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March 10, 2003 Challenging matches on cards for SWANZ Texas tour By Jeremy Ruane New Zealand National teamleaves for Texas on Friday for five matches against a mixture of university teams from the Lone Star State. Coach Sandy Davie knows his young charges are in for some challenging matches. "Make no mistake, these will be five tough games for our girls, with the second and third games seeing them take on two of the top fifteen university teams in the USA." The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rankings at the end of 2002 chose Texas A&M University, the Aggies, as the sixth-best college side in the country. Their inter-state rivals from the University of Texas rounded out the year in the fourteenth spot. Throw in the fact that West Texas A&M, the SWANZ penultimate opponents on their US tour, are the eighteenth-ranked team in the NCAA Division II standings, so the players can rest assured that this will not be a holiday!! They are aware of that however, as this tour is made up of two parts and the second of these is the main objective of the entire operation -contesting the Oceania 2003 World Cup qualifying tournament in Australia in April, with a place at the final tournament in China the prize for the winners. "The purpose of the first part of the tour is to ensure we are ready for Australia," says Davie, who will oversee the SWANZ first internationals in nigh on three years when the qualifiers get under way. We have had some very effective camps in recent months, and the girls have been doing their own preparations as well, with fitness programmes to work to, as well as pre-season training with their clubs. The squad gathers in Auckland on Friday morning, and we fly out later that day to Texas, where we will have a settling-in period of four days before our first game, against Baylor University." The clash with the Baylor Bears takes place in Waco on March 17th, after which the team travels to Austin to take on the University of Texas Longhorns at the Mike A. Myers Stadium three days later. The Longhorns are a familiar name to New Zealand women's soccer fans, the New Zealand Under-19 team having faced them at the 1998 Dallas Cup. The Texans won 3-2 that day, and have clearly improved since then, having been crowned Big 12 champions in 2001, and finishing as runners-up last year. Their performances in 2002 secured them that fourteenth placing in the NCAA rankings. The team that beat them in the Big 12 final, sixth-ranked Texas A&M, provide the SWANZ with their next opposition on the tour, at the Aggie Soccer Complex on March 23. The Aggies will quite likely prove to be the SWANZ most difficult opposition in Texas. Unbeaten on home turf in 2002, they have been NCAA quarter-finalists for the past two seasons, and have already won the Spring Classic Tournament this year, going through that competition unbeaten. "Make no mistake, they will be the toughest team on this tour," emphasises Davie, who will be able to use as many substitutes as he wishes in each game to enable him to look at all the players in various combinations, so by the time the SWANZ hit Australia, they will be ready to rumble. West Texas A&M provide the travelling squad with their next opposition at Amarillo on March 26th. The final game of the first part of the tour takes place two days later, at the R.P. Fuller Stadium against Texas Tech, a team who won just two of their nineteen games in 2002, and their first two games of the season at that. Then it is on to Australia, but exactly where is not yet known. "It is very hard to plan for anything when you have not got all the information you require," complains Davie, as the squad prepares to depart New Zealand without the Oceania Football Confederation having confirmed the Australian venue, or the times of games for a qualifying tournament which is scheduled to kick off on April 5th. They also depart without Rachel Oliver, one of their most experienced players. "She is going to be a huge loss to us in terms of experience" says Davie," but we still have some wily characters to rely upon in that regard, along with the three US-based players and some of the youngsters who have taken the step up from the Under-17 squad. All in all, I am confident that the tour will serve its purpose, and enable us to be ready for Australia and our other rivals from Oceania in the qualifiers in April." New Zealand National Team pool No. Player Province Caps Goals 1 Yvonne Vale Auckland-Manukau 9 0 2 Jane Simpson Mainland Soccer 11 0 3 Melissa Ray Auckland-Manukau 0 0 4 Priscilla Duncan Missouri, USA 0 0 5 Terry McCahill Auckland-Manukau 36 0 6 Michele Keinzley Auckland-Manukau 0 0 7 Maia Jackman Auckland-Manukau 17 1 8 Rachel Doody Auckland-Manukau 0 0 9 Wendi Henderson Capital Soccer 44 14 10 Nicky Smith Capital Soccer 11 4 11 Hayley Moorwood Auckland-Manukau 0 0 12 Simone Ferrara California, USA 5 0 14 Kelly Jarden Mainland Soccer 9 0 15 Melanie Edwards Mainland Soccer 0 0 16 Rebecca Smith California, USA 0 0 17 Zarnia Cogle Mainland Soccer 10 0 19 Rachel Howard United Soccer 6 0 20 Liz O’ÄôMeara United Soccer 0 0 USA Itinerary March 18 Baylor Univ. Baylor University, Waco March 21 Univ. of Texas Mike A. Myers Stadium, Austin March 24 Texas A&M Aggie Soccer Complex, College Station March 27 West Texas A&M West Texas A&M, Amarillo March 29 Texas Tech. R.P. Fuller Stadium, Lubbock