Soccer: Ferns success a numbers game

New Zealand Football Ferns player Rebecca Smith. Photo / Doug Sherring

There is a good blend of youth and experience in the Football Ferns but the two are not mutually exclusive.

New Zealand kick off their World Cup campaign against Japan in Bochum, Germany, on Tuesday morning (NZT) and will take a relatively young but experienced side into the match. The average age of the 21-woman squad is 23 - 37-year-old goalkeeper Jenny Bindon bumps that up - and the average number of A internationals is a healthy 34.

There are five teenagers in John Herdman's squad but some, like 19-year-old Annalie Longo (29 caps) and 18-year-old Rosie White (26 caps), have plenty of experience. Longo has already been to a senior World Cup and played in four other youth World Cups, meaning she's played in more Fifa tournaments than any other New Zealander.

Defender Abbey Erceg is 21 but has already earned 59 caps, third-equal on the all-time list, while Ria Percival is the same age but just three caps behind. Five players have more than 50 caps and others, like the talented Ali Riley (49), Kirsty Yallop (49) and Katie Hoyle (48) are on the verge of that mark.

It is a reflection of where Herdman has come from; his previous post was coach of the side which competed at the 2006 Under-20 World Cup. It is also a sign of New Zealand's greater accent on women's football. Australia's move to Asia in 2006 presented a massive opportunity to the game in this country and it has seen unprecedented success. The Football Ferns played only three internationals in 2005 and 2006 but have played a staggering 58 since, including 10 this year.

Herdman is a stickler for detail. He conducted research soon after taking over to determine which teams were the most successful.

"The oldest team with the most caps was the magic formula," said Herdman, who is only 35 himself. "We started exposing players in 2007 who weren't ready for things like the World Cup that year but we had to think about the future. We have got one thing right and one thing wrong. Our team has a lot of caps but is still relatively young.

"But we didn't really have much choice with youth. When I took over, there was a paucity of players aged 23-35. The players I could select, it was going to be very difficult to change their habits. They had set up their lives and had jobs so couldn't make the sacrifice a young kid could make to the programme.

"These younger players are technically more proficient [than some of the older players] anyway because they have been exposed to the youth system and junior World Cups. Their chronological age might be 17 but they might have a football age of 24."

There's an expectation this will translate into success at this year's World Cup. The team have targeted progression to the second round as a minimum goal.

They are probably still about four years away from peaking as a group but they have a decent draw, having avoided heavyweights Germany, Brazil and the US, and take some reasonable form into the competition. They have been drawn with Japan, England and Mexico.

They are certainly more capable than the 2007 crop, which left China with defeats to Brazil 5-0, Denmark 2-0 and China 2-0.