New Zealand women's national football team

I think, yeah, who knows? Two very even teams when it comes to Kate Sheppard Cup experience, who's played at national levels, who's played at higher levels, whether it's semi-pro or pro.

We come with Lara Wall, who's who was at the Phoenix last year in the Ferns, and

she brings that experience for us.

Maya, who's from America and the Philippines and has a good international level experience through the Philippines.

Whether it's an individual athlete like a Zoe Hobbs, whether it's a team in any competition.

Like the White Ferns, T20 World Cup, they had an opportunity.

What did they do? Nothing.

They lost.

And there's a ruthlessness and an ambition to that that...

I don't think we see very often from Kiwi sports sides in general, let alone a women's football club like that.

It's a bit different and I very much welcome it because I am also seeing ways in which this attitude shift for the Phoenix can have a very, very direct correlation into the football ferns heading into their World Cup at a time when they probably need that.

They need a bit of that flick the switch stuff as well about them and having a few players at the Wellington Phoenix.

And there was conversations around this being so the grassroots equestrian riders, it's a pathway through into higher honours from a football pathway.

Does New Zealand Secondary Schools, where does this, is there a pathway for our youth? Is it through New Zealand Secondary Schools into a national team or do you see players going on to represent All Whites or Football Ferns in that space?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have representative teams.

And our coaches and our

selectors work very closely with the New Zealand football high performance teams.

group teams, and so we consult with them around selections, and we've had a large number of, especially our girls, go on to represent New Zealand and play for the football ferns.

Yeah, so we've got a few of our players this year that have just been selected for age group New Zealand teams, so yeah, they've And a lot of those have been through the RIP's initiative program as well.

Even if Auckland lose, they come away with close to two million dollars.

And the Football Ferns will play two games against Panama in Panama City in October as they build towards next year's World Cup.

And that's the news.

[upbeat music] Ingrid Hipkiss and John Campbell, Morning Report.

Tennis player Erin Routliff and partner Lloyd Glasspool have lost their opening round US Open mixed doubles match in straight sets to Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz.

And the Football Ferns preparations for next year's World Cup will continue with a pair of matches away against Panama in October.

I'm Malcolm Jordan.

That's your latest news fix.