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ANALYSIS: If nothing else, we know there is plenty of fight in the Football Ferns.
That was evident on Monday as they bounced back from Friday’s horror 5-0 loss to Portugal and put in a much more competitive showing while still losing 2-0 to Argentina.
The problem is fight doesn’t automatically translate to goals – and a lack of those remains the biggest of several problems they have right now, five months out from a Fifa Women’s World Cup on home soil.
Martin Hunter/Photosport
Football Ferns forward Hannah Wilkinson chases down a loose ball during their loss to Argentina at Waikato Stadium.
When the final whistle blew and brought their second match at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton to an end, they had come up empty for the 12th time in 20 matches under coach Jitka Klimková.
The South Americans, on the other hand, scored two goals – the first gifted to them in the 17th minute, when the Ferns got caught out while playing out from the back, the second coming in stoppage time.
Klimková has had her team treating this month’s run of three matches in six days like a mini World Cup – a dress rehearsal for what lies in store when women’s football’s showpiece event comes to these shores in July.
If they lose their first two matches in five months’ time, their goal of making it to the knockout stages for the first time will almost certainly be beyond them.
They will still have a first World Cup win to aim for in their third match, which would provide some consolation, but the overall feeling will be one of disappointment.
No-one in the Ferns is hiding from the fact that they’ve dropped the ball in their first two matches this month, though it is worth noting they are without several first-choice starters and don’t have the deepest playing pool.
Their World Cup opener against Norway on July 20 at Eden Park is 180 minutes closer, and they’ve taken a big step back, followed by a little step forward, at a time when they would have hoped to have been gathering some real momentum.
Which is why it’s imperative that they get a win when they meet Argentina for the second time in three days at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland on Thursday night.
If the players break up and go their separate ways having not tasted success – and the ice cream reward that comes along with it – the likelihood of a repeat in July will have only increased.
The biggest positive out of Monday was that there was a response to what happened on Friday – the Ferns stood up when they might very well have shrunk.
They were better defensively, in part because they reverted to a 4-4-2 system, having experimented with three centre backs against Portugal, but also because there was a greater level of commitment, from the first minute to the last.
The Ferns’ second-half drop-off was the most disappointing aspect of the first match and it was heartening that there wasn’t a repeat.
It was also heartening that they weren’t dissuaded from playing the way they wanted to by the nature of the first goal they conceded.
They kept trying to play out and build through the thirds and while there were a few hairy moments, they were ultimately able to move the ball around as well as they have at any point in the past 18 months.
Except when it came to creating chances in the final third – and therein lies the problem, because you can’t win football matches without putting the ball in the back of the net.
Stand-in captain Olivia Chance did precisely that just before the hour mark, but her goal was ruled out for offside and even though replays suggested it was a tight call, the video assistant referee didn’t intervene.
Gabi Rennie had been in the same position against Portugal, though on that occasion Hannah Wilkinson was clearly offside in the buildup.
Chance had the Ferns’ other best chance on Monday, but she was only able to pick out the Argentine goalkeeper with a first-half effort from close range that was set up by a layoff from Wilkinson.
Having had false hope twice, they desperately need to be able to celebrate for real come Thursday, but there’s no easy solution to their goalscoring woes.
Watch coverage of the Football Ferns v Argentina and the Fifa Women’s World Cup Qualification Play-off Tournament live on Sky Sport or stream on Sky Sport Now.
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