New Zealand Women's U-17s

touche

Jerez needs to be tied to NZ asap. Dad's dream is for her to play for Chile.

Given they just beat our senior team twice, they will look even more appealing.

Interesting! Yip she has the quality! Can see why Chile may want her. May come down to what coach she wants too.

People thought I was dooming with my comments on how the pool match against Fiji went. But I've seen it in other places - a team which relies on individual brilliance somehow gets stymied by a physical and well-organised team which just pushes them off the ball

Showtime Nixie

Interesting! Yip she has the quality! Can see why Chile may want her. May come down to what coach she wants too.

Obviously she'll choose NZ...the chance to play under the master coach Klimkova is just too good to turn down...;)

Interesting looking back.

https://theniche-cache.com/football/2024/1/10/looking-back-at-new-zealands-u17-world-cup-bronze-medallists-five-years-later

Birnie had his side in a 4-4-2 formation with a clearly defined idea of what the best eleven looked like – with this specific line-up starting every game except for one (the third group stage game, when they rotated things around)....

 As for building up from the back, maaaate. Anna Leat played literally one short pass all tournament. No goalie kicked the ball long more often than she did. They were direct. They were compact. There was almost no difference between their average shape in and out of possession.

It was this push and pull between ideals that led to Maya Hahn switching allegiances to Germany. Having been the standout player in qualifying, she only played 229 minutes at the World Cup itself, being predominantly used as a second half substitute for Macey Fraser. The two most technically gifted players in the group had to do a job-share. Can’t argue with the outcomes... but that stylistic disillusionment was one of the stated reasons for her decision (alongside her strong German heritage, better professional pathways, and other similarly valid personal reasons).

That squad as initially named featured only domestically-based players, though at U17s level that’s entirely normal – it’s usually only after this when the pro/college offers begin to emerge. You could also see how diligently Birnie and his team had scouted the nation by the range of regions represented. Ten players were based in Auckland, although several had moved there for football reasons (such as Anna Leat of Arrowtown, Hannah Mackay-Wright of Nelson, Maggie Jenkins of Wellington, and Ayla Pratt of Tauranga). Six more came from the wider Canterbury region – including three from Waimakariri Utd (Macey Fraser, Jayda Stewart & Gabi Rennie) and one from Nelson Suburbs (Amelia Abbott). Only one was based in Wellington (Maya Hahn) back in those days before the Phoenix Academy... ironically six of this squad have since played for the Nix in the A-League Women’s. New Plymouth was also represented by Mackenzie Barry, while a trio of Hamilton Wanderers players flew the Waikato flag in Brown, Wisnewski, and backup keeper Georgia Candy.

International footy is going to be tough to acquire for (Maya) Hahn from here. The pandemic spoiled her best chance of that. Bottom line is that she hasn’t actually played competitively for Germany... maybe they’ll let her switch back? Times have changed since the 2018 World Cup. Klimková’s also got a decent record at recruiting dual internationals. Let us get the lawyers involved and see if it’s still possible.

All of those who remained local have played in the National League but not all of them recently. Britney Cunningham-Lee’s goals took Ellerslie into the WNL last year while Hannah Mackay-Wright was brilliant for Southern United as they made the grand final. On the other hand, several others didn’t appear to be playing anywhere at all in 2023. None more tragically than Aneka Mittendorff who captained this side and, back in 2018, looked an absolute certainty to progress her silky centre-back skills into the Football Ferns one day. It’s not too late for a comeback. We can always hope.

As for the Where Are They Now yarns, here’s a list of the 21 players in the main squad (plus the three non-travelling reserves) and where they played their football in 2023...

Curious that only two of them are playing professionally overseas, Leat and Hahn, although that could hopefully change in the coming weeks with a few of those uni students having graduated. There is still that chunk at the Wellington Phoenix too. Should add the context that Kelli Brown scored absolute bundles in the New South Wales NPL with Macarthur Rams prior to re-signing with the Nix. She pocketed 23 goals in 27 games to finish runner-up for Golden Boot as her Rams team won the state championship.

Blair Currie also spent some time with a semi-pro USLW team (Tormenta FC) during her college offseason. Fellow goalie Georgia Candy (the backup goalies were the only two of the squad not to get minutes in Uruguay thanks to Anna Leat’s magnificence) hasn’t resurfaced at a new club since being released by the Nix but was a Phoenix scholarship player for the first half of last year making one appearance in the ALW.

Already mentioned that three of them played NZ National League in 2023. A few others were nestled slightly below that level. Ayla Pratt (now Ayla Koopu) scored seven goals for Hamilton Wanderers to be the club’s top scorer but they didn’t qualify for WNL (Britney Cunningham-Lee was the NRFL Premier Division Golden Boot with 11 goals). Laney Strachan played a little bit for Eastern Suburbs during the winter season but didn’t partake in the National League stuff.

The internet wasn’t forthcoming with much information on the others, though Arabella Maynard has played some NPL in Australia before so who knows she could be tucked away somewhere unpublicised (or injured, as the case may be – another sad note is that Grace Wisnewski and Marisa van der Meer are both currently sidelined with ACL tears).

Gotta be honest, when you look at it in this context it feels like there ought to be a lot more going on. Despite what they achieved there isn’t much to separate this group from most other U17s waves as far as their professional/international graduates go. Which is another part of the fascination. Our greatest ever FIFA tournament performance and five years later two of them are playing for different countries, several others have been out of sight playing (or not playing as the case may be) at USA universities, the team’s tactics now appear outdated, and the captain is no longer even playing the sport.

But then this was only the five-year check. The night is yet young. Let us see how things are looking after ten. And no matter what has happened since or what will happen in the future, none of it diminishes what they accomplished in Uruguay in 2018 – a truly astounding achievement that genuinely might never be matched... although we’ll always keep on trying.

New Zealand under-17 international Suya Haering has joined @Turbine_Potsdam in Germany, where she will be teammates with Maya Hahn. pic.twitter.com/kilxyv4IP0

— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) January 11, 2024

From Niche Cahe.

Haering’s signing adds another professional graduate to the U17 Class of 2022. Milly Clegg is at Western Sydney Wanderers and Ruby Nathan is at Canberra United in the A-League. Aimee Danieli, Manaia Elliott, Helena Errington, and Olivia Ingham are all with the Wellington Phoenix first team while several more are with the Nix Academy. Olivia Page is with Sheffield United. Kiara Bercelli is on the books at Sampdoria though is currently on loan at Chievo. 

Errington spent some time with Sporting Lisbon, though wasn’t able to sign on full pro terms. That’s a pretty decent graduation rate already, with several more teammates capable of joining them in the future.