Football Ferns land home Aussie tests

The Football Ferns will play their first home internationals in almost three years when they take on Australia over two matches in Auckland in February.

The games against the world number 14 Matildas on February 17 and 20 in Auckland will be the first for the Ferns since being blanked in a two match series against Canada in June 2007.

The Ferns have played 31 matches offshore in that time with rapid improvement showing through in New Zealand's first point at an Olympic Games and a historic first win on European soil en route to a semi final finish at the Cyprus Cup earlier this year.

New Zealand Coach John Herdman says demonstrating that progress to local fans, and playing their part in New Zealand Football's Girls and Women's Week is a huge motivation for his side.

"It's an opportunity to show how far we've come," Herdman said.

"We're desperate to play in front of a home crowd. Our last opportunity was against Canada, when we were just bringing this era of Ferns together in preparation for a World Cup, so playing one of the top Women's nations and getting beat 3-0 and 5-0 at home was not a good feeling."

"The team have progressed to a level where they are entertaining to watch, and I know the players are desperate to get out there and put on a show for the fans."

"These games are a real coup for women's football. There's been a lot of hard work in the New Zealand Football office to bring these games about, and we're hoping that it can be a showcase for women's football."

Girls and Women's week is a national campaign running from February 15 to 21 and aims to attract more female players, coaches and officials to grassroots football. Female-only coaching and refereeing courses will run in regional centres while Junior Football Ferns (NZ U-20) will visit football festivals around the country encouraging more girls to register with local clubs.

The Football Ferns haven't beaten the Matildas since 1994 but after three one-goal losses in the past five meetings between the two sides, Herdman believes home advantage may just provide the edge for the 23rd ranked Ferns to knock over their trans-Tasman rivals.

"Home advantage is huge but I think it'll come down to the availability of our top players."

"We've certainly made some progress and our recent performance against Japan with a raft of players missing shows that we have some depth now but if we if we want to beat these top tier teams like Australia then we need our best players on the pitch."

The first match will be played under lights at North Harbour Stadium while a venue for the second match has yet to be confirmed.

Women's International Football Series

New Zealand vs Australia

Wednesday 17 February 2009 at North Harbour Stadium 7:00pm

Saturday 20 February 2009 - Venue & time tbc