Football Ferns Head Coach Andreas Heraf has a simple goal for the two international friendlies against Scotland this week in Spain: two clean sheets and most importantly two wins.

The World No 19 Ferns take on the World No 23 Scotland at the Pinatar Football Arena in San Pedro del Pinatar in Heraf’s first international window since being named as Head Coach in December.

Heraf, who is also the Technical Director at NZ Football, said the team has arrived in Spain focused on picking up from where they left off in Thailand in November last year. The Ferns finished the tour with a 5-0 win over Thailand – it was the biggest win over opposition outside of Oceania by a New Zealand team since 1993.

“The goal for the tour is two wins and two clean sheets,” said Heraf.  “That is a big goal for us. We started in Thailand in not conceding a goal in two games there. We know that in the past we conceded too many goals which is one of the reasons why we cannot get the success at the big tournaments that the team deserved.

“So we are looking forward to keeping a clean sheet and if we do concede a goal it is important to score one more goal than our opponent. We are going for wins. We try to win every single game and that is the goal for Scotland, even though we know they are a really good team.”

The Ferns are expecting a tough challenge from Scotland on neutral territory. The Ferns last played Scotland at last year’s Cyprus Cup where they went down 3-2 in the opening game of the tournament with Amber Hearn and Rosie White on the scoresheet. In 2017, Scotland recorded wins over New Zealand, Austria (3-1), Romania (2-0), Republic of Ireland (1-0) and Hungary (3-0).

“Scotland have made a big improvement in the last year because they have had a lot of contact time together. They were in Spain one month ago for two games against Russia and Norway. They have spent a lot more time together than what we have, but we have done a lot of analysis of their games so we know exactly how they are going to play. It will be a close game and a tough game but hopefully with a better ending for us.”

Heraf said the team has enjoyed a really good week at the fantastic facilities of the Pinatar Football Arena.  The hotel is very close to the environment so they have been able to have plenty of sessions and built on the good work from 2017.

“There have been a few players who have come into camp a little bit sick from the cold weather [in the Northern Hemisphere] so hopefully everyone will be fit and raring to go for the game on Saturday [Sunday NZT]. We are very much looking forward to this game.”

Heraf said the team talks this week have been about continuing the momentum from their efforts against Thailand against a quality opposition.

“That win in Thailand was fantastic. We had a great performance from the girls there. It is always a little bit difficult as the coach of the national team only having the team every three or four months so we always start back at nil again. That is the job of a professional coach to get the team up to speed as soon as possible again. We are happy and confident that we will get it ready for the first game.”

Heraf said any contact time with the players is hugely important as they build towards the FIFA World Cup in France in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

“Any game you can get against good opposition is important for the players to keep developing,” he said. “We use every single second of our time here to get more information and more implementation to our philosophy. These friendlies are really important as we prepare for the World Cup qualifiers and we want to keep building.”

Highlights of the Football Ferns v Scotland will be available on www.nzfootball.co.nz shortly after the game on Sunday morning.

Football Ferns v Scotland international friendlies
Saturday 3 March local kick off 5pm (NZT Sunday 4 March 5am)
Tuesday 6 March local kick off 11.00am (NZT Tuesday 6 March 11:00pm)
Pinatar Football Arena in San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain