{"id":811560,"date":"2026-07-20T04:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811560\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T04:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:52:10","slug":"former-football-ferns-captain-abby-erceg-first-player-announced-for-auckland-fc-womens-invitational-xi-to-play-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811560\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Football Ferns captain Abby Erceg first player announced for Auckland FC Women\u2019s Invitational XI to play Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AbbyAbby Erceg captained the Football Ferns 49 times. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Abby as part of this team is incredibly special,\u201d Bindon<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a legendary Football Fern and someone who has helped shape women\u2019s football in New Zealand through the way she has played, led and represented our country.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a player of Abby\u2019s calibre and character step on to the field at Eden Park against a club like Chelsea is something really special.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe represents what is possible for the next generation, and I know her leadership, experience and presence will mean so much to this group and to the young girls watching from the stands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erceg spent most of her club career in the United States\u2019 NWSL, winning one title with the Western New York Flash and two with the North Carolina Courage.<\/p>\n

The match against Chelsea is on August 8 and is part of the New Zealand International Football Festival, with Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur playing Auckland FC on July 26<\/a> also at Eden Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abby Erceg captained the Football Ferns 49 times. Photo \/ Photosport \u201cHaving Abby as part of this team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[190380,32613,64,22065,63,22806,9659,6187,66329,386534,244837,188332,26046,13057,596,580,21694,236832,65136,22795,11920,38633,15624,85,1928,319,3605,24351,225823],"class_list":["post-811560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-abby","tag-announced","tag-au","tag-auckland","tag-australia","tag-been","tag-captain","tag-chelsea","tag-eden","tag-erceg","tag-fc","tag-fern","tag-ferns","tag-first","tag-football","tag-for","tag-former","tag-invitational","tag-join","tag-match","tag-park","tag-play","tag-player","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-to","tag-with","tag-womens","tag-xi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}