The Football Ferns will enter a cauldron of 30,000 screaming fans when they take on the United States in an international friendly in St Louis on Sunday, but assistant coach Aaron McFarland says it's not something the New Zealand team cares about.
The Ferns are in the 'execution stage' of
their preparation for the World Cup in Canada in June which means their focus is on winning, gaining confidence and 'beating teams up.'
To achieve all three away from home against the United States, a side ranked second in the world, would require a herculean effort, but McFarland believes his side is up to the challenge.
It will be the biggest crowd the Ferns have played in front of since the 2012 Olympics, but McFarland is more interested in the mental approach of his players.
"Recently we have been creating lists of things we really care about, and things we don't, and crowds and opposition are things that we have to take into account but don't really care about," said McFarland. "We try to isolate them and just focus on things we can control."
One of those things is being smarter in front of goal, and winning the 'mental challenge' of goal scoring that can separate a team of winners from a team of battlers.
"We have a lot of players working in different areas of the world, and they all have individual development plans and for a lot of them, being more clinical in front of goal is a work-on," said McFarland.
"But also something we've been developing lately is a psychological approach to be more ruthless, and that means to throw your head in front of a defenders head to get to the ball first and be prepared to get hurt, because that's the reality of the best teams."
The 17th ranked Ferns are close to being a genuine threat at the World Cup. In their last five friendlies they have twice drawn with Spain (ranked 14th), lost 3-2 to Australia (10th), drawn 1-1 with North Korea (8th) and beaten Denmark 3-2 (15th).
But turning those close losses and draws into wins is the Ferns' major work-on and McFarland says creating a winning mentality is their key piece of business now.
"That's a psychological thing as well. Part of our approach is the players taking more responsibility on the field and being able to manage games. It's not just about technical and tactical but speeding games up and slowing them down, recognising what's happening and when to change things."
The Ferns have a full strength squad to choose from for their penultimate leg of their World Cup preparations.
The match will be played at Busch Stadium in St Louis - the home of the St Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball franchise - where over 30,000 tickets have already been sold. St Louis media have reported that at 31,000, it would be the largest crowd for a USA women's game in America since the 2003 World Cup.
United States v Football Ferns
Saturday 4 April, 3.18pm (Sunday 5 April, 7.18am NZ time)
Busch Stadium, St Louis
LIVE coverage on SKY Sport
