New Zealand Football Ferns' coach Tony Readings has named an 18-player squad for an international against the USA

In naming his first squad as head coach, Readings has sprung few surprises for the February 11 game at the FC Dallas Stadium in Texas, with all players drawn from last year's FIFA Women's World Cup squad, including 15 players now playing for clubs outside New Zealand.

With a total of 750 caps, it is the most experienced Football Ferns' squad named.

Only midfielder Katie Bowen, recently back in training after a knee injury, was not considered for selection.

New Zealand is chasing the 12th and final berth for London - the final stage of Oceania qualifying is a home and away playoff against a yet to be determined nation in March and April - and Readings said there is no better team to play than the reigning Olympic champions to see what needs to be done between now and August.

"On any given day they are the benchmark for women's football," said Readings. "They will give us a clear idea of the areas we need to work on before the Olympics but also on ways in which we can hurt top quality teams."

"They have won the Olympic gold medal three times and missed out on a third World Cup title last year in a penalty shootout. They've just come through Olympic qualifying without conceding a goal and capped it off with a 4-0 win over Canada in the final.

The Football Ferns are also scheduled to play Northern Ireland, South Africa and South Korea at next month's Cyprus Cup.

Source: nzherald.co.nz

Goalkeepers:

Jenny Bindon

Erin Nayler

Defenders:

Abbey Erceg

Anna Green

Kristy Hill

Ria Percival

Ali Riley

Rebecca Smith

Midfielders:

Betsy Hassett

Katie Hoyle

Annalie Longo

Hayley Moorwood

Kirsty Yallop

Forwards:

Amber Hearn

Sarah Gregorius

Emma Kete

Rosie White

Hannah Wilkinson

Tags: Ferns, Football, New, Soccer, USA, Women's, Zealand

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Comment by Sopheena Liti Nyowep on February 11, 2012 at 1:45: Thanks @ Sylvain..will check it out!

Comment by Sylvain on February 10, 2012 at 16:05: You can find a few of them on you tube search "football ferns haka"

Comment by Women's Soccer United on February 9, 2012 at 10:13: lol @sopheena :)

Comment by Sopheena Liti Nyowep on February 9, 2012 at 6:58: I would love to see the NZWNT do their own version of 'Haka' like the one in men's rugby games :) if that's possible!

Comment by Brandon Light on February 9, 2012 at 1:20: Ahh perfect im so pumped!!!

Comment by Sebastian Kanty on February 8, 2012 at 21:23: lol, just posted earlier today that it is a shame that us soccer don't promote and stream this game...and now i see this...kinda funny since i was on us soccer's website about half past six today, and then there wasn't any news about this...but this is great news indead..

Comment by Women's Soccer United on February 8, 2012 at 21:16: GREAT NEWS!

USSoccer.com are streaming this match Live!

Also reports coming in that over 18,000 tickets have been sold for this International Friendly so far :D

Comment by Brandon Light on February 1, 2012 at 1:08: does anyone kno where you could find a streaming site for this game and all the games for the Algarve cup?

Comment by Sopheena Liti Nyowep on January 31, 2012 at 22:37: Wow..good article. Thank you :)