It took New Zealand striker Kelli Brown less than a minute to make a statement by scoring her and her side’s opening goal at the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship against Samoa.

Following her blistering start, Brown carried on to amass a remarkable 11-goal haul in that same match before adding another four in her second outing against Tahiti to take her tally to 15 strikes from just two matches.

And despite being rested by coach Gemma Lewis for the Kiwis’ third group match against American Samoa, she remains firm favourite for the competition’s Golden Boot award.

Yet the humble New Zealand starlet keeps her feet firmly on the ground, playing down her prolific goal-scoring form by crediting her teammates instead.

“A lot of them are just follow ups, just following up on all the other girls’ work so I can’t claim all of them for sure, it’s a team effort and to be able to put them away for the team is awesome,” she says.

“It’s awesome to be out on the pitch and with such a great bunch of girls. To be able to experience playing for the fern and all that sort of thing, it’s an awesome feeling.”

Brown, who started to play football at the age of four, comes from a sporting family but not from one with a lot of round-ball experience.

“We’re more of a rugby or a touch family but it’s a sporting family so we love any type of sports,” she explains.

“I actually started playing as my aunty was the coach of my cousin’s team and she was like, ‘Oh, come down and have a kick around’. I was only four so I didn’t really know what was going on but from then I started playing for my local school and just carried on.”

Fast-forward to 2019 and Brown has her eyes fixed on helping New Zealand to another Oceania crown – and their ticket to next year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

“That’s the idea, obviously playing the football that we can to put a couple away would be awesome but first we just need to play our game and see what we can achieve,” she says.

And as far as the future goes, the 18-year old is hoping to play football at the top level and earn her stripes for her country.

“I’d love to become a professional, just playing football every day – that would be a dream come true. And to become a Football Fern, to get all the way to the top of our New Zealand team, would be an awesome feeling."

Brown and co will take on Vanuatu in the semi-finals of the OFC U-19 Women's Championship this afternoon. 

Match Details

Vanuatu vs New Zealand
Monday 9 September, 4pm (Tuesday 10 September, 2pm NZT)
CIFA Football Academy
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
To view the live streaming please click here

New Zealand: 1. Nadia Olla (GK), 2. Mackenzie Barry, 3. Hannah Mackay-Wright, 4. Aneka Mittendorff, 5. Marisa Van Der Meer, 6. Rose Morton, 7. Gabi Rennie, 8. Amelia Abbott, 9. Maggie Jenkins, 10. Grace Wisnewski, 11. Kelli Brown, 12. Alisha Perry (GK), 13. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll, 14. Arabella Maynard, 15. Dani Ward, 16. Lara Wall, 17. Tahlia Herman-Watt, 18. Rene Wasi, 19. Ava Collins
Coach: Gemma Lewis

Story courtesy of OFC Media

Article added: Tuesday 10 September 2019