New Zealand’s Junior Ferns returned home from their whirlwind three-match US tour much the better for an experience which saw them come from behind to win their opening game before suffering two chastening defeats, the second of them at the hands of a country they could yet face at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Finals in Japan. Coach Aaron McFarland named a nineteen-strong squad for the tour, with US-based Emily Cooper, a survivor from the Germany 2010 campaign, being afforded the chance to stake her claim for a spot at Japan 2012. Lanky striker Mary Fraser, of Football South fame, was also in the mix on this trip, as was Rebekah Stott, a Papamoa native who headed west when aged eleven and was a member of the Australian starting line-up throughout the Young Matildas’ unsuccessful bid to qualify for Japan 2012 via the Asian U-19 Championships in Ho Chi Minh City last October. Stott’s dual nationality may earn her the last laugh on that score, with her clearance to play for New Zealand on this tour coming through from FIFA a matter of days before the squad departed for their home away from home throughout the week, the Home Centre Depot in Carson, California. Georgia Brown, Kate Carlton, Lucy Carter and injury-hit captain Rosie White - she’s currently sidelined by a stress fracture in her foot - were those who made way for the newcomers, with the Junior Ferns’ first match, on May 15, seeing them come up against the LA Strikers, who play in the Western Division of the W-League competition. The locals scored early in both halves of the match, but in between those goals, Olivia Chance levelled matters with an unerring eighteen yarder before earning the penalty from which Kate Loye fired her country ahead on the half-hour. With LA back on parity soon after half-time, the pressure was on the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finalists to retake the lead once more, and eighteen minutes from time substitute Steph Skilton obliged, stabbing home to clinch a 3-2 win. Details: LA Strikers 2, Junior Ferns 3 (O. Chance (19), K.

Loye (29 pen), S. Skilton (72)) HT 1-2 Junior Ferns: Nayler; Patterson (Skilton, 50), Smallfield, Stott, Ward (Head, 81); Bowen, Cooper, Loye (Pearl, 46); Wilkinson (Fraser, 70), Millynn (Rood, 50), Chance A far sterner test of the Junior Ferns’ credentials lay in wait two days later, in the form of Ali Riley’s old team, Pali Blues, the W-League champions in 2008 and 2009. As in their first game, the Junior Ferns conceded early goals in each half, Ann Tangorra netting the first of them in the eighth minute. Elizabeth Eddy extended Pali Blues’ advantage three minutes into the second spell, and when Anisa Guajardo struck in the 54th minute, the game was up for the young New Zealand team, who ensured every member of the squad enjoyed some game-time in this 3-0 loss. Details: Pali Blues 3 (A. Tangorra (8), E. Eddy (48), A. Guajardo (54)), Junior Ferns 0 HT 1-0 Junior Ferns: Nayler (Brown, 46); Patterson (Bowen, 57), Berger (Ward, 85), Stott (Smallfield, 46), Head; Millynn (Chance, 39), Pearl, Loye (Cooper, 68); Wilkinson (Fraser, 46), Skilton, Rood (O’Brien, 63) So to the final game of the tour, its only cap-earning fixture, a May 19 clash against the USA U-20 Women’s squad, who qualified for the finals in March as CONCACAF champions. The American squad featured three players who represented their country at the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Finals in New Zealand in 2008. And while Morgan Brian and Sam Mewis played a half each in this encounter, Crystal Dunn played the entire match, and was instrumental in setting up the game’s opening goal after fourteen minutes, picking out Lindsay Horan with a far post cross. She headed the ball back across Erin Nayler and into a net which was to stop the ball again four minutes later, as the USA doubled their lead. Mollie Pathman played in Kealia Ohai, who cut inside two defenders before driving the ball home - 2-0.

Ten minutes before half-time, Katie Stengel’s unerring first-time finish rewarded Vanessa DiBernardo’s precise through ball, while the same player scored the USA’s fourth goal two minutes after half-time, Stengel beating Nayler at her near post with a rising drive after latching onto a pass from Horan. That goal sparked New Zealand’s best spell of the game, and they enjoyed the better of the exchanges throughout the second half, but failed to finish off their opportunities, something one can ill afford not to do when facing a country which will head to Japan as one of the favourites. Their final goal came four minutes from time, DiBernardo setting up substitute Chioma Ubogagu, who cut in off the left and held off her opponent before wrapping up the USA’s 5-0 win in style over a New Zealand side which joins China, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Canada and Mexico, amongst others, in having been beaten by Steve Sampson’s side en route to Japan. Details: USA 5 (L. Horan (14), K. Ohai (18), K. Stengel (35, 47), C. Ubogagu (86)), Junior Ferns 0 HT 3-0 USA: Heaberli (Smith, 46); Dunn, Johnston, Kallman (Roccaro, 46), Pathman (Amack, 66); Killion, Brian (Mewis, 46), di Bernardo; Horan, Stengel (Ubogagu, 57), Ohai (Hayes, 57) Junior Ferns: Nayler; Patterson, Smallfield, Stott, Ward; Bowen, Pearl (Rood, 59), Loye; Wilkinson (Skilton, 79), Millynn, Chance (Fraser, 77) Attention now turns to the June 4 draw in Tokyo, where the Junior Ferns will discover which three teams they will face in the group phase of the finals, which take place between August 19 and September 8 in Japan. The other finalists are Argentina and Brazil (South America), Canada, Mexico and the USA (CONCACAF), Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland (Europe), China, Korea Republic, North Korea and hosts Japan (Asia), and Ghana and Nigeria, who confirmed themselves as Africa’s representatives by completing comfortable two-legged qualifying wins last weekend.