Zambia brought the Young Ferns' FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup hopes to an emphatic conclusion at the Football Academy Mohammed VI in Sale on October 25, prevailing 4-0 in a winner-take-all encounter - the victors were guaranteed a spot in the last sixteen of the competition. The African team hit the ground running, Grace Phiri racing down the left before forcing a near post save from Harriet Muller just 38 seconds after the game had commenced. It was a hint of what was to follow, with Zambia amassing over thirty shots at New Zealand's goal over the course of the match. Their next noteworthy effort was a cross from Sharon Siakaloba which reared up in front of Muller, forcing her to tip the ball onto the roof of the net. The Young Ferns cleared this, and sent Katie Pugh racing away in hot pursuit, the striker eventually cutting inside before letting fly from twenty-five yards in the ninth minute. Mary Nyangu, Zambia's goalkeeper, produced a solid save, one of very few occasions in which her goal came under threat. The next such scare materialised three minutes later, Pia Vlok lashing a shot over the bar after linking up with Pugh, who had the ball in the net in the thirteenth minute, only to have strayed offside as Heidi Draai and Charley March combined to unhinge the Zambian defence. Sadly for Alana Gunn's team, this was pretty much the last time they would threaten Zambia's goal in the contest, the only other instance coming on the half-hour when Holly Robins just failed to get on the end of Grace Duncan's corner. It was pretty much one-way traffic otherwise, with Muller's goal frequently threatened by the "Young Copper Queens". The goalkeeper denied captain Mercy Chipasula in the 21st minute, but was powerless to prevent Victoria Mbali from hammering home the opening goal twelve minutes later, her fifteen yard drive arising after Lane Ririnui's headed clearance landed at her feet. Three times in the next ten minutes, Chipasula threatened to double that lead, while Natasha Nkaka also drew a save from Muller during this period of Zambian domination, which was crowned in the shadows of the half-time whistle. Nkaka threw the ball in to Mbali, who laid the ball back to her captain. Chipasula held off Robins' challenge before fair battering the ball over the head of Muller, the sphere crashing into the net off the underside of the crossbar - 2-0, a strike which effectively ended any hopes the Young Ferns held of securing a by now unlikely victory. Chipasula drew another save from Muller before the interval, while soon after it, Mbali steered a shot narrowly past the post after latching onto a clearance, while the goalkeeper was forced into a hurried clearance to prevent Phiri from latching

onto a through ball from the outstanding Taonga Mubanga, who was orchestrating proceedings from her deep-lying midfield position. A third Zambian goal seemed almost inevitable, and only the crossbar denied them that pleasure in the 65th minute, when Mbali's dipping twenty-yarder left Muller flailing in vain after Chipasula had set up her team-mate. Four minutes later, it was 3-0. Mikaela Bangalan's surging run out of defence was stopped dead by Nkaka's perfectly timed tackle. She promptly played in freshly introduced substitute Masela Sekeseke, who swept home past Muller from ten yards before earning herself a yellow card for her goal celebration. Robins' vital tackle prevented Phiri from making it four in the 79th minute, but within seconds, the striker had got her goal. Chipasula delivered a corner which saw Sekeseke's header cleared off the line by Ariana Vosper. Nkaka hoisted it back into the danger zone, and Phiri was the beneficiary, engineering space to lash a twenty-yarder which crashed off the underside of the bar before ricocheting into the net off Muller, who was credited with an own goal - a tough break for the 'keeper, but a reflection of the way things have gone for the Young Ferns in this tournament. Fortune hasn't favoured them anywhere along the way. On this occasion they came up against opponents whose natural fitness, allied to their speed and movement, simply proved too much for the Young Ferns to handle. Only the crossbar prevented Chipasula from bagging another one from distance in stoppage time, but New Zealand's fate had long since been decided - homeward bound at the conclusion of group stage action at another World Cup yet again. If nothing else, one thing is clear - we need to change what we're doing, or, more correctly, how we're doing what we're doing with the resources available to us, if we intend to be more competitive at these events going forward, i.e. not just making up the numbers, but realising our ambitions of consistently qualifying for the knockout phases. Suffice to say, from nigh on four decades of involvement in NZ women's football, I've a few ideas in this regard … Zambia:     Nyangu; Hanongo, Malanda, Mwape, Kaunda; Siakaloba (Sekeseke, 64 (booked, 70)), Mubanga, Nkaka (Kaliya, 83); Phiri, Mbali, Chipasula Young Ferns:     Muller; Draai (Vosper, 53), Ririnui, Robins, March; O'Neill (Young, 75), Bangalan, Vlok; Duncan (Vujnovich, 53), Pugh (Candy, 53), Bennett (Solomon, 65) Referee:     Paula Fernandez (Colombia)