“An amazing journey”: Why recent performances can give New Zealand hope ahead of their home World Cup – tactical analysis

Just over a week ago, New Zealand faced Wales for a friendly encounter at the Pinatar Arena in Spain, which ended in a 0-0 draw. However, whilst the game itself didn’t leave us with much to discuss, one particular statistic that came out of it did. This was the first time in just over three years that the two teams have played each other, with Wales 1-0 winners in Cardiff the last time they met, and New Zealand have only won three matches in all competitions in the duration between the two.

Given that they are jointly hosting next year’s World Cup, alongside Australia, this is a big worry for fans of the Football Ferns, and it has been mentioned that they are fortunate to be guaranteed a place at the tournament because they would have struggled to qualify if they had needed to secure their place like everyone else.

However, as this tactical analysis will show, their recent performances have been more promising, giving fans hope that they might be on the road to better times. The scout report will begin by identifying situations from the last three years when they have struggled both in attack and defence, before looking at what has improved in the last few games.

Attack

New Zealand’s favoured formation has generally been a 4-4-2, regardless of the manager at the time, and this has given them a nice balance throughout the team with good width on either side. With this in mind, it would be expected that their tactics would revolve around using the wings as often as possible, stretching opposing defences out and creating gaps in the middle.

However, as shown here against the USA during this year’s SheBelieves Cup, that has not always been the case. The former Brighton and Hove Albion Women defender Rebekah Stott has not looked for the open space and has instead opted to shoot at goal here.

The problem with this is that the USA’s defensive line is narrowly structured and therefore was always going to be tough to score through, so Stott’s decision to shoot and not pass means that New Zealand have pulled the trigger when there was an easier option that would have kept possession and continued to build play. Had she looked up here, she would have seen her teammate’s run and the fact that they were in open space with time to control the ball, and this lack of awareness is exactly what it comes down to because poor decision-making has meant that chances like this have not been converted.