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Japan
Young Ferns Make World Footballing History
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand's Young Ferns made world footballing history at the Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici in Colonia Del Sacramento, Uruguay, on 24 November, 2018, as they became the country's first representative side to reach the semi-finals of a FIFA World Cup Finals tournament.
Only Auckland City FC, when they finished third at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup Finals, have savoured this most rarified of stratospheres for a New Zealand football team before now, but this is the first occasion that a team sporting the silver fern has graced the top table at any FIFA tournament.
And they did it in dramatic circumstances, too, ousting two-time FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup winners Japan 4-3 on penalties, after the teams had fought out a 1-1 draw over the ninety minutes of their quarter-final encounter.
The Young Ferns set out their stall early, pressing Japan all over the park and not allowing them to establish the passing game in which they are so well versed. The tactic clearly rattled the Asian youngsters, who were gifting possession to the Young Ferns when they weren't knocking it out of play, and presenting Aneka Mittendorff with the chance to unleash her specialist long throw-ins.
Japan switched to the long ball approach in an effort to gain a foothold in the contest, but this, too, worked to New Zealand's advantage, with Anna Leat wise to the threat posed by Yuzuki Yamamoto as she looked to exploit this tactic in the thirteenth minute.
Leat immediately launched a Kiwi counter-attack which left her opposite number, Shu Ohba, under all sorts of pressure as Maggie Jenkins came prowling. The 'keeper swerved her way out of trouble, then promptly found touch, inviting Mittendorff to unleash once more. Her throw-in picked out Kelli Brown, whose fifteen-yarder was smothered by Ohba.
When the Young Ferns next attacked, they forced a seventeenth minute corner which Macey Fraser swept on an angle towards the penalty spot. Three of her team-mates dummied the ball as it found its way to the feet of Amelia Abbott, whose sweetly struck fifteen yard drive flew past the stunned figure of Ohba and into the top corner.
Jubilant team-mates made a beeline for the markswoman from all over the park, with Abbott engulfed as she led the celebrations prompted by this rarely seen scoreline - New Zealand 1, Japan 0.
Within eight minutes, Jenkins twice had chances to double the Young Ferns' lead. Intercepting a pass in the nineteenth minute, she wriggled between two defenders before drilling a twenty yarder past the post to put Japan on notice - the scoreline was no fluke.
Six minutes later, she went closer still. Outmuscling an opponent in the area as she charged through the inside right channel, Jenkins unleashed a rising ten yard drive on the angle which beat Ohba all ends up, only to hit the crossbar.
Had that gone in … but the Young Ferns didn't let the fact it hadn't upset them. Instead, they came again and again before the half-hour mark, Chihiro Tomioka's vital headed clearance preventing Brown from capitalising on the creativity of Abbott, Jenkins and Gabrielle Rennie, who received a throw-in from Mackenzie Barry soon afterwards which invited the striker to unleash a cross-shot.
Ohba grabbed the ball at her near post to help calm Japanese nerves - they were well and truly rattled by the fact they were unable to play their passing game and impose themselves on their opponents, make no mistake.
Help was at hand for the Japanese, however, in the form of an unlikely assistant - Lady Luck! They launched a rare attack on the right via Chise Takizawa and Akane Nishino which resulted in Yamamoto surging through the inside right channel.
The striker did well to ride the challenge of Mittendorff as she entered the penalty area, but Leat's presence curtailed Yamamoto's progress. The ball ricocheted across to Momoka Kinoshita, racing up in support from midfield, and she unleashed a shot which was blocked on the line by Hannah Mackay-Wright, who was knocked off balance by the power in the shot.
As she recovered her footing, she had no idea where the ball was in relation to her, and the sight of Mackay-Wright inadvertently diverting it into her own net a split-second later was a heartbreaking moment for the Young Ferns, particularly the defender, who was mortified at her misfortune and looked for all the world as if she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole there and then!
That cruel blow to the Young Ferns' hopes was manna from heaven for Japan, who were given a new lease of life by the goal. Suddenly their passing game was back on track, but the Kiwis continued to force errors wherever they could.
Before half-time, both teams had chances, with Leat saving at the feet of Hanuka Osawa after Momo Nakao and Yamamoto had prised open the Mittendorff-led rearguard.
New Zealand's captain flung the final throw-in of the half into the penalty area on the stroke of half-time. Jenkins flicked it on, but no one in white was following in behind her, much to Japan's relief, for this was a gap they hadn't covered.
No prizes for guessing which team was subjected to a right royal rev-up at half-time! Japan emerged for the second spell a far different animal, and it was very quickly clear that the Young Ferns would be mounting a rearguard action for much of the second spell.
Sure enough, wave after blue wave crashed upon the rocky white foreshore. But Mittendorff, Mackay-Wright, Barry, Marisa Van der Meer, Abbott, Grace Wisnewski, Brown, Rennie, Jenkins and substitute Maya Hahn - an early tactical replacement for Fraser - were steadfast in the face of adversity, to such an extent that Leat, behind them, had little to do for much of the half.
She was called upon twice in the first twenty minutes of the half to keep Japan at bay, confidently grabbing a twenty-five yarder from Osawa beneath her crossbar before saving at the
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feet of the same player as Japanese substitute Misaki Morita angled a pass through for the striker to latch onto.
It wasn't entirely one-way traffic, however. Rennie worked a one-two with Abbott in the 66th minute before storming into the penalty area, shrugging off Shino Matsuda's challenge en route. Rennie finally let fly, only to see Ohba save at her near post.
After Mittendorff's timely challenge on the edge of the area denied substitute Chiina Kamiya in the act of shooting with her first touch, Brown lashed a snapshot over the bar after Hahn, Van der Meer and Abbott had linked up on the left.
This was the cue for Japan to step up the pressure to an even greater extent, so much so that Ohba was often the only player in their half of the pitch during the last twenty minutes of play.
The New Zealand players were clearly tiring - had extra time been on the cards, there's no way they could have collectively held Japan at bay. But in this competition, parity at the full-time whistle in the knockout stages means a penalty shoot-out, and if they could just see their way through the remaining minutes, their destiny was theirs to control again.
Japan had no such intentions, however. They wanted to win this badly before the ninety minutes had elapsed, and they threw all they had at the Young Ferns in a bid to realise their target.
But with Wisnewski bravely blocking an Osawa attempt after substitutes Sara Ito and Kamiya had combined on the right, and Brown tracking back to her own goal-line to thwart a late raid, there was no way through for the Japanese down their right, New Zealand's left.
So they tried from other angles - again, the same outcome. Leat grabbed an angled ball in off the toes of Kamiya, then looked on as Mittendorff and Mackay-Wright dealt with everything flung into the middle, right up until stoppage time, when the Kiwi captain stepped in to thwart Kamiya once more.
This time, her clearance fell invitingly for Nakao to let fly, and from eighteen yards, her half-volley arrowed goalwards. But flying to her right was Leat to execute a save which ensured that New Zealand's destiny was back in their hands once more - the dreaded penalty shoot-out their reward for holding Japan to a 1-1 draw.
The Asian contenders opted to shoot first, but instantly regretted their decision as Leat saved brilliantly, low to her right, to keep out Matsuda's well-struck effort. Hahn sent Ohba the wrong way in response - 1-0 New Zealand again.
Kinoshita and Wisnewski exchanged spot kicks before the shoot-out swung very firmly New Zealand's way as Tomioka missed the target completely. Brown fully capitalised - just - on that miss, and at 3-1, a semi-final berth was tantalisingly close for the Young Ferns.
3-2, Kamiya sent Leat the wrong way from twelve yards. And the score remained thus as substitute Jayda Stewart spurned the chance to clinch the tie for the Kiwis, firing over the bar when hitting the target meant victory.
A lifeline for Japan, one Warai Yoshizumi grabbed with both hands, although her penalty only just found its way beyond the diving figure of Leat, who swiftly got to her feet and grabbed the ball - she was next up on centre stage, the destiny of this quarter-final at the goalkeeper's feet, rather than in her hands, for once.
This presented Ohba with a huge dilemma. For one of the unwritten rules of the goalkeeper's union is that when faced by a fellow number one in a penalty shoot-out, you let them score - after all, you don't want to make one of your fellow goalkeepers look stupid!
But abiding by said rule in this case would mean elimination for Ohba and Japan, and progress for the Kiwis … Leat put her fellow number one out of her misery, burying the ball in the bottom corner before turning to be almost instantly buried beneath the entire Young Ferns squad, whose celebrations at winning 4-3 on penalties lasted well into the night.
Spain stands between Leon Birnie's squad and a place in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Final on Thursday morning, NZ time. For this writer, that match will be the realisation of a Kiwi footballing dream which has been harboured for over thirty years - to see a New Zealand women's football team contest the final stages of a FIFA tournament.
In the very first year of my involvement in the women's game, 1987, New Zealand finished in a three-way tie for second at the tri-annual Women's Invitational Tournament in Taiwan, an event which, at the time, was effectively women's football's world championship - FIFA didn't introduce the Women's World Cup for another four years.
We've never again scaled such heights in the women's game at senior level. And since the introduction of the two age-grade FIFA Women's World Cups, we've made just one quarter-final appearance - against Nigeria in the U-20s event in 2014.
Until now. And thanks to the 2018 Young Ferns' exploits, now we're in nosebleed territory. In age-grade footballing terms, this is the equivalent of striving to reach the summit of K2 - Everest is the preserve of the senior team.
Whatever this group of players achieves now, against Spain in their semi-final and against Canada or Mexico in their final game in Uruguay, is a bonus. What they've done to date far exceeds the realistic hopes and expectations of every single football follower in New Zealand.
They've fulfilled dreams. Not many teams get to do that. GO YOU GOOD FERNS!
Japan: Ohba; Okuma, Tomioka, Matsuda, Yoshizumi; Takizawa (Ito, 79), Nishino (Morita, 60), Kinoshita, Nakao; Osawa, Yamamoto (Kamiya, 67)
Young Ferns: Leat; Barry, Mackay-Wright, Mittendorff (booked, 34), Van der Meer; Fraser (Hahn, 51), Abbott, Wisnewski; Rennie (Cunningham-Lee, 84), Jenkins (Stewart, 90), Brown
Referee: Ekaterina Koroleva (USA)
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