Preview: Football Ferns v Brazil

Tony Readings and the Football Ferns begin to bring the curtain down an important year in Sao Paulo on Sunday morning as the New Zealand side face off against Brazil at the Estádio do Pacaembu.

After a heart-breaking exit from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in June at the group stage, coach Readings and his side have been working hard since June to continue the forward momentum of a New Zealand team now ranked at 16th in the world.

Readings says the preparations for seventh-ranked Brazil this week in the footballing hot-bed of Sao Paulo has been a quick study for everyone with the group coming together again from all over the world.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind last four days for us,” Readings said.

“We haven’t been together as a squad for six months since the World Cup. It’s a time we’re getting back as a group, uniting together and tactically preparing for playing one of the best teams in the world away from home.”

Readings says the week has been focussed and the squad have a clear understanding of how they will go about the challenge of claiming the team’s first win over Brazil on their own soil.

“We’ve covered the main things we need to cover and we know we’ve got a really good group of players here that have shown time and time again they can perform against these teams. It’s just giving them a few of the main pointers but then letting them go for it on the pitch because it’s a really experienced group we’ve got now.”

Readings says the download of the team’s effort in Canada earlier this year has provided clear direction with a lot of positives coming from their experience.

“We’ve done an extensive review of the World Cup and that showed us this team is still progressing.

“We’re defending well, we’re renowned as being one of the top teams around for the way we defend. Then we looked at our own possession work and there are so many improvements there. The amount of possession we have and the amount of time we live in the opposition half.

“Now it’s a matter of saying we’ve got this possession, we’ve got this territory but we still need to be a team which can create more goal scoring opportunities and when we do create them, we’ve got to be better at taking them.”

Asked for what he would like tomorrow’s clash to look like for New Zealand fans watching the match LIVE on SKY Sport, Readings again pointed back to Canada with the targeted focus on the end product in the final third.

“As a group we’d like to see very similar things from the World Cup,” Readings said.

“[We are] a team that can defend really cohesively, a team that can individually defend and put their body on the line. From an in possession perspective; controlling the game and when we do get into those more advanced areas being a little bit more positive and having more cutting edge.

“That’s what we’d like everyone to be saying and the biggest thing we’d like to be talking about is what a good win it was because that’s obviously a goal we’re striving for too.

“It’s not going to be easy to play against a team like Brazil in their back yard. For us this is the start of a nine-month journey towards the Olympics and if we can take some steps forward over these next two games then that’s great for us.”

New Football Ferns squad members Kate Loye, Amber Phillips and 16-year-old Grace Jale are in line to make their first senior appearances for their country in what is the fourth match against Brazil in three years.

The Football Ferns recorded their first win over Brazil at the Valais Cup in Switzerland in 2013 before 1-1 and 0-0 draws in New Zealand last year. The other recent match-up was a 1-0 defeat to the South Americans at the 2012 London Olympics.

Watch the Football Ferns in action against Brazil LIVE on SKY Sport on Sunday 29 November at 6.30am (NZ time).

Football Ferns v Brazil
Saturday 28 November, 3.30pm (Sunday 29 November, 6.30am – NZ time)
Estádio do Pacaembu
Sao Paulo, Brazil
LIVE on SKY Sport

New Zealand (from): 1. Erin Nayler (GK), 2. Ria Percival, 3. Anna Green, 4. Katie Duncan, 5. Abby Erceg (capt), 6. Rebekah Stott, 7. Ali Riley, 8. Jasmine Pereira, 9. Amber Hearn, 10. Sarah Gregorius, 11. Kirsty Yallop, 12. Betsy Hassett, 13. Rosie White, 16. Annalie Longo, 18. CJ Bott, 22. Stephanie Skilton, 23. Cushla Lichtwark (GK), 24. Kate Loye, 25. Aimee Phillips, 26. Grace Jale
Coach: Tony Readings