The Futsal Ferns may have fallen to a second straight defeat of their China tour but can be pleased with their efforts nonetheless after competing well against one of the best teams in Asia.

After opening the three-match series with an 8-3 loss to the hosts, coach Nic Downes was hoping for a lift in his players’ performance levels against Thailand, who placed third at last year’s AFC Women’s Futsal Championship and were expected to be the toughest opponents faced by New Zealand.

Thailand proved just why they are rated so highly with a 4-1 win but Downes was satisfied with his side’s showing in Chengdu.

“It was another challenging fixture for us tonight,” he said.

“It’s always disappointing to come off the court on the losing end of a game and, while we didn’t probably achieve everything that we would have liked to, there were a number of aspects to the performance that we can be happy with and take forward into the next game.”

The Futsal Ferns had found the net three times against China and again got on the scoresheet, Jess Verdon striking her second goal of the series.

But defensive frailties had cost them dearly in that opening loss and Downes was pleased to see an improvement in this area.

“We made a few defensive errors against China which resulted in probably a few more goals than we would have liked to have conceded. So we spent a bit of time reflecting on that performance and really looking at some of the things that we wanted to do better,” he said.  

“I think we put a much better performance in. The defence was more coordinated and there was better communication ownership. We’re happy enough with what we’ve done but obviously at the same time there are still things that we need to go back and look at before we take to the court again.”
 

The Futsal Ferns squad on the court before playing Thailand

Thailand dominated much of the possession and Downes wants to see that change against Kuwait, whom New Zealand take on in their last match of the series on Tuesday evening.

“They were very good with the ball and retained it for long spells,” he admitted.

“While we were better organised and limited the chances against us, we did find it difficult to win the ball back. So that will be an aspect that we’ll be reviewing and looking at,” he added.

“We also struggled with the intensity of the pressure that Thailand put on us when we had the ball. So we also need to look at some solutions for that, especially against Kuwait who we would like to have more of the ball against and hopefully create more chances. We probably created a little bit less of those tonight against Thailand than we did against China the previous night.”

Downes said there were strong performances across the whole court but did reserve special praise for goal scorer Verdon.

“It was a big team effort and everyone really came together to do the best we could. But we did have another very good performance from Jess, she’s had two consistent performances now on this tour and scored in both games. She’s been very important when we don’t have the ball and has also contributed to the game when we do have it.”

The squad now gets the reward of a rest day before taking on Kuwait.

“We’ll definitely be looking to finish the tour on a positive note and are looking for that winning performance,” Downes said.

Match Details

New Zealand 1 (Jess Verdon)
Thailand 4

New Zealand vs Kuwait
Tuesday 10 September, 4.30pm (8.30pm NZT)

Article added: Monday 09 September 2019