New Zealand Women's U-17s

i briefly saw it up on the screen in the clubrooms but i wasn't paying too much attention - The 17's have based themselves at Ellerslie for most of their campaign and from my dealings with the coach (Jitka) they will be very organised and hard to break down.  

Couple of important months ahead for them though.

USA tournament prior to coasts rica. Sounds decent. Wonder if boys side of things can learn from this?

Coach Jitka Klimkova says in this OFC video posted during the week "during this camp we announce the team for the States" (the camp which finished on the 23rd) and the team for the Finals in Costa Rica during the USA tour:

http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=y_QUMQkIyGA

Still nothing though. In the world of NZ Football "this week" translates as "a week later" I guess.

could be that she was referring to the team being announced to the players (which it has) and once all the travel details have been confirmed etc then they will confirm the squad publicly?

Does the delay in announcing the team have anything to do with players' ability to pay to attend the tournament?

I don't think they know if there is a WC cost or not yet but pretty sure the USA would be a freebie

Hi all,

Full update on what's upcoming on the women's front can be found here:
http://www.ultimatenzsoccer.com/Scoreboard/in_the_spotlight.htm

Cheers,

JR

Thanks JR. What is the historical reason for calling the U17s the Young Ferns but the older U20s the Junior Ferns. Counter intuitive if you ask me.
Cheeky curtain-raiser suggestion by the way but don't know if we'll ever see that ha ha (Read JR's link)

Busy planned programme. I hope the men's game is learning something!

The OFC has released the team. Can't put the link as it in twitter and on phone. But should be easy enough to find

New Zealand U-17 Women’s squad – NTC Invitational Tournament, USA
February 5-9, 2014

Goalkeepers
Emily Hanrahan (Claudelands Rovers)
Emma Fulbrook (Waterside Karori AFC)

Defenders
Elizabeth Anton (Auckland Football/Lynn-Avon Utd AFC)
Hope Gilchrist (Capital Football/Waterside Karori AFC)
Geneva Gross (Mainland Football/Nelson Suburbs AFC)
Sophie Stewart-Hobbs (Waikato Bay of Plenty Football/Papamoa FC)
Karin Ingram (Central Football/Massey University)
Hanna English (Football South/Dunedin Technical AFC)

Midfielders
Isabella Coombes (Waikato Bay of Plenty Football/Claudelands Rovers)
Whitney Hepburn (Mainland Football/Coastal Spirit FC)
Deven Jackson (Auckland Football/Lynn-Avon Utd AFC)
Isabella Richards (Auckland Football/Three Kings Utd)
Lucy Stotter (Capital Football/Lower Hutt City AFC)
Daisy Cleverley (Auckland Football/Forrest Hill Milford Utd AFC)

Forwards
Tayla Christensen (Waikato Bay of Plenty Football/Claudelands Rovers)
Emily Oosterhof (Northern Football/Glenfield Rovers)
Jade Parris (Auckland Football/Metro FC)
Martine Puketapu (Auckland Football/Three Kings Utd)
Paige Satchell (Waikato Bay of Plenty Football/Rotorua Utd AFC)
Sarah Morton (Central Football/Maycenvale Utd AFC)

Schedule
NZ v Japan
Wednesday 5 February, 3pm (NZ time Thurs 6 Feb, midday)

NZ v USA
Friday 7 February, 6pm (NZ time Sat 8 Feb, 2pm)

NZ v China
Sunday 9 February, 1pm (NZ time Mon 10 Feb, 10am)

The name tags came about circa 2005, Global Game.

It was around this time that FIFA changed the structure of their women's age-grade competitions - previously, they had the U19 Women's World Cup, and the senior one. That became the U20 WWC, and the U17 one was introduced.

Up to this point, NZF had, on the men's side of the game, operated the Youth All Whites (U20s) and the Junior All Whites (U17s), those names reflecting the titles of FIFA's competitions in those days - the Youth World Championship was the U20s competition, and the Junior World Championship was for the U17s.

Now NZF also had this obscure idea, during this period, of reinventing aspects of their history. e.g. it was around this time that they were literally throwing out any number of old cups, trophies, awards, etc.. Thankfully a couple of us who value the history of the game in this country managed to retrieve things before they disappeared forever ...

I mention this because part of this rewriting of history entailed renaming their age-grade men's teams, which are now, in NZF-speak, the Junior All Whites (U20s) and the Young All Whites (U17s). And the age-grade women's teams were aligned with these, hence Junior Ferns (U20s) and Young Ferns (U17s).

Needless to say, I'm dead against this rewriting of history to suit certain agendas, and ever since this change came about have continued to refer to the age-grade men's teams by their original titles in any stories I've penned about them, qualified, of course, with their age-grade for clarity.

As their female equivalents didn't have name tags prior to this, i.e. they were always referred to as the NZ U19s or NZ U17s, I've no such issues where the use of Junior Ferns and Young Ferns is concerned. But being one of the very few folk still involved in NZ's football media today who was covering the game here when we hosted NZ '99, the FIFA U-17 World Cup Finals, when the NZ U17 team was correctly referred to as the Junior All Whites, I'm probably a lone voice on this score. Yet for mine, what has been done (the name changes) isn't right - your counter-intuitive thinking isn't without merit.


Cheers,

JR

5-0 loss to Japan in LA

ouch

Japanese national teams - even at this age - have much more experience playing international fixtures than us. They will be one of the favorites at World Cup.

Cue Jeremy Ruane to tell us what a fantastic game this was and how it will be infinitely better than any mens' game ever played.

Actually, Jeff, this Young Ferns squad is probably the worst one yet picked at this age level.

For mine, there are six players at most in it who I expect won't look out of place on the world stage, and two of those six are just fifteen years old. Needless to say, I'm expecting this team to cop a few more hidings to add to this one from Japan and the 6-0 bath Oz administered here last year.

It's a pity none of the Oceania nations had the funds available to ensure a qualifying series took place - this team qualified for Costa Rica by default.

So look forward to more scorelines on a par with those usually recorded by NZ's U-17 men's teams in recent World Cup Finals. They usually cop at least one thumping at those events - this Young Ferns team won't be dissimilar in that regard.


Cheers,

JR

i could be wrong but i understood from Jitka that she took a few girls on this tour that hadn't played international football before to see how they coped - I think some of the girls left at home to train will be in contention for the main squad once they return - don't know names though sorry.

improved 2-0 loss to USA in second game

5-1 loss in last game v China

Bit of a blowout on that one by the sounds 

here is about a minutes highlights of game v USA

Smashed Vanuatu 12-0

Nah, 12-0 v Vanuatu was U20s

Oops my bad. 

Though I think they must haw name the 17s squad today

tomorrow i think.

Officially maybe 

inside word is the squad was named last week - they have a meeting tomorrow to present to the players and the parents the logistics of the world cup.  Not sure when the official announcement is.

Squad named:

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2787&tx_ttnews[backPid]=10&cHash=dfa471e3d6

Only two South Islanders, one from Nelson & one from Dunedin. None from Canterbury, which is surprising considering Canterbury's current dominance in women's domestic football (league and cup winners). Maybe some South Islanders moved to Auckland to play and study in order to make the squad?

Its a good mix from all areas I think, central and wiabop well represented, NFF only 1 I think.

NZ u-17 women's games in Costa Rica finals all live on Sky TV:

Mon. 17 March: v Paraguay 5.55 am SS4

Thurs. 20 March: v Spain 11.50 am SS2

Mon. 24 March: v Japan 11.50 am SS1

FIFA article on NZ team:

http://www.fifa.com/u17womensworldcup/news/newsid=2266837/index.html

Just turned on the TV while eating breakfast and the girls are playing Paraguay. Stunning strike from us to go 1-0 up, 20 minutes to go now....

Ended 1-1. We had marginally more possession but Paraguay had a lot more shots. We also had a goal disallowed for offside that probably should have been allowed

You're sure to see Cleverley's goal on the news tonight. Mazy 25m run followed by left foot shot across keeper to hit bottom right. Superb one for the highlights reel.

Fair result. We played with decent shape and composure and defensively we were ok but the technical ability of most players needs to be a notch higher to start getting wins. Next two games will be very tough.

what a cracking goal!!! marvelous run!!

pity the keeper came out for the equaliser