Soccer: Defiant Ferns look to future

The Football Ferns want to go from the "nearly team" to a winning team after they were ousted from the Women's World Cup yesterday.

John Herdman's side went to Germany with hopes of qualifying for the second round but yesterday's 2-1 defeat to England, on top of a 2-1 defeat to a slick Japan side four days previously, means they have no chance of progressing despite a game against Mexico still to play.

The Ferns opened the scoring in the 18th minute through striker Sarah Gregorious and led the world's 10th-ranked side for 62 minutes before Jill Scott and Jessica Clarke clawed goals back for England.

It was little consolation for Herdman and his players - even a draw would have given them a fighting chance to progress.

"It's satisfying to see the players perform the way they did against these top-10 sides," Herdman said. "But there's frustration that we are still the nearly team. We were 1-1 with Japan for a long time in that match and led England 1-0 for an hour. At some point we have to turn that corner and pick up results."

New Zealand are still chasing their first point at a Women's World Cup in their third tournament and have set an ambitious target of securing all three points against Mexico on Wednesday morning.

"We are still striving to be the first [New Zealand] team to win at a senior World Cup and we have to see the Mexico game as an opportunity," Herdman said.

The Ferns had been building for four years for this tournament. While it's still a young side, with an average age of 23, it's also an experienced one and they will soon target next year's Olympic Games to make a statement.

The reality is, however, they need more professional players in the top three leagues in the world - US, Germany and Sweden - to take the next step.

The women's game is developing quickly and, while New Zealand have made huge strides over the past four years since Australia moved into Asia, the Ferns need to keep pace.

At present four of Herdman's squad are professionals - Ali Riley (US), Rebecca Smith (Germany), Kirsty Yallop (Sweden) and Hayley Moorwood (England) - but they are coming up against sides littered with professionals.

Others like Abby Erceg, Betsy Hassett, Katie Hoyle and Amber Hearn will be hopeful of having impressed club scouts during the World Cup.

"We are so close to being at that next level," Herdman said. "We need to keep building experience so we can bring on players off the bench who can make an impact - like England did.

"There's a quality difference there and we have to get 100 per cent out of our players to get close to the top teams. What we showed is we're not far off."