Coach pushes more Football Ferns exposure

Reuters

CRUSHED: New Zealand's Emma Kete of New Zealand is comforted by a team official after the Football Ferns lost 4-0 to the United States in a women's Group G match.

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Football Ferns coach John Herdman is appealing for more funding and international exposure to help his young team make the next World Cup and Olympic Games quarterfinals.

New Zealand crashed out of the Beijing Olympic Games after a 0-4 loss to Athens gold medallists the United States in Shenyang last night.

Herdman said Heather O'Reilly's long-range 40th-second goal – the fastest goal in Olympics women's football history – was "a sucker punch'' for the Kiwis against "the best team in the world''.

"You just felt it out, the amount of pressure that lifted off their shoulders... for about 20 minutes after that we couldn't get the ball and we slipped into our shells.''

Just as the Ferns were starting to rediscover some composure the Americans struck again two minutes from halftime when a long ball caught the New Zealand back-four napping. Amy Rodriguez's left-footed lash gave the United States an impregnable 2-0 lead.

Two goals within four minutes, to Lindsay Tarpley and Angela Hucles, had the Americans ahead by 4-0 on the hour.

Despite the defeat, Herdman pronounced the Olympic tournament "a great success'' for his young team, eight of who are eligible for the world under-20 championships in Chile later this year.

"I'm pretty proud of the team. They've taken some big steps in the last month in the build-up coming into the Olympics.''

The Football Ferns finished bottom of Group G but "genuinely believed'' they could beat the United States and were disappointed to have only drawn 2-2 with ninth-ranked Japan and to have lost 0-1 to past Olympic champion Norway.

But he hoped their improved showings here would lead to more invites to top tournaments overseas.

"Some of our players may also get the opportunity to play in some of the better competitions around the world,'' said Herdman, citing midfielders Kirsty Yallop and Hayley Moorwood, winger Ali Riley and goalkeeper Jenny Bindon as prime candidates.

Herdman said the team had made enormous progress since last year's World Cup in China where the Ferns failed to score and conceded nine goals in three matches.

They had beaten Argentina, gone close to South Korea at the Peace Queen Cup tournament, lost 0-1 to Australia and to China, "in games I thought we should have won'', drawn with Japan and lost by one goal to Norway before "a tough end against the USA''.

"I hope we get the backing from Sparc and the New Zealand Olympic Committee in the future to keep investing in this team so we can really push on and try to get something going for the future,'' Herdman said.

"We need that financial backing because we know New Zealand Football are 100 per cent behind women's football.

"Look at the potential in this team. Look at what it could achieve (at the World Cup) in 2011 when the (Amy) Ercegs, and (Ria) Percivals, who are just 18, and a 19-year-old Katie Hoyle, get more experience.''

Herdman said the Ferns needed more matches and tournaments "without blowing the budget'' so the players could "get more comfortable with winnning games at this level''.

He is convinced they can be quarterfinal contenders at the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics.

New Zealand needed to beat the United States by two goals or more to have any chance of qualifying for the Beijing 2008 quarterfinals. But any chance disappeared with O'Reilly's killer early goal, and Japan's 5-1 win over Norway, which had already made the quarterfinal cut and rested a string of regular players.

The drubbing cost Norway first place in Group G, trailing the United States on goal average. Japan also secured one of the two berths for the two best-performed third place teams. It will meet host nation China in the quarterfinals.

- © Fairfax NZ News