The last time the Football Ferns played at home – the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in 2010 – four players were playing professionally in Europe or the USA. But post-World Cup that number has swelled with over half the squad selected for this week’s home-and-away play-off against Papua New Guinea based overseas, including 10 at professional clubs.
It means the Ferns now have limited time together before matches – the squad assembled on Thursday morning minus captain Rebecca Smith who arrives on Friday night – but Readings sees more positives than negatives with the new global spread of personnel.
“I think the difference, even from a year ago, is that the players are coming from good environments and it doesn’t take long for them to get back in sync and hitting the gears we need them to reach,” Readings says.
“It’s been a nice fresh change. We have a group who train in Auckland but predominately the players come in from overseas and when they arrive they are happy to see each other and can’t wait to get on the pitch. We get an energy from that straight away.
“And the fact they are coming from some of the best leagues in the world means they are arriving in good shape and ready to train and play at the intensity we need from the start. That they are training twice a day and playing with and against the best players in the world day in and day out has us noticing little things technically and tactically with their games. That is hopefully going to bring a new aspect to our team come the Olympics.”
Lokomotive Leipzig fullback Anna Green, one of the more recent Ferns professionals and one of six Kiwis playing in Germany’s Frauen Bundesliga, says the buzz of being back in camp is helping to shake the jet lag.
“It’s new and it’s different, but it’s exciting to have so many players overseas now and makes it a little more special when you are back with the national team because you haven’t seen everyone in so long. It’s also great to try and bring together what everyone has learned at their own clubs,” Green says.
“You can tell everyone has made advances over at their clubs so it’s good to see it all come together and hopefully we can put on a good show for Whangarei.”
The winner of the two-legged play-off – the return leg is in Port Moresby on April 4 – will claim Oceania’s sole berth at the 12-nation football finals at London 2012. The winner will be determined by aggregate score over the two legs with away goals counting double if the scores are level.
New Zealand start as favourites to claim that spot having never lost to Papua New Guinea in 11 matches and putting 11 unanswered goals past them the last time the two sides met, in the final of the 2010 OFC Women’s Nations Cup.
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

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