New Zealand U-17 coach Leon Birnie says the goal for his team at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay is to make history.

The draw was completed this week and New Zealand will face hosts Uruguay, Ghana and Finland in Group A in the tournament that will be staged from 13 November to 1 December.

New Zealand has won twice at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in its history – 2-1 vs Columbia in New Zealand 2008 and 5-0 vs Jordan in Jordan 2016 – but have never advanced from their group.

Birnie says his team is aware of the challenge ahead and will be working hard in the build-up to put in a big performance.

“We are all very excited and now that the draw has been completed I am sure everything has become a little bit more surreal for the players,” said Birnie. 

“We have had some honest discussions with this group and the reality is that New Zealand has only won two games at this level and have never progressed beyond group stage. This said while it will be challenging to achieve this we are looking to become the first squad to create history and the work that the players put in over the next five months will have a big impact towards achieving this.”

Birnie said like playing Jordan in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2016, taking on the host nation Uruguay will be an amazing experience for his girls.

“Uruguay as a country are very passionate dedicated to football, I’m expecting the attendance and atmosphere at this game to reflect that,” he said.

Finland will make their debut at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, but Birnie said they are not to be underestimated. 

“They have had some impressive results with wins over England and Netherlands to gain qualification, we are expecting this to be a very challenging fixture.”

Birnie said Ghana are always a challenging opponent to play against.

“I’d describe them as “organised chaos” they are unpredictable, athletic and physical and this fixture will be a completely new experience for most of our team.”

Birnie said there is a bigger goal in mind with players at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup with growing the quality and depth of the Football Ferns the ultimate aim.

“At Under 17 level our role is to help develop these players individually across a range of areas. We continually create environments that are going to challenge but also develop players’ skill-sets across a multitude of areas to help them transition into the U-20’s, Future Ferns Domestic Programme (FFDP), and Football Ferns in the future.”

Korea are the current FIFA U-17 Women’s World Champions after they defeated Japan 5-4 on penalties in 2016 to claim their second title.

FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Fixtures

Tuesday 13 November – New Zealand v Finland
Friday 16 November – New Zealand v Uruguay
Tuesday 20 November – New Zealand v Ghana