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Ferns Spurn Cyprus Cup For Spanish Conquest
by Jeremy Ruane
Around this time of year, the Football Ferns usually make an annual pilgrimage to the Mediterranean to take part in the Cyprus Cup, an annual twelve-nation tournament which sees every team playing four games in a week.
It's not a trip they'll be making in 2015, however.
Instead, they're bound for another area of Europe, and the homeland of fellow FIFA Women's World Cup finalists, Spain.
Why the change? Football Ferns coach, Tony Readings, explains. "There are a few reasons behind our decision to opt out of the Cyprus Cup this year.
"We submitted our entry for the tournament, but indicated to the Cyprus Cup organisers, with whom we have a great relationship which we're eager to maintain, that we were potentially looking at going elsewhere this time round.
"Our desire was to go into one of the top two groups there, but unfortunately for us, we ended up being drawn in the third group again, alongside Belgium, Mexico and the Czech Republic.
"We know they are three good quality teams which will give us different challenges, but maybe not as close as the ones we're going to face at the World Cup. So with that in mind, we withdrew from the Cyprus Cup for 2015.
"It was a tough decision to make, because it's a lot of games in a short space of time. But there were other factors we considered, one being the weather. It's normally really blustery where we play in Cyprus, and the stadiums are very open.
"It's a lot of money for us to spend to go to Cyprus, and a significant time commitment as well. If you're going to spend that much, you want to make sure you're getting the quality in terms of facilities and opposition, especially with the World Cup Finals less than 100 days away.
"With our over-riding objective being to make sure we're playing against top-level teams as often as we can, we opted to take up another option - it's certainly good to have options for games, rather than be scraping around for games as has been the case in the past".
Like the Football Ferns, Spain are ranked in the world's top twenty women's football-playing nations - fifteenth, to be precise, and have been one of the beneficiaries of an expanded Canada 2015 tournament - this will be their maiden appearance at the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, which this year boasts twenty-four teams.
"It's a great opportunity to play them", says Readings, "and it will be good for them also, given they haven't played a non-European team for roughly a decade.
"We know they're a very good footballing team, and we're going to come up against three of those in our group at the World Cup. We've also chosen them because they do closely replicate who we're playing against.
"As well as being a good team, they're a team that's going to keep the ball. Given we always want to dominate possession, it's going to be a good battle
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for us, and another test we need to face as we build towards the finals".
The Football Ferns boast a handful of changes from the squad which took on Korea DPR and Australia on home soil last month. Meikayla Moore returns from injury, while Daisy Cleverley and Evie Millynn have been added to the mix, with Rebecca Rolls and Helen Collins sitting out this trip, as do injured duo Hayley Bowden and Anna Green, both of whom hope to be fit for April's USA tour.
The Spanish internationals take place on Wednesday and Friday mornings, NZ time. The first clash kicks off at 7am at the Estadio Pedro Escartin, the home ground of Second Division side CD Guadalajara.
Friday's 8am affair takes place at the 3000-capacity Campo Municipal de La Roda, a Third Division club based in the Andalucia region, and will, barring the unforeseen, be the ground on which Katie Hoyle earns her 100th "A" international appearance for New Zealand.
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