By Lori Ewing
(Reuters) – New Zealand’s Football Ferns are on the cusp of accomplishing a feat few could have predicted days ago – advancing to the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup.
New Zealand face the Philippines at Wellington Regional Stadium on Tuesday and a victory would all but guarantee their advancement.
The 26th-ranked Ferns went without a win in their previous 15 World Cup matches, but opened this year’s campaign with a shock 1-0 victory over Norway, a squad ranked 14 spots above them.
“They’re very satisfied how we played against Norway,” Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova said of her team. “We are building on it. We want to raise our performance, we want to grow in this tournament.”
Midfielder Malia Steinmetz has seen the support for the Ferns grow since their victory. Ticket sales in New Zealand had lagged behind co-host Australia, prompting FIFA president Gianni Infantino to issue a plea to New Zealanders last week to support the tournament.
“It’s been great,” said Steinmetz, who plays for Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League Women competition.
“You can kinda see it after that game that there’s been more (supporters) around, we go out for coffee and someone comes up and says ‘congrats,’ which we don’t usually get. So we do feel it,” she said.
“It’s one of our main reasons why we’ve been trying to push so hard to play in the way that we do, is just for the younger generation, we want to inspire the country and I think you can see parts of that and we just want to keep the ball rolling and keep inspiring more if we can.”
The Ferns paused to soak in the moment of their historic win last week, but then it was back to business.
“We were celebrating the moment, we made history, we enjoyed it, it was a great evening,” said Klimkova. “Next day, we were still smiling on each other and felt that victory and we were still in a little bit of mindset of the game.
“But then it was absolutely reshift and refocus. And that’s where we are right now, we are controlling things that we can control . . . I have to say this team’s never been focused more. We are back on earth and we are ready to fight again.”
Switzerland and New Zealand are tied atop Group A after the Swiss beat the Philippines 2-0 in their opener. The Ferns face Switzerland on July 30.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Michael Perry)
