New Zealand vows to get 'gritty' to avoid World Cup embarrassment

WELLINGTON

Jitka Klimkova says her New Zealand team must get "gritty" if it is to end its 32-year wait for a first Women's World Cup win and avoid embarrassment on home soil.

The co-host kicks the tournament off with a tough test against Norway at Eden Park in Auckland on July 20, before matches against Switzerland and minnow the Philippines.

The top two teams from the eight groups progress to the knockout rounds and New Zealand will need to defy the history books and recent form to get out of Group A.

“The Football Ferns” have played at five Women's World Cups stretching back to the first in 1991 and have never won in 15 games.

And they go into the tournament, which they are hosting with Australia, on the back of a poor run of results.

"We know that if we want to get out of the group we need to win games," Klimkova told AFP.

"The best timing would be to do it at home."

New Zealand's miserable recent run includes back-to-back heavy home defeats to reigning World Cup champion the United States, which hammered it 4-0 and 5-0 in January.

"We need to be gritty defensively, we need to be gritty in our attack in front of goal," said Klimkova, a former defender for the Czech Republic.

"We want to be tough opposition to play against."

Goals have been particularly hard to come by for Klimkova's side during a winless 10-match run stretching back to last year in which it scored only twice.

The team has one final friendly, against Vietnam today, to find form and goals.

"We need to score, it doesn't matter how," said Klimkova.

"Sometimes we are looking for beautiful finishes, but our focus now is on how we can put the ball in the net. It's getting better. We are scoring goals [in training] and that's nice to see. We are working really, really hard to make our nation proud."

Norway is a former world and European champion, but it is not quite the force it used to be and Klimkova said New Zealand has nothing to fear.

"Stealing points from them in that first game will be very important, so I am glad we are playing them first," she said.

New Zealand is famously a rugby country, with football also lagging comfortably behind cricket.

World Cup ticket sales in New Zealand have been sluggish compared to co-host Australia, but Klimkova is confident Kiwis will get behind her team once the tournament gets under way.

"I'm not sure if New Zealand understands what is actually coming, it's going to be so big, so huge," she said, calling it a "privilege" for them to play a World Cup at home.

"It is such a unique and special moment," she added.

"It will help us to keep pushing and fighting for each other and for New Zealand."