
Every PI game she played, she scored and its interesting to note that since her retirement, the Ferns have struggled in front of goal.
Hearn and Archie Thompson have easily the best scoring records for kiwis in the Pacific.