Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimková. Photo / Photosport
Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimková. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
As dark clouds continue to swirl around the Football Ferns’ dreadful build-up to their home World Cup, there has at least been one silver lining to cling onto.
The emergence of Michaela Foster as not only a World Cup bolter, but now a likely starter for the opening gameagainst Norway on July 20 is one of the few bright spots to emerge from what has been a truly sub-optimal run-in towards the biggest football tournament ever to hit our shores.
Foster - known to almost everyone as “Mickey” - has had a meteoric recent rise. After a standout 2022 with the Northern Rovers club, she was signed on a scholarship contract at the Wellington Phoenix just a month before the start of the A-League Women’s season. She went on to become an integral member of the side, starting every single one of their 18 games and seamlessly making the jump from amateur to professional.
One of the most eye-catching features of Foster’s game is her ability to strike the ball equally well with both feet, particularly in set-piece situations. She takes in-swinging corners and free-kicks from both sides of the field with identical effectiveness. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t really be able to tell which her supposedly weaker foot was. She often jokes that dad (and All Blacks coach) Ian claims responsibility for encouraging her to work on both.
Her adaptability is also a huge strength. Foster spent most of last season playing in an attacking midfield role for Northern Rovers, but it was a hole at left back that Phoenix coach Natalie Lawrence needed plugged and it was Foster she turned to. In a relatively unfamiliar position, she hardly missed a beat, so much so that national coach Jitka Klimková ushered her into the squad for home matches against Argentina earlier in the year, where she debuted off the bench.
Football Ferns head coach Jitka Klimková talks to Michaela Foster during the side's match against Argentina at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on February 20. Photo / Photosport
In the most recent outings against Iceland and Nigeria, Foster was the starting left back with captain Ali Riley - who’d played most of her 150 games for New Zealand in that role - shifting to the right. Foster was also immediately put in charge of set-pieces and while there were stern questions asked of her defensively by opposition attackers, she coped well for the most part. It needs to be remembered that left-back is far from her natural position and yet she acquitted herself admirably, so much so that Riley is now in a battle for the right-back spot with the soon-to-return CJ Bott.
It may be that Foster’s true potential isn’t fully realised until after this World Cup when she’ll likely get an opportunity - for both club and country - to revert to her favoured midfield role. But even in the present day, she can no longer be considered a World Cup wildcard; her position in the 23-strong squad to be announced in the coming weeks is assured. The Foster family now has two World Cups to look forward to and in the years ahead, Ian may well become referred to as “Mickey’s dad” rather than she being “Fozzie’s daughter”.
