The Football Ferns commence their FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals preparations in earnest this week, but they won’t be alone. It’s Algarve Cup and Cyprus Women’s Cup time again, and nine of the sixteen countries who will be heading to Germany in June are taking part in one of these prestigious events over the course of the next week or so. The majority of the contenders will be in Cyprus, including John Herdman’s (above) charges, who have been drawn in a group which contains teams they have met in previous Cyprus Cup adventures. The Kiwis kick off their campaign against Holland, whom they defeated 2-0 in the 2009 competition before being held to a 1-1 draw last year. That match, at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, kicks off at 4am on March 3, NZ time, and is followed precisely forty-eight hours later by a clash against Switzerland. Larnaca’s GSZ Stadium will host the Football Ferns’ first clash against the Swiss since 1984 on Friday morning from 4am, while it’s back to Nicosia for the team’s final group encounter on Monday morning, a 1am duel with fellow World Cup finalists France. The Football Ferns have some unfinished business against their European counterparts, a 1-1 draw with the French and a subsequent penalty shoot-out defeat denying captain Hayley Moorwood (below) and her team-mates a third-placed finish at the 2009 Cyprus Cup. They followed up their fourth placing that year by making the final in 2010, only to go down to a solitary Canadian goal in the showpiece fixture of a tournament which further confirmed New Zealand’s progress on the world stage. Hard on the heels of qualifying for Germany 2011 as champions of Oceania, the Football Ferns again emphasised their growth at the Peace Queen Cup in the Korea Republic, where after scoreless draws against England and the host nation they were only denied the chance to play in their third final of the year by the drawing of lots. Those matches mark the last time the world’s 23rd-ranked women’s footballing nation kicked a ball in anger, and when they take to the field in Cyprus, they’ll do so with a largely familiar squad, albeit one with a couple of new faces in the mix. Claudelands Rovers’ Olivia Chance (above) enjoyed the best year of her career to date in 2010, and has earned a spot in the twenty-one strong squad which left for Cyprus on February 23, along with Terri-Amber Carlson, who has bid adieu to her Wellington home and will sport Glenfield Rovers’ colours during the fast-approaching

club campaign. This exciting winger and industrious midfielder will be looking to force their way into Herdman’s World Cup plans with strong showings during the Cyprus Cup, during which up to three members of the squad will make their fiftieth appearances for their country. 21-year-old Abby Erceg (above) will become the youngest player to achieve the milestone when she takes to the field against the Dutch, while Jenny Bindon is just two caps away from realising the feat - she will be the first goalkeeper to join a select list of players, namely Wendi Henderson (64 caps), Maureen Jacobson (59), Hayley Moorwood (58 and counting), Wendy Sharpe (50) and Maia Jackman (50 and counting). Ria Percival (above) is also poised to clock up fifty caps for the Football Ferns, but the 2010 OFC Women’s Nations Cup Player of the Tournament will need to play in all four of New Zealand’s matches during the tournament to add that milestone to her already impressive footballing CV. To top off the copious hours they have put in on home soil each week preparing for the Cyprus Cup, and, in the cases of some players, earning some welcome game-time during the ASB Women’s Youth League, the Football Ferns took on Russia in a training match in Cyprus on the weekend. Two goals in the first nine minutes from Catherine Sochneva and a late strike from Elena Morozova fired the Russians to a 3-1 victory over the Kiwis, for whom Emma Kete (below) scored in the final minute of a match which saw every member of the squad take to the field. It was a welcome work-out for the squad, some of whom haven’t kicked a ball in anger since those games in Korea last October. Indeed, some of the players haven’t even seen each other since then, and catching up both on and off the park has been high on the agenda since the squad’s staggered arrival in Larnaca. Now, though, business is at hand, and not just in terms of pursuing Cyprus Women’s Cup glory. Places in the squad which will head to the year’s main event in less than four months are at stake, so the Football Ferns have all to play for in more ways than one. Line-up details from the non-cap-earning international against Russia: Jenny Bindon (Aroon Clansey, 46); Katie Hoyle (Ria Percival, 46), Abby Erceg, Rebecca Smith (Kristy Hill, 46), Ali Riley (Kirsty Yallop, 65); Amber Hearn (Sarah Gregorius, 46), Betsy Hassett (Terri-Amber Carlson, 46), Rosie White (Annalie Longo, 65), Hannah Wilkinson (Hayley Moorwood, 46); Hannah Wall (Emma Kete, 46), Olivia Chance (Anna Green, 46)