Soccer: Junior Ferns targeting more history

New Zealand U-20 women's football captain Rosie White says her team are aiming to emulate the senior side with a bit of history-making at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Photo / Getty Images.

New Zealand U-20 women's football captain Rosie White says her team are aiming to emulate the senior side with a bit of history-making at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup which begins in Japan on Sunday.

The Junior Football Ferns take on Switzerland in Miyagi in the opening match of Group A which also contains Mexico and hosts Japan.

Following the Football Ferns' quarterfinal appearance at the Olympic Games, a campaign of which White was a part along with fellow striker Hannah Wilkinson, White says the U-20s want to match the senior side - and the U-17 men's team of 2009 and 2011 - by at least progressing out of their group, which would be the first for a Kiwi age-group women's side.

"Getting a little taste of winning and success has made my expectations for this team a lot higher," said White, "and I definitely want this team to create some more history because we're capable of doing that."

The 19 year old is competing in her third U-20 world cup, and is one of a handful of players globally to have also competed in an Olympic Games, U-17 Women's World Cup and senior Women's World Cup. With that experience behind her, she says adopting the same confidence and fearlessness that the Football Ferns took to London will be a key to succeeding.

"We've talked about it as a team and while it may not be as easy to come to terms with since we haven't been together very long it's important to have that belief. We're striving to get to a point where we genuinely believe we can do something special in each of our games."

Three teammates of White and Wilkinson - Katie Bowen, Holly Patterson and Erin Nayler - were also at the Olympics as alternate athletes. In addition, defender Bridgette Armstrong and winger Olivia Chance have both played for New Zealand at senior level.

Junior Football Ferns coach Aaron McFarland says that cross over can be a double edged sword with preparation gathering pace in earnest with two recent warm up games in Japan.

"From a national perspective it's great that we have those players pushing for selection to the national side but with the timing of the competitions I guess it's not ideal for us," McFarland said.

"That said, we're making the most of what we've got and we're pleased to have had these four or five days together in Japan.

"Rosie and Hannah have been particularly impressive. It might have been easy for them to come back from an Olympic team that has done well by reaching uncharted territory to think your job is done. But they have shown a great attitude, real leadership, and it's especially noticeable off the field.

"But this group has got a lot of World Cup experience and we're going to rely on that a lot. The best thing about that is the players don't have any fear in terms of trying to keep the ball and looking for good ways to move the ball forward instead of being afraid to play."

The Junior Football Ferns beat Kanagawa University 2-1 on Sunday afternoon thanks to goals from Wilkinson and Rebecca Burrows while on Tuesday the side went down 3-1 to 12 time Japanese champions NTV Beleza with White scoring New Zealand's goal.

McFarland says experience playing in the 35 degree heat of the first game will provide invaluable conditioning while the pace and skill displayed by Beleza in the second match will help to raise the Junior Ferns' own game ahead of a Swiss game New Zealand are targeting for a winning start to the tournament.

"Beleza were top class as you would expect from one of Japan's most successful club sides. They gave us a torrid time to be fair and we were able to test our defensive systems and to score from a set piece was a nice bonus.

We didn't see much of the ball but we looked good when we had it and we took a lot of positives. I like having that sort of tough test before your first game as there is no way the opposition can play at that pace.

"Our first aspiration is to win that first game and that will be the springboard to achieving the next aim of getting through of the group. We're not shying away from wanting to at least get out of the group and we believe we have the fire power to do it."

New Zealand's match against Switzerland kicks off at 7.20pm on Sunday (NZT) with live coverage on Sky Sport 3.