At last, the day has arrived, the day after 23 dreams were realised, and numerous hearts were broken - the public announcement of the Football Ferns squad to represent the nation at our World Cup. "I wish I could have named 26, as they do for the men!", declared Jitka Klimkova after revealing the chosen few who'll wear the silver fern in July and, hopefully, August too. It's not just the players for whom this period has been taxing. The gaffer's gone through the ringer every bit as much. "It's been an emotional time, that's for sure, because I not only coach players - I coach people, and that brings its own set of challenges". Put yourself in her shoes. Exhibit A - you decide to go with a player who has been under a fitness cloud for the majority of the year. When you break the news to her, the shared joy is unconfined. Contrastingly, Exhibit B - you decide not to go with a player who, barring injuries, has been a virtual ever-present in every squad you've previously named. How do you break the news to someone who has already endured a mentally shattering on-field experience, an international hat-trick no one ever wants to score? Annalie Longo and Meikayla Moore are unquestionably the two names which leap off the page on the list revealing the chosen ones. For "Flea", it's full circle, having played in her first FIFA Finals when New Zealand hosted the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Finals in 2008. Fifteen years on, she's on home turf again, this time for our World Cup - Annalie's TWELFTH FIFA Finals tournament, covering senior and age-grade Finals, plus Olympic Women's Football Tournaments, the next of which takes place in Paris next year. For "Mousey", this setback completes an annus horribilus of sorts. The leaving of Liverpool, that "hatty", now this. There's been compensation in the form of league championship winner's medals at both LFC and Glasgow City in this time, but when compared with missing out on the chance to play in your home World Cup Finals? Little wonder this proud Kiwi battler has turned down the chance to remain part of the squad as a non-travelling reserve, with Grace Wisnewski joining Ava Collins and Kate Taylor in secretly hoping that someone else's misfortune between now and the Finals will be of benefit to them. Making such calls are not something any coach relishes, be they Jitka Klimkova or Jurgen Klopp. Asked how she felt on public revelation day, the Czech Republic native's face said it all - "Relieved! It's been a tough few weeks working with the wider squad. Now it's down to business". There are ten first-time senior Women's World Cup finalists in the 23-strong squad, including Liz Anton, Claudia Bunge, Milly Clegg, Michaela Foster, Jacqui Hand, Grace Jale, Anna Leat, Gabrielle Rennie and Malia Steinmetz, with Indiah-Paige Riley the only player yet to represent this country at a FIFA Finals. Au contraire the co-captains, Ali Riley and Ria Percival, who join Longo as five-time Women's World Cup finalists - elite territory, this. This writer can still picture the three of them running riot in Samoa as they made their international debuts as Junior Ferns in the 2006 OFC U-20 Women's Championship … little did we know that they'd still be proudly and passionately sporting the silver fern seventeen years later. Ria's return is also a welcome boost for the Ferns, given she last played for the team on the day she suffered the knee injury which has dominated her life ever since that fateful day against Australia in Townsville on April 8, 2022. Then there's the other survivor, whose story is one of the most courageous of all. Rebekah Stott is back for her third Women's World Cup Finals,

having seen off non-Hodgkins lymphoma since France 2019 - what an inspiration she is to cancer sufferers in particular. No World Cup squad would be complete without a bolter! How we'd all love to see Milly Clegg score in her third FIFA Finals in twelve months, having struck in the 2022 age-grade finals in Costa Rica (U-20s) and India (U-17s). There are so many great personal journeys within this Football Ferns squad. Our goalkeeping lionheart, Vic Esson, whose stunning saves have prevented palpitations aplenty since she became New Zealand's first choice custodian, is a classic in this regard, given her pulse was racing so much prior to the 2010 U-20 Women's World Cup Finals in Germany that she required heart surgery to correct the problem. Olivia Chance is another who has defied the odds to make this squad, have given us all a scare with the knee injury she sustained against Iceland. All stops were pulled in the effort to get her fully fit again, with treatment from the Manchester City and England physios part of the equation as the Celtic dynamo fought her way back to full fitness in time for the Finals of her dreams. Paige Satchell has also spent time in the knee injury club, but has bounced back from her brush with the bane of all female footballers - the dreaded ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury - to continue to make her mark on the game the world plays, her express pace uninhibited by what she endured in such innocuous fashion, one of the hallmarks of an injury which plagues the women's game the world over. Hannah Wilkinson knows that ACL feeling all too well, having endured the injury twice in her career. She supplements her footballing skills with her musical and artistic talents - a fair bit of the artwork dedicated to this tournament which you'll see when visiting the national stadium, Eden Park, during these Finals have her pawmarks all over them. The versatile Katie Bowen, like Esson and Longo a survivor from NZ08, is still just as crazy all these years later, to the extent of being one of this squad's main mood-setters - her zany sense of fun and unquenchable energy levels are massive components of the make-up of the Football Ferns environment. Catherine "CJ" Bott is loving life at Leicester City so much that she's extended her contract there. Across the North Sea, Daisy Cleverley is similarly enchanted at HB Koge, with whom she recently won the Danish league title. North and west of her, Betsy Hassett (in Norway) and Erin Nayler (in Sweden) are thriving in their respective environments. All four, like almost all their international team-mates, are living the dream, playing the game they love in a professional environment, and now relishing the chance to represent the Football Ferns on home turf, initially against Vietnam and Italy in warm-up fixtures - the latter is a behind-closed-doors affair - and ultimately on the game's greatest stage, as New Zealand and Australia co-host the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. The opening game of the Finals sees the Football Ferns taking on Norway at Eden Park on July 20. Five days later, they travel to "The Caketin" to take on the Philippines, while Switzerland lie in wait at Forsyth Barr Stadium on July 30 in New Zealand's final group fixture, with a home win essential in at least one of these matches if the dream of progressing to the knockout stages for the first time is to be realised. The final word belongs with the coach. "This team doesn't limit challenges", says Jitka Klimkova, in summing up their road to NZOz23. "This team challenges the limits". Let's hope they do so, and go beyond greatness in order to achieve their - our - goals. GO YOU GOOD FERNS!