Coach Tony Readings and his side – ranked 19th in the world – will tangle with world number four France in Laval on November 23 (NZ time) and follow that up with two matches against Norway (ranked 9th) in Stavanger on November 26 and 28 (NZ time).
Readings says the equation is a simple one for his team; to beat the best when it counts, you learn by doing.
“When we started on our journey we said we needed to play more games against the best teams in the world,” Readings said.
“Ultimately we want to win medals and we want to go far into World Cups and to do that you’ve got to beat some of the best teams in the world.
“We’ve shown over the past two years we’re really competitive and anything we can learn between now and the World Cup and Olympics will be invaluable for us.
“These challenges keep coming thick and fast with the funding we’ve received from High Performance Sport after our success in the Olympics and it’s enabled these matches to come around far more often than they had done previously.”
The Football Ferns have met France twice before with both games coming at the Cyprus Cup; a 2009 1-1 draw was lost on penalties while a 2011 meeting saw the Ferns fall to a 5-2 defeat. New Zealand’s sole meeting with Norway came at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing where the Scandinavians were 1-0 winners.
Readings says those results count for little in the current landscape with all three nations moving forward strongly in recent times.
“I’d expect the games against these opponents to be far more competitive than they have been in the past. We’ve grown a huge amount in recent years but, in saying that, so have these teams.
“France have progressed massively and made the semi-finals of the Olympics and the World Cup so they are a true world force and Norway under Even Pellerud have had a resurgence and pushed their way back into the top 10.”
“I think what we’ve shown as a team is when we play against this level of opposition the games are tight. One goal has decided almost every game we’ve played against top ten teams over the past two years.”
Consequently, rising to the challenge isn’t something that concerns Readings about his team. In fact, the group are finding the more difficult task is maintaining their standards against lower-ranked opposition.
“When we play against the best teams in the world we seem to lift our game to another level. One of the challenges we have moving forwards is that we need to be able to keep that same level of performance when the opposition isn’t at that top calibre.”
Continuing to elevate their work with the ball against the best is once again going to be a key focus for the Football Ferns against two sides which Readings says will be strong without the ball.
“Both of these teams will be organised defensively and it’s an aspect of our game that we’ve been working on to create quality scoring opportunities, something we’ve done increasingly over the past two years.
“Creating regular opportunities against these two teams is going to be difficult because they are two of the most well-drilled and organised defensive units we’ll come up against.
“These games are going to be a massive learning opportunity for us.”
Match schedule
France v Football Ferns
Laval, France
Saturday 22 November, 6.30pm (Sunday 23 November, 6.30am NZ time)
Norway v Football Ferns
Stavanger, Norway
Tuesday 25 November, 7pm (Wednesday 26 November, 7am NZ time)
Norway v Football Ferns
Stavanger, Norway
Thursday 27 November, 7pm (Friday 28 November, 7am NZ time)