Football: We can beat world's best teams - coach

Striker Emma Kete returns to the squad with 48 international caps to her name and after playing professionally overseas. Photo / Getty Images

Consistency is all the Football Ferns need to go far in World Cup

The Football Ferns are on the cusp of being good enough to win a World Cup.

That's the calculated opinion of coach Tony Readings, who yesterday named a settled squad to tackle the best in the world at the Women's World Cup in Canada early next month.

The Ferns leave for an intensive three-week build-up camp on Tuesday before they face the Netherlands, hosts Canada and China in the group stages, and Readings said anything short of progressing to the round of 16 would be disappointing.

"We know we're good enough to get through the group stage, we know we can beat the best teams in the world, we've drawn against America, Japan and Brazil, so we know we're right there, we just need to do that consistently," said Readings.

The 39-year old Englishman took over from John Herdman after the Ferns went winless at the 2011 World Cup and led New Zealand to the quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympics where they were knocked out by tournament winners USA.

"When we did well at the Olympics, that unlocked a bit more funding for us from High Performance New Zealand and that enabled us to put a programme together where we could surround the team with a lot more quality support, fulltime staff, a lot more games and the ability to develop a new style of play," said Readings.

"Since we got this increased funding, it's actually made it a lot more possible for us to realise our potential. Our goal has always been to be a team that's capable of winning a World Cup when we get there and we're right on the cusp.

"The difference between taking a team from on the cusp to being good enough to win is picking and choosing when to play longer, when to fight and when to keep the ball, and then successfully implementing them at the right time."

The Ferns are ranked 17th in the world and this year have drawn against Spain (ranked 14th), Denmark (15th), North Korea (8th) but most recently lost 4-0 to USA (2nd) in front of 35,000 fans in St Louis.

Readings' 23-player squad is led by 25-year-old captain Abby Erceg and the team includes 12 players with more than 50 international caps. Only goalkeeper Cushla Lichtwark - a former netballer with the Central Pulse - has yet to play at senior international level.

The squad has a settled look with fullback Anna Green - returning from injury in recent times - and striker Emma Kete freshening up the group.

Kete, who returns to the squad with 48 international caps to her name and having played professionally for the likes of Manchester City, Western New York Flash and Sydney FC, earned her place after impressing in the fulltime training programme with the team in New Zealand.

The Ferns have a warm-up match in Japan first then head to Canada to acclimatise for the tournament.

"It's going to be a bit of a luxury having so much time to work with the team. We've had four tours this year and we'd be lucky if we had 10 training sessions with the whole team there. Two weeks is still not a whole lot of time, but for us it is."

Group A schedule

Football Ferns v Netherlands

Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada, Saturday, June 6, 7pm (Sunday June 7, 1pm NZ time).

Football Ferns v Canada
Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada
Thursday, June 11, 7pm (Friday June 12, 1pm NZ time).

Football Ferns v China
Winnipeg Stadium, Winnipeg, Canada, Monday, June 15, 6.30pm (Tuesday June 16, 11.30am NZ time).

Football Ferns

Fifa Women's World Cup 2015:

Goalkeepers:

Cushla Lichtwark, Erin Nayler, Rebecca Rolls.

Defenders:

Catherine Bott, Abby Erceg, Anna Green, Meikayla Moore, Ria Percival, Ali Riley, Rebekah Stott. Midfielders: Katie Bowen, Daisy Cleverley, Katie Duncan, Betsy Hassett, Annalie Longo, Evie Millynn, Kirsty Yallop.

Forwards:

Sarah Gregorius, Amber Hearn, Emma Kete, Jasmine Pereira, Rosie White, Hannah Wilkinson.