New Zealand completed their under-20 women's World Cup soccer programme with a 1-4 loss to Brazil in Germany this morning.
New Zealand, trailing by three goals, pulled a gem of a goal back through striker Rosie White in the 89th minute. It was her seventh goal from three age-group World Cup appearances.
Brazil needed to beat New Zealand to advance to the next round while hoping for the result of the other group B match between Sweden and North Korea to go their way.
The Brazilians scored twice through Debora in the 87th and 90th minutes with Ludmila and Leah adding the others in the 25th and 59th minutes respectively.
"Brazil's man marking and sweeper will always make them tough to break down defensively, but when have you chase a game they're probably the team that can hurt you the most," New Zealand coach Tony Readings said.
"But I don't regret chasing the game because if we had left not having giving everything to get a win that would've been a bigger regret."
However, Brazil's efforts went unrewarded.
Sweden beat North Korea, who had already qualified, 3-2 in to top the group and will play Colombia in the knockout phase of the competition while North Korea booked a meeting with hosts Germany.
New Zealand fell out of contention to advance to the next round after 1-2 defeats earlier to both Sweden and North Korea in the toughest grouping of the competition.
"Getting out of the so called group of death was always going to be tough," Readings said.
"You only have to look at a team like Brazil, ranked third in the world at senior level and three times under-20 semifinalists, going home to see just how tough it was.
"We have lost to three of the best teams in the world but we feel we have the quality to have got something out of any of those games.
"We fell behind in each of the three games, after hitting the woodwork or creating half chances and the other teams seized the momentum."
SCORES:
Brazil 4 (Ludmila, Leah, Debora 2) New Zealand 1 (Rosie White). Halftime: 1-0.
Final group standings: Sweden 7 points, North Korea 6, Brazil 4, New Zealand 0,
- NZPA
Womens soccer: Under-20s fall to Brazil
NZ Under-20 striker Rosie White. Photo / Greg Bowker
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