A much better showing from the Junior Football Ferns, who had this chance to snatch a late winner. Game ends 1-1. Some strong performances from players I’d never seen before, including Murphy Sheaff and Milly Clegg. Te Reremoana Walker was a standout at the back. pic.twitter.com/HAhs77vUhW
— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) April 10, 2022
New Zealand Women's U-20s
Are they actually trying to retain possession and build play or have they resulted to lumping up the park as well?
Be real interesting to see how they go in Costa Rica, with a good core from Nix Women's team, a bonus that U20s have never had before going to a WC.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2022/4/13/recapping-the-junior-football-ferns-series-in-australia
In FIFA senior women's rankings, Germany is 4th, NZ 22nd, Colombia 26th & Mexico 27th.
Crude measure maybe (don't think there are world rankings for Womens U20 teams), but you'd think Colombia and Mexico are especially winnable games. Made likely a bit more difficult, by WC being played into another nearby Latino country Costa Rica.
See that Maya Hahn is now age 21, so Covid taken away any age group WC opportunity for her with Germany.
Columbia finished second to qualify behind Brazil. Qualifying Tournament played in April 2022.
Mexico qualified second in CONCACAF losing in the tournament final 2-0 to USA but beat Canada 1-0 in the Semi's. Qualifying Tournament played in March 2022.
Germany qualified second losing to France in there final 2-1, but beat the Netherlands in the semi's. But that was played back in 2019 as U19 level.
So maybe not the group of death. Hard to tell at age group level But probably good to avoid Japan and USA who both topped qualifying in there regions, also Korea who thumped Australia 9-1 in qualifying back in 2019 U19 level.
Imagine Germany will be favourites to top the group.
And yeah hard to know with age group teams, but suspect there are tougher groups. Brazil in women's football tend to be way ahead of the other Sth American nations.
Group B
Germany, Colombia, New Zealand, Mexico
Germany coach Kathrin Peter
“We’re delighted to be participating in a party like this. It’s important that our players come here and enjoy it. We like to play good football in the South American style and we want to go out and have fun. If, God willing, we can progress in the tournament, then we’ll do it without compromising our philosophy.”
Colombia coach Carlos Paniagua
New Zealand coach Gemma Lewis
Are they all in camp together or something? Playing Boys teams?
Anyone know.
If they are in the FFDP or with the Phoenix alot of their games will be against boys teams and on an adhoc basis rather than league games - don't ask me why thats something the coaches would have to explain!
Are they all in camp together or something? Playing Boys teams?
Anyone know.
Looks like the U20 women are in camp. Wisneski is back training which is great, looks like Ava Collins there too.
There are two quality players that didn't play against Aus a few months back.
Seems forever since a New Zealand football team played in New Zealand. https://t.co/IPYu0txqlf
— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) June 3, 2022
https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/116410?newsfeedId=1253682
(One of) The game(s) is at at 2pm next Sunday at Kiwitea St with free entry?
Hasn't been any real media given to these games or this team. Kinda feels like Gemma Lewis is trying to keep things under wraps, so that they will be an unknown quantity come world cup in August.
Probably not a bad thing having a social media black out for these girls though. Considering some of the mental health issues around womens sport at the moment.
But am hoping we get some kind of reports tomorrow when this game is played.
At least they have avoided the home team in pool play. CR in same pool as Young Matildas
Tomorrow our Junior Football Ferns take on @FootballAUS Young Matildas!
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) June 10, 2022
Our Marisa Van Der Meer and Kate Taylor have a message 🇳🇿🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/9xtXqrju8a
Ahead of today's game against @FootballAUS Young Matildas, we caught up with Junior Football Ferns head coach @1990Gemmalewis as the team got the last of their preparations in 🇳🇿🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/uyhwg0xdCt
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) June 11, 2022
Here's how the first half looked at Kiwitea Street
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) June 12, 2022
📸 @PhotosportNZ #NZLvAUS | 🇳🇿0-1🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/utqxBETTva
We're absolutely delighted to confirm our 21-player Junior Football Ferns squad for this year's U-20 @FIFAWWC in Costa Rica. Congratulations team! 🇳🇿🙌
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) July 25, 2022
The Junior Football Ferns will depart for Costa Rica on 29 July.
Initial thoughts are the squad looks pretty strong except when it comes to known goal scorers. Same old problem for NZ.
Milly Clegg started most recent U20 games as striker but is still very young. (Still eligible to play U17 WC later this year) So big year for her.
Ava Pritchard has a high work rate but lacked a bit of quality for the Nix last year. Hope she can turn that around.
At the U17 WC where we won bronze. Our top goal scorer was Grace Wisnewski. But she has been converted into a DM it seems. A position we seem to have a lot of depth in NZ.
Be interesting to see if someone can put there hand up and score a few. If someone can get 3 or 4 goals at this tournament they will likely have a big future in the women's game here.
You'd expect Germanys crop of talent to be good enough to get them through, then it's us against Mexico and Colombia.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/mexico-mexw/story/4706342/mexico-fires-multiple-coaches-from-u20-team-after-investigation
Always proud of our academy players when they get selected to represent NZ at a World Cup. These two have taken different journeys to get there, they’ve been working extremely hard, always with smiles & bringing authenticity to the training group. Congratulations Tupelo & Macey. pic.twitter.com/zib6Ghz94s
— Paul Temple (@paultemplecoach) July 26, 2022
Always proud of our academy players when they get selected to represent NZ at a World Cup. These two have taken different journeys to get there, they’ve been working extremely hard, always with smiles & bringing authenticity to the training group. Congratulations Tupelo & Macey. pic.twitter.com/zib6Ghz94s
— Paul Temple (@paultemplecoach) July 26, 2022
✈️ Best of luck to our Junior Football Ferns, who tonight fly out to Costa Rica to begin preparations for the U-20 @FIFAWWC! 🌿🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/ao5c8vtF39
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) July 29, 2022
Before jetting off to 🇨🇷, our Junior Football Ferns were presented with their shirts for the U-20 @FIFAWWC 🌿❤️🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/QkfRxVZjHC
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) July 31, 2022
Our Junior Football Ferns rocking into training in 🇨🇷 #VamosJuntas pic.twitter.com/aSCjQfi6RM
— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) August 2, 2022
Put simply there’s probably never been an NZ age grade team better prepared for a major tournament than this one. Tactical familiarity, a high number of professionals, good calibre warm-up games, impressive results in friendly matches... every box is ticked.
But this selection speculation doesn’t really matter, it’s just a way to offer more of a glimpse into the structure of the squad. What matters is that there’s an U20 World Cup team about to rip into action with the potential to do something really special. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Every other team is trying their best and preparing as well as they can too... but the point is that these kiwi teams aren’t just making up the numbers at these things any more. And this team... this team has a vibe about them. Not sure how else to put it. There’s just a good feeling about them. Anticipation levels are high. Best pay attention.
FF Costa Rica
![](https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t63/1.5/16/1f1e8_1f1f7.png)
![](https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t36/1.5/16/26bd.png)
![](https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t63/1.5/16/1f1e8_1f1f7.png)
From what I could make out. Sounds like the NZ goal was a penalty. That came from a hand ball off a corner situation.
Next up they have a friendly warm up match against Brasil.
Is it really going to make that much difference leading into a tournament if NZF posted team line-ups pics etc.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cbf_futebol
Not sure what the final score was but looks like Brazil scored 3 or more.
Brasil are the strongest South American team in this comp. From a quick look on Wiki, they have won like there last 10 games without conceding a goal. But all those game were against SA opposition. Be interesting to see how they go against Euro opposition. We have Columbia in our Group.
Edit. 4-0 to Brazil
https://www.cbf.com.br/selecao-brasileira/jogos/selecao-base-feminina/brasil-x-nova-zelandia
PS.
Two of the teams in our group had warm up games against Australia. The results of those games were.
Aus 3 - Mexico 3
Aus 3 - Columbia 2