Argentina 2

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Argentina 2

Another Tale Of Not Taking Chances

by Jeremy Ruane

"You takes your chances, you wins your matches".

How often have readers come across that phrase in the chronicle of Football Ferns match reports compiled by this writer over the course of the last four decades?

It was the case once again at North Harbour Stadium on 23 February, as 3914 fans watched their Kiwi heroines go down 1-0 to Argentina in the last match of a captivating week for local football followers, who've been treated to some rarely seen international football on these shores as ten nations contested the last three berths at the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, which New Zealand will be co-hosting with Australia in five months' time.

The Football Ferns kicked off the week-long series with a chastening 5-0 drubbing by Portugal in Hamilton, a venue where Jitka Klimkova's charges took on the "Albiceleste" three days later, only to go down 2-0 - a much improved showing, but the duck-egg in the goals scored column doesn't lie.

So to the final game of the week, where the host nation had their last chance to arrest a form slump which saw them going into this fixture without a win to their name since early September victories over Mexico and the Philippines were recorded in Los Angeles.

Since then, seven internationals, six of them on home turf, had seen the Football Ferns register a draw in the second of two clashes with Korea Republic in Christchurch. Otherwise, defeats abounded - and tonight's outcome added another loss to the team's recent tales of woe.

This was the Ferns' best performance of the week. There was snap and snarl in their tackles, zest and zip in their movement and some passing interchanges. Alas, there were no such adjectives applicable to their finishing nor their decision-making in key moments to compliment the improvements made elsewhere on the park, compounding the frustration which coach Klimkova isn't alone in expressing.

An entire nation wants this team to do well, especially given our co-hosting rights to the fast-approaching Finals - being embarrassed on home turf when welcoming the world to our shores is not "the Kiwi way". Performance is expected, never mind anticipated.

The Football Ferns have a fair bit of work to do to realise that basic expectation, however. Some individuals, particularly after this trio of internationals, may be discovering that, while their will is strong, they need to be honest and admit that, right now, they don't quite have what it takes to wear the silver fern on the greatest stage of all - the ultimate test that is a FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, location regardless.

Such a stage is not one where passengers and hangers-on can be carried. If you're in the twenty-three-strong squad, you are duty-bound to perform, be you a starter or a substitute. And when one considers that this series was being used as a test run for the Football Ferns' experience on home turf in five months' time, very few individuals can say, hand on heart, they've emerged from these matches having enhanced their personal Women's World Cup squad prospects.

With Olivia Chance having returned to Celtic and Ali Riley sidelined by injury, the captain's armband was worn by Betsy Hassett - the 25th Football Fern in history to have the honour. And she played a captain's knock, returning to the field despite being flattened by a blow to the nose from Argentina's Mariana Larroquette in the 66th minute which left Hassett looking skywards for a decent chunk of time while the flow of blood was stemmed and treatment administered.

Larroquette had been central to the first attack of the match, a sixth minute raid in which the lively Romina Nunez was able to get in behind both Meikayla Moore - playing out of position at right back - and the fit again Claudia Bunge. Nunez's cross picked out Argentina's principal striker twenty yards from goal, but she skied the chance to make an early breakthrough.

Malia Steinmetz was recalled to the starting line-up for this match, and can be well pleased with her performance, despite being withdrawn from the fray before the hour mark. Her departure severely compromised the team's subsequent efforts, such was the impact she had made on proceedings to that point.

'Twas eleven minutes in when she first lit up the evening with a raking pass which picked out Grace Jale. She held the ball up well before playing in Moore, who was ranging up outside her. The makeshift fullback delivered a teasing angled cross to the far post, just beyond the lunging Hannah Wilkinson, who had a night at the office she will want to forget.

Katie Bowen is another who knows this series is not one in which she satisfied the standards she expects of herself - you don't need to tell her when she's off her game. She was off her feet in the sixteenth minute, however, needlessly sliding into a challenge on halfway which allowed Daiana Falfan to evade Bowen's challenge and send Nunez haring through on goal.

Erin Nayler raced out to clear off her opponent's toes - one of very few occasions in the match in which she was directly involved, truth be told, which was testament to the much-improved efforts taking place in front of her.

Three minutes later, Bunge won a header, the ball falling kindly for Daisy Cleverley to thread a pass through to Hassett, who was racing through into the penalty area. Argentine goalkeeper Laurina Oliveros - afforded a rare start ahead of veteran custodian Vanina Correa - saved at the midfielder's feet, but appeared to take out New Zealand's captain in the process.

No penalty was forthcoming, nor was good fortune for the Football Ferns in the 22nd minute when Moore's ball up-field wasn't cleared by Argentina, the ball ricocheting off Miriam Mayorga to present Wilkinson with the chance to open the scoring ...

Her wayward strike flew past the stanchion. Better is expected in such situations of a player with 27 goals to her name for her country, a tally bettered by just three players, all no longer active.

Concerted Argentinian pressure on both flanks culminated in a deflected Nunez drive clearing the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area just shy of the half-hour mark, to which the Football Ferns responded by carving out the best opportunity of the game thus far.

Bowen's versatility is one of her great strengths, so to see her venturing deep into opposition territory from her defensive role is only a cause for alarm if she loses possession. On this occasion, she played Wilkinson into the penalty area on the left, but the striker is clearly enduring a crisis of confidence at present, as instead of shooting, she played a pass which fell short of both Bowen and Gabrielle Rennie, allowing Argentina to clear their lines.

That it's taken thirty minutes of action for Rennie to be mentioned indicates her ineffectiveness in this encounter. She was withdrawn from the fray at half-time and is one of those to whom earlier paragraphs in this story unquestionably refer. In a role in which instinctiveness is essential, she is too often reacting after the event - not what one expects of a starting striker.

Seven minutes before half-time, Steinmetz looked to pick out Wilkinson with a pass which the striker failed to reach. Thankfully for New Zealand, all was not lost as the ball ricocheted off the fast-retreating figure of Mayorga for a corner.

Set-piece execution is another area on which the Football Ferns require much improvement, particularly given how many goals come about from dead-ball situations. This one was wasted, and presented Argentina with the chance to launch a quick counter-attack.

Paulina Gramaglia timed her run from inside her own half to perfection to latch onto Lorena Benitez's through ball and set sail for goal. Racing back at a great rate of knots, however, was Grace Neville, who made light of playing out of position at left-back to cut out the danger, albeit at the expense of a corner.

Nunez delivered the set-piece to the far post, where the unchallenged figure of Aldana Cometti headed past the upright - a real let-off for the home team, who enjoyed more good fortune in the 44th minute when both Jale - whose poor back-pass created the situation - and Cleverley clattered into opponents, only for Nicaraguan referee Tatiana Guzman to wave play on on both occasions.

Argentina were incensed, with some justification, as Florencia Bonsegundo and Benitez were the players taken out, meaning they were unable to prevent the Football Ferns from counter-attacking, Hassett leading the charge at breakneck speed. She brought Rennie into play on the left, from where she picked out Wilkinson with a cross which practically said, "Finish me off!"

But "Wilky" didn't, directing her volley inches past the post instead of inside it to open the scoring at the end of the first half. The groans of despair from the local faithful were doubtless echoed throughout living rooms around the country - it was a bad miss, no question.

The second half began with Hassett's teasing cross being plucked off Jale's head by Oliveros, to which "Albiceleste" responded by squandering a great chance to open the scoring, Julieta Cruz's woeful cross undoing all Bonsegundo's good work - she took out three opponents with a wonderful piece of skill.

Steinmetz responded with a powerhouse charge through a couple of tackles - no wonder eyebrows were heading for the heavens when she was withdrawn from the fray three minutes later - before playing in half-time substitute Paige Satchell.

Oliveros raced off her line to clear the danger, sparking a counter-attack which saw Nunez lead a raid down the right before overlapping fullback Eliana Stabile let fly, only to see Nayler fly to her left to keep out her goalbound shot.

The Football Ferns dodged a bullet in the 58th minute when Kate Taylor, Steinmetz's replacement, who was still finding her feet in the match, looked on as Benitez played a peach of a pass in behind her for Larroquette to latch onto. The striker's slip was untimely from Argentina's perspective, fortuitous from the Football Ferns' viewpoint.

Three minutes later, Jale weaved an opening on the right from where she delivered a cross into the danger zone. Satchell was the beneficiary, but with just Oliveros to beat, the speedster's first touch failed her in the penalty area - another chance spurned.

Cue Larroquette flattening Hassett with an elbow to the face, for which she was fortunate to receive just a yellow card from referee Guzman. The offender, the subject of many a catcall throughout her game-long tussle with Bowen in Hamilton, swiftly found herself public enemy number one once again, something which seems to appeal to her character.

For after Gramaglia stung the gloves of Nayler from twenty-five yards, her partner-in-crime up front broke the deadlock in the 77th minute with a well-taken goal, made possible by Falfan's clever chip over the defence.

Larroquette was making an angled curving run from left to right when the ball was played to breach the offside trap, and duly took the ball round the approaching figure of Nayler. Both the goalkeeper and the well-performed - as usual - Bunge made desperate bids to block the striker's sight of goal, but Larroquette's shot took a deflection off one of the duo and bounced into the empty net …

You could almost feel the energy draining from the crowd as the ball crossed the line, but the Ferns' balloon had been releasing air since Steinmetz's substitution - there wasn't the same verve in their play once she left the pitch, despite the best efforts of Hassett, in particular, to make up for it.

After Argentine substitute Erica Lonigro shook the side-netting eight minutes from time, Michaela Foster was introduced to the fray, and, to be perfectly blunt, she produced more drive in her brief cameo on the park than some of her team-mates had shown throughout the entire week!

A debutant just three days prior, the former Young Ferns captain showed she's got what it takes to make a positive impact on the world stage, lifting the team's performance with her energy, incisiveness and creativity.

Her stoppage time free-kick struck low round the wall - after Jale had been fouled on the edge of the area - was well saved by Oliveros, denying the newcomer a fairytale finale to a week in which she's been one of the few plus-points from the Ferns' perspective.

Bunge thwarted Lonigro's attempts to capitalise on Falfan's good work soon afterwards, but Argentina had done enough to record a third win on New Zealand soil during the past week, having dismissed Chile 4-0 at this venue in their first fixture of their tour.

The three losses the Football Ferns have incurred during the past seven days have heaped pressure on coach Klimkova and her squad, all of whom harboured hopes of recording victories on home turf in this particular international window. When next they get the chance to play in front of family, friends and Kiwi football fans, the real deal will be upon us, when getting those wins will be imperative.

Before then, a two-match tour of Europe in the week leading up to Easter precedes an intense camp in Auckland throughout late May and most of June, after which our 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals squad will be named.

Two matches on home turf in July's international window - one behind closed doors - will follow, before all eyes turn to Eden Park, our national stadium, on July 20, as the Football Ferns kick off the most eagerly awaited sporting event in New Zealand's footballing history, when the country finally gets to play host to the world at a senior FIFA World Cup Finals tournament.

Football Ferns: Nayler; Moore (booked, 5), Bunge (booked, 81), Bowen (Foster, 84), Neville; Jale, Cleverley (I. Riley, 79), Steinmetz (Taylor, 57), Hassett; Rennie (Satchell, 46), Wilkinson (Collins, 79)

Argentina: Oliveros; Cruz, Mayorga, Cometti, Stabile; Gramaglia (Singarella, 87), Falfan, Benitez (Pereyra, 87), Nunez (booked, 57); Bonsegundo (Lonigro, 74), Larroquette (booked, 66)

Referee: Tatiana Guzman (Nicaragua)

Football Ferns build-up