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Phenomenal
"A Phenomenal Experience"
by Jeremy Ruane
Captaining her country in New Zealand's first FIFA Women's World Cup Finals in sixteen years was dream come true territory for Rebecca Smith, but the experience itself was beyond her wildest imagination.
“When I first decided that I wanted to go professional in Europe, that was the goal - to be in the World Cup and to captain the team and to lead them through. It was just a phenomenal experience, an amazing experience, which definitely exceeded all expectations.
“Best of all, it was a really good learning experience for the team. Every time the team gets together we grow, and we get better - we improve. So it was neat to be on that journey in the World Cup because it was hard, it was tough. We were the underdogs. We weren't completely prepared for it, and to come out and work so hard and to almost get some results was pretty good”.
Brazil, Denmark and China were the opposition the Football Ferns found themselves up against in 2007 - some learning curve that proved to be! The eventual runners-up trounced NZ 5-0 in the opening game, but both Denmark and the host nation were held scoreless at half-time, before their greater experience resulted in two 2-0 defeats.
Of the three games the team played, there is no doubt in the captain's mind which one provided the most memorable experience of them all. “The China game, no question. Why? I think the belief in the team going into that game was that we could get a result, and that was the biggest chance that we had in the World Cup.
“Also, the crowd - the Chinese people were going insane! They had all the flares going from the thirtieth minute or so, and you couldn't hear anything on the field. That atmosphere was just phenomenal.
“I remember running out in the second half and the second you stepped on the field you heard this big roar, starting in ripples like a big wave. I looked down and saw I had the biggest chills - goosebumps … it was just a phenomenal experience. Amazing. Having my family there was pretty special, too”.
The conclusion of New Zealand's World Cup conquest afforded Rebecca the chance to get her knee problem resolved, of course. By the time it was, the Football Ferns had qualified for the Olympic Games, and coach John Herdman had put in place a solid build-up programme designed to have his charges poised to cause a major upset on the world stage.
Bex takes up the story, which kicks off in Korea. “The Peace Queen Cup was really neat - a good experience. I think it was perfect leading into the Olympics, so John's planning - not doing that much for the whole year then focusing on the period immediately leading up to the Olympics - was really good.
“The more the Football Ferns play together, the better we get, and there's plenty of evidence of that in the past two years. I think the Peace Queen Cup was pretty good for us because we got a win over Argentina, which was huge. That was the first result of note we've got since whenever.
“We also got to watch some of the games at the tournament - Brazil v. USA, for instance, which was, as it turned out, a preview of the Olympic gold medal match. We ended up playing the USA in the Olympics, so getting the chance to watch them was a really good experience”.
The Olympics build-up continued in July. Rebecca arrived in Sydney at 5am on the morning of a midday kick-off against Australia, something not evident in her performance. The squad then twice lost narrowly to China, then handed Singapore a 14-0 hiding before drawing 1-1 with ninth-ranked Canada, the best result recorded by a NZ Football team in years.
An even better one was to come, of course, but before that game took place, Rebecca and the squad enjoyed something just a little bit special.
“The Olympics - what else can you say? A lot of people ask me to come and speak about it, or just sit down and ask a lot of questions. It's just so hard to describe. On one hand, we were away from the thick of things, `cause we were in hotels away from Beijing. You could see this as a negative thing, but I saw it as a benefit, because you could just focus on what you needed to do.
“When we went into the Olympic village … man, there were so many sights and sounds! It was like sensory overload for three days, and I was just exhausted afterwards. You want to absorb that, and you want to experience the whole experience. And it's a phenomenal experience, believe me.
“It's important to do that - stop and smell the roses, if you like - take a breath, enjoy it, soak it up and realise where you are and what you're doing. But at the same time, you've got to stay grounded and focus on what you need to do, what you're there to do”.
The fact the Football Ferns were there, in the Olympic Village as part of the New Zealand Olympic Team, was acknowledged in a way which, to a footballer who gets to spend very little time in her second homeland, meant a great deal and, if her emotional recollection of the events are anything to go by, continues to do so.
“We had a ceremony upon arriving in the Village, and we were each presented with a greenstone pendant. Each piece was cut from the same greenstone rock, and the explanation of its significance was really meaningful, so much so that I haven't taken mine off since the Olympics.
“It also reminded us that we were representing four million people back home and really had the support of the country behind us. This was brought home to me when I went back home for Christmas, and got to hear the stories of different people who watched our games, some of whom I never would
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 have expected would watch them.
“A lot of them were my family, and all their friends, and friends of friends, and they were all telling me their stories about how all these other people got behind the women's football team. That was just amazing too, to hear those stories afterwards, because it makes you realise how big it actually is.
“Something else was amazing, too - the supporters that we got, who came all the way from New Zealand to China. My family, a number of other families from the team, and just fans”.
They all shared in something special, and saw something special taking place before their eyes. A young New Zealand football team came of age in China, something which one of its senior members takes great delight in describing.
“Being 2-0 up against Japan was just a buzz. That was the moment when it felt like `We're going to do this', and you looked in your team-mates' eyes, to left and right of you, and you see the confidence, and you feel like `This is it - we're doing this right now'.
“That moment before the end of the game, that belief that we could do this, obviously, was very special. I think that's the one thing that NZ right now - and you see it with the U-20s and U-17s as well - is on the brink of.
“We're really just getting there. It's really just a lot of hard work - that's all it is. And we take that hard work and do it, and that success is coming to us with continual hard work”.
Sadly for the Football Ferns, Japan, who eventually finished fourth at the Games, struck twice in the last twelve minutes to force a 2-2 draw. A certain scribe went from ecstatic to numb during that period, so what was it was like on the pitch?
“That was probably the most emotional game I've played in my career”, reflects Bex. “To go from such a high, and really trying to stay calm and kill the game any way you possibly can against a team that good, to ending up with a draw in the last minutes of the game, no less … you just went from way up here to way down there.
“After that game I was exhausted - mentally and physically drained. But that's why you play sport, you know. They take you to that high, and drop you to that low, and without those extremes, life in sports is not as meaningful. That Japan game was really intense”.
Norway followed, a 1-0 defeat which the Football Ferns dominated everywhere but on the scoreboard. “Sometimes football's just not fair - the better team, the one with the most possession or the better chances, doesn't always win.
“That's a hard lesson that New Zealand has been learning for the past year - it`s about putting the ball in the back of the net and keeping it out of your own. It was tough, and disappointing, despite it being a beautiful goal they scored.
“Yet that Norway game was a great experience, too, because you could feel in the second half the confidence of the team and the belief. It was like, `Come on, we're down 1-0', but it wasn't as if anyone had given up. If anything, they were more fired up. It was more like, `Let's go'.
“That's a feeling I hadn't recognised in the New Zealand team till the Olympics. We didn't have it in the World Cup. We fought like hell and we believed in ourselves, but we didn't have that same really true deep-down belief we're going to win until the Japan game, and from then on … it was good”.
The Football Ferns' final game at the Olympics saw them take on the USA, and a rueful shake of the head is Rebecca's immediate reaction as soon as it's mentioned.
“If you look at that game, everything leading up to it was a beautiful opportunity, just a beautiful opportunity for us to make history. Not only because we were coming on a wave of confidence, but because the USA's confidence was so low, and they were struggling to get points and get through.
“Had we won that game, they would have come last in our group, and instead they went on and won the gold medal.
“That game was actually more significant than a lot of people realise. The US players knew that, and coach Pia Sundhage knew that - how significant it was. Had we been able to hold them off for a good twenty minutes, then we would have been able to play with that team, I'm 100% sure.
“But you cannot let an early goal in against the USA. An early goal against a team like that … all they need is an ounce of confidence and they're gone. Gone! And we were just the opposite. It was really unfortunate for us they scored in the first 42 seconds, and made a record in the Olympics …”
Cue more rueful head-shaking from Rebecca, and a wince of regret, of what might have been. Six months on, it still hurts. Lessons learnt the hard way always do.
Still, the future is a promising one for a team which, while still growing and developing, has shown, when at full strength, its potential. It also promises plenty for one of its leading lights at club level as well, as Rebecca outlines in part four.
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