They move to Samoa's main stadium (Apia Park) for semis & final.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2024/2/5/football-ferns-at-the-oceania-olympic-qualifiers-squad-yarns-amp-preview
Realistically, the Football Ferns could get by without their very best players on this tour... yet the 24-player group that Jitka Klimková has selected is surprisingly strong. Perhaps even unnecessarily strong – with only two potential debutants in the mix and both have been selected for squads before.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2024/2/5/football-ferns-at-the-oceania-olympic-qualifiers-squad-yarns-amp-preview
Realistically, the Football Ferns could get by without their very best players on this tour... yet the 24-player group that Jitka Klimková has selected is surprisingly strong. Perhaps even unnecessarily strong – with only two potential debutants in the mix and both have been selected for squads before.
Take Katie Bowen for example, she’s been everpresent for Inter Milan since joining them after the World Cup (where she was arguably Aotearoa’s best performer across the three matches). Her presence in this squad means she could miss up to four club games including a second-leg cup quarter-final against Fiorentina (she actually scored an own goal in the 2-2 first leg) and a Serie A game against Juventus.
The poor old Wellington Phoenix have six players in this squad including their entire starting midfield. They requested a postponement for their Feb 18 match against Western United but not only did that not get granted (due to venue availability and fixture congestion), the APL has instead rescheduled the men’s Nix game from that weekend so that both teams kickoff at the same time. The Nix did manage to push their Feb 11 match against Adelaide back to a later midweek, at least.
No matter what she (Klimkova) says about the relative growth/strength of the Oceania teams, the Ferns are still going to win these games by many, many goals. Last time they were in this spot was the 2018 Nations Cup. It was Tom Sermanni’s first tour in charge and they won 11-0 against Tonga, 6-0 against Cook Islands, 10-0 against Fiji, 8-0 against New Caledonia, and then 8-0 against Fiji again in the final. 43 goals scored and zero conceded.
And yeah it’s going to be very hot in Samoa at this time of year. It’s also going to be brutal for the Ferns having to play five games in the space of 13 days. At least the pitches should hold up okay since FFS Football Stadium has two fields to spread out the load during the group stages, then for the knockouts we move to Apia Park.
The poor old Wellington Phoenix have six players in this squad including their entire starting midfield. They requested a postponement for their Feb 18 match against Western United but not only did that not get granted (due to venue availability and fixture congestion), the APL has instead rescheduled the men’s Nix game from that weekend so that both teams kickoff at the same time. The Nix did manage to push their Feb 11 match against Adelaide back to a later midweek, at least.
No matter what she (Klimkova) says about the relative growth/strength of the Oceania teams, the Ferns are still going to win these games by many, many goals. Last time they were in this spot was the 2018 Nations Cup. It was Tom Sermanni’s first tour in charge and they won 11-0 against Tonga, 6-0 against Cook Islands, 10-0 against Fiji, 8-0 against New Caledonia, and then 8-0 against Fiji again in the final. 43 goals scored and zero conceded.
And yeah it’s going to be very hot in Samoa at this time of year. It’s also going to be brutal for the Ferns having to play five games in the space of 13 days. At least the pitches should hold up okay since FFS Football Stadium has two fields to spread out the load during the group stages, then for the knockouts we move to Apia Park.