North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Football Ferns taking on world No 1 and Olympic champions
On the eve of their departure for a match against women’s football heavyweights USA, two Football Ferns from opposite ends of the field were giving back at grassroots level.
Goalkeeper Jenny Bindon and striker Hannah Wilkinson joined students from Pinehurst School for a football festival under the guidance of some of the top coaches in Oceania before jetting off for Texas.
Bindon is the most capped New Zealand goalkeeper across both women’s and men’s teams and she relishes seeing youngsters given a chance to try the game she loves.
‘‘It is an opportunity for them to express themselves and find their God-given talents,’’ Bindon says of the fun football skills sessions.
The Football Ferns squad to play the reigning Olympic champions is the most experienced squad ever named with the players sharing 742 caps between them.
This week Wilkinson, who played her club football for Glenfield Rovers, joined a growing number of the Football Ferns to ply their trade overseas. The 19-year-old will join the University of Tennessee in August on scholarship.
Wilkinson was inundated with college offers and initially thought she might head to the University of Maryland but when their football coach changed schools she joined him.
‘‘It’s a busy year, with Olympics and everything, but it is the perfect time to go,’’ Wilkinson says.
With 14 of the 18-strong squad playing off shore, Bindon says the USA game, which is the first international for the Football Ferns since the World Cup in July last year and the first under new coach Tony Readings, will be played with limited team training.
‘‘That is different for us, but the Football Ferns often surprise people.’’
Wilkinson has never played against the USA at senior level before but for 38-year-old Bindon, who lives in Albany and is the only married mother in the team, Sunday’s game will be the third time she has played against her country of birth.
Even though she is the oldest in the squad, as long as her body allows Bindon plans to be between the sticks.
‘‘The Football Ferns are on the verge of something special and I want to be a part of it,’’ she says.
New Zealand is chasing the 12th and final berth for the London Olympics – the final stage of Oceania qualifying is a home and away playoff against a yet to be determined country in March and April.
Readings sees the game against USA, who have won three Olympic gold medals and come through qualifying for London without conceding a goal, as a good test of where his side are at.
‘‘They will give us a clear idea of the areas we need to work on before the
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