Football Ferns can still achieve World Cup goals, but selections have to start making sense

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ANALYSIS: The good news is that this month was only a dress rehearsal.

The bad news is that the Football Ferns’ losses over the past seven days may have, for some, dampened the excitement for the opening night of the Fifa Women’s World Cup on July 20.

They were presented with three winnable matches against Portugal and Argentina, but ended up losing 5-0, 2-0 and 1-0 and there were very few positives to be had from the run they were treating as a mini World Cup.

The Football Ferns lost 2-0 and 1-0 to Argentina this month, as well as going down 5-0 to Portugal.

Hannah Peters – FIFA/Getty Images

The Football Ferns lost 2-0 and 1-0 to Argentina this month, as well as going down 5-0 to Portugal.

Most worryingly, there were several baffling selection decisions – both at the start of matches, and during them – and that can’t continue in April and July if the Ferns are to make the history they want to at a World Cup on home soil.

A first World Cup win and a place in the knockout stages remain within their reach, especially when you consider their lengthy injury list this month, and the mixed fortunes of their group A rivals – Norway, the Philippines and Switzerland – over the past fortnight.

But Jitka Klimková’s personnel choices need to start making more sense than they did on several occasions in February, even when allowing for the fact that she was without six top players for the loss to Portugal and nine for each of the two losses to Argentina – absences that make calls for a change of coach an overreaction.

Goalkeepers Vic Esson and Anna Leat, centre back Rebekah Stott, midfielders Annalie Longo and Ria Percival and forward Jacqui Hand missed all three matches with injuries (albeit long-term ones in the case of Longo and Percival).

Fullbacks CJ Bott and Ali Riley missed the last two with injuries after playing against Portugal, while forward Indiah-Paige Riley missed the first two with concussion, then made a brief appearance against Argentina, a match Olivia Chance missed as she was released back to Celtic early.

Esson, Bott, Stott, Ali Riley, and Chance are sure starters on July 20 and Percival is likely to join them, provided she returns from her knee injury looking like the player she was before it. Leat will be Esson’s backup, and it’s not inconceivable that Longo, Hand and Indiah-Paige Riley could start against Norway as well.

The Ferns player pool is so shallow that even one or two absences can be keenly felt. Having 10 of the country’s top 15 or so players playing limited minutes or none at all was a factor in what happened in Hamilton and Auckland this month that can’t be discounted.

But it is not a new factor and it could also potentially be a factor in July, as painful as it would be for players to have to miss the chance to play at a home World Cup, and that is where the biggest frustration with the events of the last week comes from.

That Stott’s injury opened the door for Michaela Foster to be involved was a blessing, given her form for the Wellington Phoenix in A-League Women this summer. That she only played 34 minutes after Ali Riley went down with injury was inexcusable, especially as she performed well and was praised by Klimková.

Right back Grace Neville started at left back in the second Argentina match and that was doubly confusing – not only was she not getting a run in her preferred position, where she has quickly become Bott’s leading understudy, but it also meant an opportunity to see more of Foster went begging.

At least Foster did make it into camp in the end, unlike her exciting Phoenix team-mate Milly Clegg, who surely has to be there as a new attacking option next time, after three matches where the Ferns had just seven shots on target and 19 in total.

Not having her there this time in place of Mackenzie Barry (who played one minute as the third-choice right back), Ava Collins (27 as the sixth-choice forward) or Indiah-Paige Riley (who missed the first two matches with concussion) was another missed opportunity.

Another odd call was the use of Kate Taylor as the middle centre back against Portugal and – even more oddly – as a central midfielder in the second match against Argentina. The Wellington Phoenix vice-captain is a player with plenty of potential, but she’s in the middle of a tough second season at club level and there were more suitable options available on both occasions.

In the second Argentina match, Malia Steinmetz should have been kept on and been allowed to build on her strong first 55 minutes in midfield – and her two performances before that. The pending returns of Longo and Percival make the composition of the Ferns’ World Cup midfield a mystery, but Steinmetz took a big step forward this month and the timing of her substitution was baffling.

The use of centre back Meikayla Moore at right back instead of Neville was another puzzler, as was the sight of another centre back, Katie Bowen, at left wingback last Friday. That Grace Jale spent more time playing on the right of midfield than up front across all three matches was also frustrating. Options aren’t being explored enough and when they are, they are often not the obvious ones.

Two friendlies in Europe are in the plans for the April window, which is just over five weeks away, and they should again be against beatable opponents.

The Ferns will be hoping some of their injury concerns have subsided, that they can put stronger teams on the park, and they can get some much-needed wins.

Those watching will be hoping the naming of the squad in late March and the naming of the playing XIs don’t prompt confusion the way this month’s ones did.

But all is still to play for, because while the Ferns were falling to three painful defeats, their World Cup rivals weren’t having the best time of it either.

Norway, the favourites to top group A, took part in the Tournoi de France, where they beat Uruguay 1-0, lost 2-0 to Denmark, and drew 0-0 with France, in a match where they were drastically outshot.

The Philippines were involved in the Pinatar Cup in Spain, where they lost 1-0 to Wales, 2-1 to Scotland and 5-0 to Iceland.

Switzerland meanwhile had 0-0 and 1-1 draws with Poland.

Between them, the four teams in Group A had one win from 11 and scored a combined total of three goals in 990 minutes.

The Ferns won’t be alone in lacking positives, five months out from the World Cup.

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