Two late goals from Australia have denied the Football Ferns an historic result against their trans-Tasman rivals on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday night.
New Zealand lead 2-1 at half time on the back of superb long-range efforts from Merissa Smith and captain Hayley Moorwood but three goals from corners – including two in the last seven minutes – and a contentious penalty saw Australia home 4-2 in the third and final match of the trans-Tasman series after they won 2-0 and 2-1 in the first two matches.
"That was the best performance I've seen from them in the white shirt" said New Zealand coach John Herdman of his players, "we've not only been ahead against a world class side, we played them off the park in the first half."
Australia fielded close to a World Cup line-up and it was a piece of magic from one of their stars that opened the scoring, as Collette McCallum scored direct from a 15th minute corner.
However, ten minutes later, from deep and wide on the right hand side, Merissa Smith spotted the keeper off her line and floated the ball into the top left corner to bring New Zealand level before Kirsty Yallop created space outside the box in the 35th minute for Hayley Moorwood to unleash a thunderous drive that gave New Zealand a lead they would hold for the next 30 minutes.
Then, in the 66th minute Australia were awarded a penalty as an Australian shot struck an unwitting Ferns defender on the hand from almost point-blank range, with captain Cheryl Salisbury stepping up to convert from the spot.
A "heartbroken" Herdman was in no doubt the penalty was the turning point.
"It's so disappointing to be in control and then we get a penalty call like that. Even [Australian coach Tom Sermanni] said they were lucky," said Herdman
With the scores tied at 2-2 going into the final ten minutes, New Zealand looked on course for their first positive result against a non-Oceania side since a 1-0 win over South Korea in 1994 but Salisbury scored a game-breaking second with a back-post header seven minutes from time and Clare Polkinghorne added another in similar fashion in injury time.
"To concede two goals at the end is sickening, but the upside is that the players now know what they can do against world-class players. They genuinely believe they've turned the corner and can compete with the best," said Herdman.
"We've taken three or four steps forward in the last few weeks. We've played positively against one of the world's best sides, and on a different day with a little bit of luck, we would've been able to close that game out."
"We came close to beating China in December and were leading Aussie tonight until the 66th minute. They've scored from set plays but not caused us too much trouble in open play."
New Zealand now travel to Port Moresby to face South Pacific Games champions Papua New Guinea on Saturday in a winner-takes-all qualifier for Oceania's place in the 12-team women's' football tournament at the Beijing Olympics.