New Zealand’s Football Ferns suffered yet another agonising defeat on their tour of Australia and China on May 20, going down 1-0 to the Steel Roses in Weifang despite dominating the one-time women’s footballing superpower everywhere but on the scoreboard. It means the champions of Oceania head home without a win to their name from their penultimate series of matches before the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals, although they did everything in their power to rectify that situation in this match, and record a maiden win over China in the process. "We played every bit as well as we did against Australia", assistant coach Tony Readings said afterwards, "if not more so. It was a really impressive performance, but for all our dominance of the opposition, we’re just not scoring goals". It’s certainly not for the want of trying on the players’ part, but lady luck once again turned a blind eye towards the Football Ferns in this match, with Amber Hearn seeing her shot crash off the inside of the post and come back into play just before half-time. A few minutes later, China, who enjoyed very few chances to score throughout the match, capitalised on some defensive indecision to break the deadlock, Ma Jun netting the decisive goal four minutes before the half-time whistle. Hearn (left) later saw her shot tipped onto the crossbar in what was "a very physical game", according to Readings, "but one in which everyone played well, so much so that it’s hard to pick out individuals who impressed - they all did. The entire midfield quartet stood out, however, particularly Katie Hoyle, while Anna Green shone once more". Two days prior, China eclipsed the Football Ferns 3-0 in a training match which saw all but three players - Aroon Clansey, Ali Riley and the hamstrung Hayley Moorwood - take to the field in a fixture played in three 25-minute spells, the prime objective of which was to get the players functioning football-wise again after what effectively amounted to 24 hours’ travel from Sydney to Weifang via Hong Kong and Jihan. The squad now returns home, and after a week’s break, resumes training on May 30. By the time Queen’s Birthday Monday rolls round, Football Ferns coach John Herdman will have concluded the difficult and unenviable task of finalising the list of 21 players who will represent New Zealand at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals. You can guarantee there’ll be some highly delighted and decidedly disappointed young women at the end of that process. The chosen ones will be announced on June 7, with the squad heading out to Switzerland five days later for a final training camp, which will include three matches against yet to be confirmed opponents Then it’s across the border to Germany, and those eagerly awaited engagements with Japan, England, Mexico and beyond … but their minimum target of a quarter-final appearance hinges on the Football Ferns rediscovering the art of scoring goals if they are to realise their potential and their Women’s World Cup ambitions. Football Ferns:     Bindon; Riley, Smith, Erceg, Green; Percival (Yallop, 80), Hoyle, Hearn, Hassett; White (Gregorius, 65), Wilkinson (Kete, 80)