The woman at the helm of the Football Ferns for the next six years, Jitka Klimková, has plans to push her young players in their upcoming tour to Canada, towards the 2023 World Cup.
Logically, Jitka Klimková's chief sporting pursuit should have been motorcycling.
Raised in the little village of Moravany, in the south east of the Czech Republic, that was the sport of choice for the rest of her family. However, she was nuts about football.
"As a family we spent every weekend in summer at the races, but when the weekend finished I couldn’t wait till Monday with my ball, run to the field and wait for the boys who were going to play football with me," the former international midfielder and new Football Ferns coach recalls.
Klimková had no girls to play with, so it was train and play with the local boys. It was mainly pick-up games until she got to 15, but she retains fond memories of those early days.
"I didn’t play a [proper] game until I was 15; I was just happy to be on the field," says Klimková, speaking from Český Krumlov, in the south of her homeland. But the next stage was ‘Oh my gosh, this is what I really love’. I was missing the icing on the cake [games] at weekends."
Football has been an integral part of her life for more than 30 years and now she’s preparing to start an unprecedented six-year contract in charge of the New Zealand women's team coming into one of the most important periods of their development.
Klimková was a relatively late starter, and soon figured out that while she had the goal of playing for her country, she wasn’t going to be the star player.
She was good enough to be in the first division and played a couple of internationals. She remembers how it felt to be involved at the highest level.
"When I was 25, I thought I wanted to stay in football. I loved it and wanted to be involved as long as possible," she says. "Then I was thinking what would be my next involvement, and coaching was the best fit for me."
So Klimková travelled the globe, doing stints in the United States, Australia – where she coached Canberra to a W League title – and New Zealand.
She’s big on learning about countries’ culture. "I know how Kiwis are – hard workers, humble and friendly."
In 2013-14, she was in charge of the New Zealand U17 squad at the World Cup in Costa Rica, where the Kiwis drew with Paraguay but lost to Spain and Japan.
A few months later, she helped prepare the national U20 side for their World Cup trip to Canada. There they beat Paraguay and Costa Rica but lost to France and Nigeria.
From those age group teams, several players have made steady improvement to either be Football Ferns or close to it.
Players such as Daisy Cleverley, CJ Bott, Katie Bowen and Meikayla Moore are in Klimková's first national squad of 22 players, named yesterday for the two internationals in Canada this month.
Six players in the United States college system – Amelia Abbott, Aniela Jensen, Ava Collins, Jacqui Hand, Sam Tawharu and Tahlia Herman-Watt – are named in the Football Ferns squad for the first time.
Having coached and monitored the progress of those players from age-group level has had a positive spin-off – "I know most of the players and when I reached out to them it was more about reconnecting than an introduction."
Being offered a deal for six years shows remarkable faith in Klimková’s talents.
Not only is she in charge for the next World Cup, to be played in New Zealand and Australia, but also the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2027 World Cup, at a location yet to be revealed by world governing body, FIFA.
"I was very nicely surprised I got the job. I'm so glad New Zealand Football trusted me to give me this opportunity," Klimková says.
"It means a lot to me and a lot for women’s football. It’s not about a short preparation. It’s about the need to push young players, give them opportunities to be ready for the future."
Klimková stresses the need to balance young players and the more experienced group: "You can have 150 caps, but you’re still improving".
She’s not prepared to lock herself, and her squad, into a specific playing formation just yet. As she puts it, deciding on a 4-3-3, or 4-4-2, or 3-5-2 system is not the highest priority.
"It’s about understanding how we want to play when we have the ball; how can we win the ball quickly and get a style people will believe in," she says.
Klimková, who's proud of the fact she is the first woman named in charge of the national team since they became known as the Football Ferns 15 years ago, describes herself as an attack-minded coach, but is also a realist.
That’s understandable, as the Football Ferns have lost 11 of their last 12 matches. But she’s looking forward, not back.
"I am a huge believer in controlling what you can control," she says. "That’s behind us, we can learn from it, learn what individual players and the team can do better, no doubt about that. But we need to look forward."
On which topic, Klimková is delighted NZ Football are aiming to have matches in all FIFA international windows before the 2023 World Cup. What’s more, she's specific on what type of opposition she wants for her team.
"We want to play the best opposition. Many people ask ‘are you crazy?’" she says. "But I say we need to play those games against the best. That’s what will help us the most.
"The first phase should be about us and our development. The priority at this point is we need to find our feet and understand how we want to play."
Her focus is on preparing for the World Cup, starting with the games against Canada. The reigning Olympic champions, Canada are ranked sixth in the world, 17 places higher than the Football Ferns. Their coach, Bev Priestman, has worked for NZ Football. Klimková and Priestman know each other well.
Klimková has a keen interest in the daily environment of players in the wider Ferns squad.
She’s delighted a Wellington Phoenix team will be in the A-League Women for the first time. She reckons her players need to be training daily, playing regularly and being challenged and pushed.
She also wishes she could be in New Zealand now. Circumstances have ruled that out for the moment.
However she’ll meet her squad in Ottawa next week and with modern communications she gleans plenty of information by way of extensive video footage of her players around the globe. Not ideal, but it could be far worse.
She knows the pressure will be on to produce improved results.
"This is our starting point," Klimková says of the Canadian trip. The end point is July-August 2023.
* Both Football Ferns games v Canada will be live on Sky Sport; game one, Ottawa, October 24, 8am (NZT), game two, Montreal, October 27, 12.30 pm (NZT)
The Football Ferns squad: Victoria Esson, Anna Leat, Erin Nayler, CJ Bott, Katie Bowen, Tahlia Herman-Watt, Meikayla Moore, Ali Riley, Amelia Abbott, Hannah Blake, Daisy Cleverley, Betsy Hassett, Aniela Jensen, Ria Percival, Emma Rolston, Olivia Chance, Ava Collins, Jacqui Hand, Maggie Jenkins, Gabi Rennie, Sam Tawharu, Rosie White.
