Football Ferns secure Paris Olympics place with big win
Monday, 19 February 2024
At FFS Stadium, Apia: Football Ferns 11 (Jacqui Hand 12’, Hannah Wilkinson 20’ 56’, Katie Bowen 25’, Grace Jale 37’ 62’, Indiah-Paige Riley 45’+1, 53’, Katie Kitching 70’, 76’, Ruby Nathan 89’) Solomon Islands 1 (Jemina David 55’). HT: 5-0
The Football Ferns are the sixth team to qualify for the women’s football tournament at the Paris Olympics.
They beat the Solomon Islands 11-1 in the Oceania qualifying final on Monday.
Grace Jale, Katie Kitching, Indiah-Paige Riley and Hannah Wilkinson each scored twice.
On one hand, the Football Ferns secured a major prize on Monday afternoon in Apia.
For the fifth time in a row, they will play in the Olympic women’s football tournament, being held this year in France, around the Games in Paris.
With their squad in a state of transition, there will undoubtedly be some Ferns players who get to experience an Olympics for the first time.
But they will be in for an incredible challenge once they get there.
Nothing they have done over the past fortnight in Samoa at the Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament will be relevant.
In Monday’s final at Football Federation Samoa Stadium, the Ferns brushed off the Solomon Islands with ease, winning 11-1 to round out a five-match run where they scored a total of 32 goals and conceded two.
Grace Jale, Katie Kitching, Indiah-Paige Riley and Hannah Wilkinson all scored braces in the decider, while Katie Bowen, Jacqui Hand and Ruby Nathan also contributed to the Ferns’ biggest win of the tournament.
Jemina David took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Vic Esson to score a consolation goal for the Solomon Islands.
As has been the case every time New Zealand have had to play their Pacific Island rivals over the years, there was a significant gulf.
Come July and August in France, the gulf will be the other way around, and the Ferns will have their work cut out to add to the two Olympic wins they’ve managed to date, against Cameroon at London 2012 and Colombia at Rio 2016.
Monday’s win made them the sixth team to qualify for Paris 2024, alongside hosts France, defending champions Canada, perennial powerhouses the United States and Brazil and Colombia out of South America.
Australia and Japan are likely to join the field by the end of the month, unless Uzbekistan and/or North Korea pull off stunning upsets in their respective home-and-away ties that start later this week.
Two out of three of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup champions Spain, quarterfinalists the Netherlands and Germany will also join in that time, depending how the Uefa Women’s Nations League finals unfold.
The last two teams will then come out of Africa, where eight teams remain alive at present, in April.
As things stand, barring an upset by Uzbekistan over the Matildas, New Zealand will be seeded ninth, which means they’ll be in pot three for the draw, which therefore means they will draw two tough opponents and either Colombia - World Cup quarterfinalists in 2023 - or one of the two African teams.
The hopes and prayers for the friendliest draw possible can start in earnest once the pots are locked in. If Colombia, currently ranked 26th, were to catch the Ferns, ranked 22nd, before then, the picture would change, and thee tough opponents would be on the cards again.
In the meantime, Ferns coach Jitka Klimková has some big decisions to make.
Since the start of July last year, when her side began their final preparations for the World Cup on home soil, she has called on 38 different players.
Only 18 will be allowed in the squad for the Olympics, while four will go as travelling reserves.
Five months out, you can probably write 10 names down in bold, when you account for the fact that the Olympics are being treated, to a certain extent, as a stepping stone for the 2027 World Cup.
They are goalkeepers Esson and Anna Leat, who started the final and semifinal respectively in Samoa; fullback CJ Bott (absent from this tournament); centre backs Bowen, Claudia Bunge and Rebekah Stott; midfielder Malia Steinmetz (also absent); and forwards Hand, Jale and Riley.
The other eight spots are there to be won, starting in April, when the Ferns host Thailand for two matches in Christchurch.
Ten-goal wins won’t be on the cards then.