New Zealand celebrate their win against Vietnam in July. Photo credit: FIFA WWC via Twitter.
The New Zealand Ferns have beaten Vietnam 2-0, in a pre world cup friendly at McLean Park, Napier. On a chilly night in Napier, with a crowd of around 6500, they were treated to a quality game of football. There was good support in the crowd for both sides, giving the players plenty of support. This was the Ferns first ever game in Napier, and can tick a win off at the venue now! Captain for the day, Ria Percival was back from an ACL injury, her first game in 454 days for the Kiwis.
New Zealand had lots of early possession, and started the game off well, spending the majority of the first 10 minutes in Vietnam’s half. Jaquci Hand had the first opportunity of the game for New Zealand, but her shot was well saved by Thi Kim Thanh, resulting in a corner. The kiwi’s couldn’t gain anything from this chance, but gained another opportunity a few minutes later, when Betsy Hassett sent a shot just wide of the post. It could easily be shown that New Zealand had the upper hand, but just weren’t able to find the back of the net.
New Zealand kept the ball near the Vietnam box, and gained another corner. The cross from this corner was saved by a Vietnam defender, which once again earned New Zealand another corner. This time, something different was tried, as the ball was passed from Percival back to CJ Bott, who was outside the box. Bott took a low shot into the left hand corner and it went in, via a slight deflection from Thanh. New Zealand 1-0 after 18 minutes.
🇳🇿 Get in! @cjbottnz with the opener 💥#NZLvVNM #WhānauFerns pic.twitter.com/DihF0gcjCs
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) July 10, 2023
New Zealand kept gaining more and more chances throughout the half, with Hand gaining a foul just outside the Vietnam box, but New Zealand couldn’t capitalise from this chance. For Vietnam they finally had their first real opportunity of the game after 33 minutes, taking their first shot on target. Katie Bowen however showed some staunch defence and stood up to block the ball. 35 minutes into the game and Vietnam had only one shot, to New Zealand’s nine.
Not long after Vietnam’s first chance, New Zealand were able to get the ball back down the other end, and Indiah-Paige Riley had her first shot of the day following some great passing from the Kiwis, but Thanh stood up to the task and saved it.
With just a minute to go in the half, Hand scored for the Kiwi’s to give them a 2-0 lead. The goal came from some great work by the New Zealanders, Riley had passed the ball across the goal, which left Thanh having a situation where there could have been a shot from Riley or a pass to the unmarked Hand behind her. Unfortunately for her she was left in two minds and missed the pass across to Hand who tapped into the goal and gave New Zealand a 2-0 lead.
📸 What a moment for Jacqui Hand. pic.twitter.com/uKY5dj2wQB
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) July 10, 2023
With the game now into the added time for the first half, New Zealand were hot on attack with Hand nearly scoring again from a corner this time. The ball was passed from Bowen across the goal to Hand, but she couldn’t quite get into the back of the net. 2-0 to New Zealand at half time.
Starting the second half, 2-0 down, Vietnam were going to need something special to get back into the game and find their first of the day. They did get a few close chances, Bott was on fire in defence. She stopped a lot of the Vietnam chances and made sure that there was not much work for Victoria Esson to do in goal. No side had any major opportunities throughout the second half, with some good defence work being shown. With New Zealand having a comfortable lead, coach Jitka Klimková decided to ring the changes. Olivia Chance, Annalie Longo, Michaela Foster and Claudia Bunge were all introduced into the game with around 20 minutes to play. They came on for Hannah Wilkinson, Percival, Ali Riley, Rebekah Stott. Klimková also brought Millie Clegg and Gabi Rennie on for Indiah-Paige Riley and Hand.
With time running out in the game, both sides didn’t have many chances or shots on goal. Ball possession was more even in the second half compared to the first half, but New Zealand still held the upper hand having around 60% of the possession. Vietnam were showing a better set of defence throughout the half, not giving too many chances to the Kiwi’s.
The game finished 2-0 giving the New Zealand Ferns a good boost heading into a home world cup, starting in 9 days vs Norway at Eden Park, Auckland.
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