\ncouldn’t convince Abby Erceg to play at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really tough decision,\u201d said Erceg. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to a lot of people about it \u2026 because that\u2019s the dream, isn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to play a World Cup at home and it would have been towards the end of my international career as well, so kind of a perfect send-off. But it just didn\u2019t sit right with me personally and professionally. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I just had to put that first, rather than just doing something where my heart was never going to be in it. I didn\u2019t think that was fair to the group or to myself to do something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erceg sat on the decision for a \u201clong, long time\u201d to make sure she would be okay with it, but doesn\u2019t feel it was a particularly brave call. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was brave in the sense that you have to go through with it, yes,\u201d Erceg agreed. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people would think, it\u2019s a World Cup, you have to represent your country. But people also forget that I was in one of the best club environments in the world at North Carolina. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so successful and it was very difficult to leave that environment, and go into an environment that I didn\u2019t feel … was serving me as a player. I had to make that decision for my career, in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Football Ferns head coach Jitka Klimkova
\ncouldn’t convince Abby Erceg to play at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to wonder how things might have been different with her experience and ability, as the Ferns failed to capitalise on the brilliant 1-0 win over Norway in their opening game, taking only a point from the last two matches against the Philippines (0-1) and Switzerland (0-0).<\/p>\n
Erceg has always marched to a different beat, previously retiring in 2017 then again in 2018 \u2013 mainly over New Zealand Football\u2019s perceived lack of support and resources for the women\u2019s game \u2013 before returning ahead of the 2019 Women\u2019s World Cup. <\/p>\n
While her commitment wavered at times, she is remembered as one of New Zealand\u2019s most accomplished players, participating in three World Cups, three Olympics and the first Fern to reach a century of caps (146 in total), with 49 as captain. <\/p>\n
Erceg has also had a decorated club career, with three National Women\u2019s Soccer League Championships (2016 \u2013 Western New York Flash; 2018, 2019 \u2013 North Carolina Courage). <\/p>\n
After 12 years in the United States, she recently completed a season with Toluca in Mexico, which she describes as one of the best experiences of her life. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was phenomenal,\u201d Erceg said. \u201cThe culture, the food, the people, the football, the excitement around it. Such an incredible country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Football Ferns’ Abby Erceg in action against Colombia in 2016. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old doesn\u2019t know her next step but hinted that she would like to be closer to home. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are offers from everywhere,\u201d Erceg said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn New Zealand, the A League, back in Mexico and clubs in America. But you get to that point in your career where family does become important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve missed a lot of my family\u2019s life. I\u2019ve missed a lot of my nephews\u2019 lives. So you do have to start taking those things into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her immediate focus is the date with eight-time English champions Chelsea, a herculean task for a scratch team with only a few weeks training together. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge \u2013 and that\u2019s a polite word,\u201d Erceg said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a real education for a lot of people about where New Zealand football sits because we are playing one of the best female club teams in the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of preparation so our work is going to be cut out for us. But at the same time, it\u2019s good to have such a high calibre team in New Zealand and the exposure is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a sports journalist for the NZ Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was a really tough decision,\u201d said Erceg. \u201cI spoke to a lot of people about it \u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17248,119361,59327,85,4995,13381,2046,10542,14134,16639,263949,2550,37119,10541,36862,5213,2740,71,3223,111,139,69,1523,49211,213,61,28557,34890,2834,377,80],"class_list":["post-554155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-17248","tag-abby","tag-absence","tag-australia","tag-away","tag-captain","tag-career","tag-cup","tag-decision","tag-decisions","tag-erceg","tag-even","tag-explains","tag-ferns","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-former","tag-from","tag-legend","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-regrets","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-toughest","tag-walk","tag-womens","tag-world","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}