What do we have to know about the coach? John Herdman (right). Geordie. Top man. Powerpoint presentation wizard! A passionate, inspirational speaker. A really good coach who has been the driving force behind the revitalisation in the women’s game in NZ since being appointed coach of the squad which contested the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Finals in Russia in 2006. Aside from his Football Ferns’ coaching commitments, he is NZ Football’s Director of Football Development, and the Coach Education Manager. In short, a very busy lad. It’s not just the women’s game John has revitalised. NZ Football is in the process of introducing the “Whole of Football” programme throughout the country, the idea behind which is that there is a uniform approach to how things are done nationwide, rather than one area doing something one way, and another area doing the same thing another way. A lot of the groundwork for this project was undertaken by John, coinciding with Football Ferns’ tours in recent years. Do the players make a living out of their job? Barely. A number of our players are university students, and rely on scholarships and similar forms of funding to make ends meet. A few have had to make a choice between work and football in recent times, such are the harsh realities of life in the 21st Century, so the likes of talented striker Zoe Thompson (above right) have been lost to the game. There has been an additional choice to be made by some - whether or not to relocate to Auckland. The biggest city in the country is also the home of NZ women’s football, primarily because the vast majority of the best players in the country hail from the city. So it makes sense to centralise all national women’s team activities there - our population is too small and resources too few to justify any alternatives. Sadly, some of those located beyond the confines of Auckland struggle to embrace this concept. This has become an issue for some players, but their reluctance to “adopt and adapt” and move out of their comfort zone for the greater good (i.e. put team before self) means a couple of potential Football Ferns will be watching these finals back home wishing and knowing they could be here. The harsh reality is, they could well have been here, but unlike those who are proudly wearing the silver fern at this tournament, they opted not to make a full commitment to Project Germany 2011 when the opportunity presented itself to do so. The old adage, “There is no I in team”, says it all. The New Zealand-based Football Ferns squad trains as a group on four occasions each week, with each player having their own individual training programme to fulfil on top of that. Club training takes up a further evening’s commitment, and Sunday is match-day, so the girls have very little time for things outside the scope of their football and study/work commitments. Which prejudices have New Zealand’s football women had to fight in your country? Recognition generally - refer my earlier comments re media coverage, and to be treated both as equals and in the same manner as their male equivalents would expect to be treated. Those two aspects cover a multitude of sins dating back many years - there are still some Neanderthals around who consider the woman’s place to be in the kitchen … they’re in for a heck of a shock when

they’re dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, aren’t they? Honestly, how many people of New Zealand know that there is a Women’s World Cup this year? Had our recent 2-1 loss to Australia not been televised, I would certainly have said the women’s football fraternity, and the wider footballing community in general, but not too many more. However, having seen the girls do everything but beat our West Island neighbours in that match, New Zealand’s sporting public is much more aware of upcoming events in the women’s footballing world. There is a great rivalry between New Zealand (population 4 million) and Australia (22 million) full stop, but particularly in sporting terms. We can always say we’re two hours ahead of them time-wise (and light years in so many other ways!), and they sure as heck don’t like it when they get upstaged by their Kiwi cousins at anything, which is why, whenever NZ and Oz clash in sporting circles, there’s always an extra incentive to excel. Why does New Zealand deserve to win the Cup? Because of the dedication and commitment of the players to be the best they can be, and their willingness to make the sacrifices they have, individually and collectively, to realise the Football Ferns’ World Cup dreams. Plus, and this is the best reason of all, they’re Kiwis! Mt. Everest was beyond the reach of all-comers until a Kiwi, Sir Edmund Hillary, scaled it in 1953. Sixty years earlier, Kiwi woman Kate Sheppard (left) led the campaign for women’s suffrage, and as a result New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The time is right for the Football Ferns to give the women’s footballing world a taste of Kiwi!! Why wont it happen? Because the likes of Marta and Cristiane (Brazil), Heather Mitts, Hope Solo and Carli Lloyd (USA - below left), Fatmire Bajramaj and Birgit Prinz (Germany), Rachel Unitt and Kelly Smith (England), Homare Sawa and Mana Iwabuchi (Japan), Camille Abily (France) and Christine Sinclair (Canada) will have their own ideas, more’s the pity! And from our perspective, despite the prolific goalscoring exploits of Amber Hearn (left), we don’t find the target often enough. Plus we are prone to the odd concentration lapse in defence, something which, with a World Cup at stake, will be mercilessly punished by the likes of the above-mentioned players. Who else will be the World Champions instead? The usual suspects generally rise to the occasion, and it’s hard to go past the likes of Germany, Brazil and the USA in this regard. But it would not surprise me in the slightest to see a new name emerging from the pack this year, a country which has been making some impressive progress over the last few years without attracting too much attention. The outcome of the recent UEFA Women’s Champions League Final is further proof that France is a genuine dark horse for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals … and to think we were three minutes away from beating them in the third place play-off at the 2009 Cyprus Cup!