Renee Leota headed a 65th-minute Anna Green free kick past the Swiss goalkeeper to halve the deficit and a Rosie White header levelled the scores nine minutes later after Green again provided the final pass.
The Junior Football Ferns open their World Cup campaign against Sweden in the German city of Bielefeld in just eight days and, while satisfied with aspects of the performance against the Swiss, coach Tony Readings is demanding more consistency from his side.
“For parts of the game we performed to our potential and were following the game plan,” he says.
“At other times when were in the ascendency we took our foot off the gas and let the Swiss back in the game.
“Even in the first half there were parts where I think we would have caused Sweden or the other teams in our group, Brazil and North Korea, a lot of problems.
“But the second half was more like the real us. We were on top for a large portion and on the balance of play we were good enough to win.”
The Junior Ferns now move to Augsburg in Germany where they take on Japan in a training match on Friday morning (NZT) before shifting to Bielefeld.
“I’m hoping that we’ve got the rust out of our system and in the training match against Japan we can put that second-half performance out there for 90 minutes,” Readings says.
U-20 International Women’s Friendly
Zurich
New Zealand 2 (Renee Leota 65’, Rosie White 74’) Switzerland 2 (22’ 45’)
Halftime 0-2
New Zealand: 20-Erin NAYLER (GK), 3-Anna GREEN (Captain), 5-Briony FISHER, 6-Bridgette ARMSTRONG, 8-Betsy HASSETT, 9-Hannah WALL, 10-Annalie LONGO (18-Lauren MATHIS 74), 11-Rosie WHITE, 13-Nadia PEARL (19-Terri-Amber CARLSON 38), 14-Renee LEOTA, 17-Sarah MCLAUGHLIN (7-Hannah WILKINSON 46 / 12-Claudia CRASBORN 85).
Substitutes not used: 1-Victoria ESSON (RGK), 2-Elizabeth MILNE, 4-Chelsey WOOD, 15-Emily COOPER, 16-Julia LYNDS (RGK), 21-Lisa KEMP.
Coach: Tony Readings
Schedule
July 8
Training match
New Zealand v Japan
Augsburg, Germany
6pm local time (4am July 9 NZT)
FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, Germany
July 13 – August 1
New Zealand v Sweden
Bielefeld
July 13 2.30pm local (12.30am July 14 NZT)
Live on Sky Sport
New Zealand v Korea DPR
Bielefeld
July 16 6pm local (4am July 17 NZT)
Live on Sky Sport
New Zealand v Brazil
Dresden
July 20 2.30pm local (12.30am July 21 NZT)
Live on Sky Sport
Story courtesy of NZF Media.
For the latest news on NZ Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz