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2009
Canada Next Chapter In Fighting Fit Amber's Dream
by Jeremy Ruane
Amber Hearn is about to add another chapter to the footballing dream she's been living throughout the bulk of this decade.
The fighting fit Football Ferns front-runner bids adieu to her beloved Lynn-Avon United for the second time in her career on the first Sunday in May, in order to broaden her footballing horizons on the other side of the world.
Perennial W-League title contenders Ottawa Fury have secured the services of Amber and Ria Percival, her club and international team-mate, for their forthcoming 2009 campaign, one which the 24-year-old striker is looking forward to.
“They've signed seven internationals from abroad, and have seven Canadian internationals on their books, so they should be a good team. Simon Eaddy and John Herdman asked me if I'd be willing to go overseas again, and I said, `Yeah. Cool. Why not?'
“Ottawa have always been probing re my availability, and now I've got the all-clear from the national coach to go, I am, this time experiencing the other side of the Atlantic, the Americas”.
Amber, of course, has already enjoyed the opportunity to play overseas, having famously secured a contract with Arsenal, the giants of English women's football, in 2004.
An opportunity to cherish, the then-20-year-old grabbed it with both hands, a fractured foot sustained on the Football Ferns' US tour late that year notwithstanding. “Without question, my highlights were winning the 2005 FA Cup - that medal is one of my most prized possessions - and the UEFA Women's Cup games, not only playing in them, but travelling and seeing different countries.
“Playing in the UEFA Women's Cup was an eye-opener”, says a young lady whose sole start in her thirteen appearances for `The Gunners' came on the European stage.
“Just seeing how far apart New Zealand is from the European scene, and how they have so many more competitions compared to what we have here. Not only do they play in the English competitions - Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup, Charity Shield, they also have the opportunity to play against class international players and class teams on a regular basis in Europe.
“There are a lot more international players in England itself, plus you get people from all over Europe and the USA coming and playing, so quality-wise, the English game is a lot quicker, and technically, a lot better. I guess you've just got to go out there and experience it.
“We've got class players here who can stand up to players like Scottish international Julie Fleeting, no question. They just need to broaden their horizons and compete in higher standards. We're getting offers now, such as the one I'm taking up with Ottawa Fury, so we're actually getting a look-in from different countries - that's a good thing”.
What wasn't so good for Amber was the amount of game-time - particularly starts - she enjoyed in the red-and-white of Arsenal. It was nowhere near suffice to satisfy the appetite of this passionate Kiwi football star.
“I just wanted to start all the time, as you do, but it just wasn't happening with Arsenal on that score. So at the end of the 2004-5 season, I made a bold decision, and decided to leave the biggest club in English women's football.
“I had a couple of offers from other clubs, one of which boasted a great history in the English women's game, Doncaster Rovers Belles. They were in the Premier League, too, so I headed to North Yorkshire for the 2005-6 season”.
Doncaster wasn't Arsenal, however. While Amber's old club was on European duty, a couple of England internationals joined the Belles' new number nine in leading their team into battle in pursuit of silverware of slightly less renown, in the form of the quaintly named Sheffield & Hallamshire County Cup!
Amber laughs at the memory. “The teams weren't that great, because you played the wider range of the Northern League teams, from Division One through Division Four. And with Doncaster being a Premier League team … I guess it was the experience that counted!”
Needless to say, the only woman in New Zealand's footballing history who boasts a Sheffield & Hallamshire County Cup winner's medal in her collection wasted little time in celebrating the achievement with her team-mates, not knowing that fate was to strike her a cruel blow just a couple of months later.
“I was going through an injury phase, and picked up a couple of niggles during my first season with
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  in action v. Norway at the Olympics
  Celebrating Doncaster's Cup triumph
Amber is in the middle of the back row, by the pole
 Celebrating her goal at the Olympics
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Doncaster. Early in my second season, 2006-7, I tore my Achilles tendon, which put me out for the season.
“To allow myself to recover fully from this and all my other knocks and niggles, I thought I'd best take some time off from football, knowing that I could always come back to the game, specially once I returned home.
“So I took the decision to part company with Doncaster and spent the next year or so travelling round Europe on my OE, before coming home late in 2007. It wasn't hard to tell I'd been on OE, eh?” sniggers Amber as she recalled her appearance at the time.
Eighteen months on, and you'd think this was a completely different person. At 5'8” and a well-toned 69 kgs, the Auckland native is a picture of fitness, her powerful physique testament to the many hours she has spent toiling away behind the scenes in an effort to regain her place in the New Zealand set-up.
“When I came home, I pretty much had to work really hard to get back to my physical peak, and was told as much. So it was down to training each day with Brad Conza, our strength and training conditioner.
“He trained me relentlessly, morning, noon and night, be it weights, general fitness work, or conditioning. For me to be where I needed to be I had to get that sort of workout on a regular basis - that's what it came down, and that's what I did.
“At times I was like, “God, I can't do this - I'm so unfit!” Throw in the fact I was getting up at 5am, going to the gym, coming back home, having a two-hour rest, back over the Shore again for training … that was it - it was rest, training, rest, training.
“That's been my life for the past year - I've had no time for work or study. Even now, I'm still training and progressing my fitness, focusing on my football, and the need to get where I need to be, where I am now”.
All those sacrifices, sweat and hard work, rising each day at an hour when most would prefer to be sleeping, had its rewards for Amber, and Football Ferns around the nation shared in her joy.
Not only did she regain her place in the national team's starting line-up, hers was the goal which saw New Zealand record a ground-breaking 1-0 victory over Argentina at the Peace Queen Cup last June.
She was also on target in New Zealand's next victory, a 2-0 triumph over top-twenty-ranked Holland at the Cyprus Cup in March. In between times, of course, there was the little matter of scoring from the penalty spot to put the Football Ferns 2-0 up over Japan in their opening Olympic Games fixture …
“Scoring at the Olympics - that was a heart-stopper! You don't really think about it until the experience is over. For me, it's just a game, at the end of the day, a game we have to win. I`m focused on performing on the field, which, as a team against Japan, we did - for all but the last few minutes!
“The Olympics experience itself was just phenomenal. I couldn't really explain it. The cultural side of it was awesome. Having Kristy Hill, someone who is steeped in Maori traditions, in our team helped us appreciate it so much more and, resultingly, brought us so much closer - we're such a close-knit team now.
“Doing the haka, having the opposition respond, and our response back … just great! Something to talk about for a long time to come, even though it has been talked about a lot already”.
Unlike the New Zealand scene nowadays compared to what it was like when Amber left for England in August 2004. “There's no comparison. Whereas back then it was defensive, with one striker up front and ten players behind the ball, nowadays we're attacking, winning games, drawing games, coming up against top ten teams and dominating for ninety minutes.
“What we need to do now is just win consistently, so hopefully in the next few years we'll be an even better team - we're certainly looking forward to the progression”.
Just as Amber Hearn is herself looking forward to pulling on an Ottawa Fury shirt over the course of the next three months, as she embarks upon another chapter in a career which has seen her amass a staggering 155 goals in just 160 first-class fixtures in the colours of Lynn-Avon United, Auckland and New Zealand at senior and age-grade levels. (Figures correct to the end of May 2009).
“I'm still living my dream”, she beams proudly, her eyes twinkling in the setting sun as she recalls the theme of our last interview in January 2005. “While I'm having to work harder now to still live it, training every day, every morning, it's still football all the time”.
Long may it remain so, wherever Amber Hearn's dream takes her.
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