So we have paid big money for this foreign coach... For what..?
The loss to Spain was 3-0 but my word it was a massacre.. 30% possession! 2 shots to Spain's 27.
WOW!!!!
Can you elaborate on the "Big Money paid"?
Not as much as the Canadians paid for their U17 coach I take?
Spain looked like one of the most Indivually talented teams I have seen so far at that age group
We don't have enough quality players that were close to the Spanish girls
This NZ U17 team is the first that has been totally grown from the NTC programme and out of the 4 WC teams 2008/2010/2012 looks the weakest! It will be interesting if the next crop are any better I hope for sake of women's football it is.
Context is important here - NZ played no qualifying matches due to the Pacific countries not being financially able to field teams and were appointed as Oceania qualifiers without kicking a ball.
By comparison, in the toughest qualifying environment in the world for women's u-17's, Spain qualified undefeated as second best side in Europe, losing on pens to Germany in the final (and conceded three goals in their eight qualifiers). Spain had thrashed Germany 4-0 in the group stage of the Finals and England 3-0 in the semi. 21 goals scored in 8 qualifiers. So us losing 3-0 was pretty credible.
2010: Euro u-17 champions 2011: Euro u-17 champions 2013: third
Spain's players mostly come from the womens' teams of the men's clubs like Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Real Sociedad, Real Betis etc. - so you'd expect their coaching and resources to be somewhat ahead of us!
Paraguay: semi-finalists in all four South American u-17 championships ever held (two third place finishes including last time)
We have a good chance of finishing third in the group ahead of Paraguay on goal difference if we keep the score down against Japan.