In her fourth game as Football Ferns skipper, Erceg and her teammates claimed the first victory for any New Zealand football side over their Brazilian equivalent and the first top ten scalp for the Ferns since FIFA started publishing women’s rankings.
The elation of writing a new chapter in New Zealand football history seems a world away from the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when a 17-year-old Erceg was part of a Ferns team handed a harrowing reintroduction to the world stage.
“I’ll never ever forget that first game of the World Cup against Brazil,” recalls Erceg.
“It was 5-0 and one of the worst games I’ve ever played in my life. I remember thinking I’m just not cut out for international football. And I think the rest of the team knew how far off we were.
“The thought of winning a World Cup or Olympics was not even a dream let alone in the plan.
“Back then they did everything better, stronger and faster than us. So it’s just a massive change especially in just six years for the team to take the steps that it has. You don’t want to think back to those games but you have to remember where you came from. We’ve come so far in such a short time and it makes it sweeter for us.
With 86 caps to her credit now, Erceg has been ever-present in the side as they steadily improved and ticked off targets.
Victories over a host of teams outside the top ten including Argentina, Italy, Netherlands and China among others represented important steps but despite draws against the likes of top tier nations England, France, Canada, Japan and Australia, a top ten scalp had been frustratingly elusive until the early hours of Monday morning.
Funding from High Performance Sport – which has grown to $800,000 over the next two years after reaching the quarterfinals of the London Olympics – and the international activity it facilitates are an important factor behind the Ferns’ rise, a climb that now sees them targeting a medal in Rio.
“The support from High Performance Sport has been second to none. They’ve set really high targets for us but that comes with the territory. It’s an exciting challenge for us and we’ve never felt like it’s out of our reach, which is why it’s so encouraging to beat Brazil and solidify what [coach Tony Readings] and High Performance Sport are doing for us.
“We’ve got goals for 2015 and 2016 and we’ve got to keep that in the back of our mind. Results are important – we want to play the best teams in the world and win against them but to achieve those long term aims we need to play a certain style of football and bring things to our game that are going to win a medal.”
While the way New Zealand dominated most facets of the match may have turned heads, Erceg identified a streak of mental toughness as one of the most pleasing aspects of Monday’s win and heaped praise on attacking spearhead Amber Hearn – a team mate at USV Jena in Germany – who shook off a first half penalty miss to score the winner.
“If that had happened maybe even a year ago it may have prompted us to crumble but given our long term ambition that response is just not an option,” Erceg stated.
“Things are going to happen in games, people will miss chances or make mistakes but if you’re going to try and win a World Cup or gold medal you back yourself to take the next one to win the game.
“You have to praise Amber for her reaction. It could have been devastating to miss a penalty, especially against Brazil but to come back and score a great header – the only goal of the game – she deserves a huge amount of credit.”
Attention now switches to preparing for the Valais Cup final against China in Savièse on Thursday morning (NZT).
“You need to celebrate winning against a top four team hold on to that feelingas long as we can.
“But it’s straight back to business. We’ve got some recovery planned and then it’s on to looking at China. Even though the win is huge celebrations are short-lived. We can celebrate properly if we finish the job on Wednesday.”
New Zealand’s match against China is live on Sky Sport 3 from 3.25am on Thursday morning.
Valais Cup 2013
Wednesday 25 September 2013
Final
New Zealand v China
Stade St-Germain, Savièse
Kick-off: 3.25am (NZT)
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz