Despite dominating, the Football Ferns went down 1-0 to a dogged Philippines in Wellington this evening.

Head coach Jitka Klimková went with the same starting XI that made history on Thursday evening, with the only change being co-captain Ria Percival wearing the armband.

The consistency in approach initially paid off as the Ferns quickly picked up where they left off against Norway, settling into their passing patterns and setting up camp in the Philippines’ half.

The Filipinas grew into the game, however, and were rewarded by drawing first blood.

Like last time, Sarina Bolden opened the scoring for the visitors, capitalizing on a freekick long into the box that the Ferns defence didn’t deal with. The return ball found the head of Bolden and the ball found the back of the net, securing the Philippines their first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup goal.

While the goal was against the run of play, for the remainder of the half it seemed the catalyst that put the Ferns on the back foot for the first time. The pressure that the team was quick to cast off against Norway they found harder to shift against Philippines. While the Ferns enjoyed the lions share of the possession, pass accuracy and shots, the Philippines had the advantage on the most important stat: goals scored.

Klimková rang the changes at half time, bringing on senior midfielders Liv Chance and Annalie Longo, completing the latters’ comeback from the ACL tear she sustained last year.

The changes began to pay dividends, as the gamechangers’ creativity began to pull apart the disciplined Filipino defence and create more meaningful opportunities on goal than the Kiwis had in the first half.

The Ferns almost equalized from the same corner routine that saw CJ Bott open the scoring against Vietnam in the warmup game, but the well-orchestrated move culminated in Wilkinson’s header just going over the crossbar.  

A sweeping counter attack almost paid dividends, as Liv Chance’s perfectly placed  , only for Hand’s seemingly goal-bound shot to be denied by the upright.  

The Ferns thought they’d found an equalizer through a reversal of last Thursday’s socrer and provider, with Wilkinson crossing from the byline and finding the head of Hand, and the ball looping over the diving Olivia McDaniel. Wilkinson’s shoulder, however, was adjudged to be offside by VAR when she received the ball, and the goal disallowed, much to the disagreement of the 32,357-strong crowd.

Searching for the attacking spark to ignite a comeback, Klimková replaced Percival with Grace Jale in the 84th minute, seeing the Canberra United forward become the first player of Fijian descent to play at a FIFA Women’s World Cup. It almost paid off, Jale was denied by McDaniel’s glove, the goalkeeper doing well to get down to snuff out the danger.

But despite the Ferns’ increasingly urgent flurries forward, despite the cacophony in the Cake Tin willing a goal to be conjured, the Ferns’ efforts ultimately couldn’t be converted into the goal the team so desperately craved, and the score remained 1-0 to Philippines.

While a disappointing result for the Ferns, the home World Cup adventure isn’t over yet, as attention turns to their final group game against Switzerland in Dunedin on Sunday, which is now a must-win.

“This is sport,” Klimková reflected afterwards.

“It was not the result that we wanted, but the fight, the passion was definitely there tonight.

“It’s not over yet – we still have time to reset and refocus and prepare against Switzerland.”

Article added: Tuesday 25 July 2023