An own goal from Cameroon’s Ysis Sonkenga and strikes to Rebecca Smith and Sarah Gregorius were enough to earn the Ferns their first ever victory in a FIFA tournament and a groundbreaking first appearance for a New Zealand women’s team of any age in the knockout stages of a pinnacle event.
But the 3-1 triumph is of significance much further afield than the beautiful shores of New Zealand. The memorable victory also marked the first time a national team from any of the current OFC member associations has recorded a win at a senior FIFA football event.
Former OFC member Australia has tasted success on the world’s biggest stages but is now part of the Asian confederation while the only other positive results achieved by a side from the South Pacific at FIFA events have taken place in one of the small-sided versions of the world game.
The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup has proved fruitful, Tahiti beating Venezuela 5-2 during last year’s tournament in Italy and Solomon Islands edging past Uruguay 7-6 in Dubai in 2009.
But results have been much harder to come by in senior 11-a-side events, New Zealand teams going close on several occasions before the Football Ferns finally broke the duck at London 2012.
While the All Whites’ undefeated run at the 2010 FIFA World Cup will go down as one of the finest moments in the country’s sporting history, Ricki Herbert’s men actually failed to pick up a win from any of their three matches, drawing 1-1 with Slovakia and Italy before fighting out a scoreless stalemate with Paraguay that ultimately eliminated them from the tournament.
New Zealand’s only previous appearance on the biggest stage of all took place in 1982 and resulted in three defeats, the debutants falling 5-2 to Scotland, 3-0 to Soviet Union and 4-0 to one of the greatest Brazil sides of all time.
It has been a similar story with the female World Cup, in which New Zealand is the only current OFC member to have taken part. The Football Ferns have qualified on three occasions – in 1991, 2007 and 2011 – but had to wait until their third campaign to finally earn a pleasing result, a 2-2 draw against Mexico in Germany last year.
Their only other taste of the Olympics came four years ago in Beijing and a point was also the best they could muster then, holding future world champions Japan to 2-2.
In an ominous sign, the Football Ferns signed off at Beijing 2008 with a 4-0 loss to USA – the side they face on Friday afternoon local time in the quarter-finals of London 2012.
But their most recent meeting against the three-times gold medallists – a friendly they led until the 89th minute before going down 2-1 – in February will give them hope that a win, and a further piece of history for Oceania, is not out of the question.