The Panama and New Zealand women’s teams They will face each other in two friendly duels that they will hold on home soil within this selection window.
For Panama, this series of matches becomes more important because they are preparing to play the quarterfinals of the W Championship in the month of November, a competition that gives tickets to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
While the New Zealand team, or as they are also nicknamed the ‘Football Ferns’, have already qualified for next year’s World Cup tournament. Despite this classification, these friendly duels against Panama will help the oceanic team adapt to the weather conditions on this side of the world.
The first friendly duel will take place this Saturday, October 10 at the Rommel Fernández stadium with the initial whistle at 4:00 pm (local time). While the second duel will be played in this same venue but on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:30 pm (local time).
In the run-up to this first friendly duel, both teams have already started their training to arrive in the best possible way. In fact, the New Zealand team arrived in the country at the beginning of the week and had their first training session last Tuesday, October 6, to adapt to the local time zone.
Since then, the New Zealand team has been carrying out its training at the High Performance Center of the Panamanian Football Federation located in Bugaba.
It must be remembered that New Zealand will play its seventh World Cup in its entire history and they hosted the 2023 edition along with Australia. Never in their history have they managed to get past the group stage in a World Cup tournament.
As for the Panamanian team, they are in search of their second qualification for the World Cup tournament, but first they will have to do their homework against Canada in the quarterfinals of the W Championship.
Like the New Zealanders, Panama began training this week, also in Bugaba, to arrive in optimal conditions for the match.
Among the calls of Toña Is, the team’s coach, is the player Noemí Potier, whose father is Swiss and whose mother is Panamanian. Potier, 20 years old, plays for Nantes in France and is having his first experience in the Panamanian team.
“For me, playing for Panama is something very nice. I am very proud and happy to be able to represent my country. I have a very special affection for Panama; my family passed it on to me and that fills my heart with joy,” Potier expressed in the past about this possibility of representing Panama.
Along the same lines, the soccer player detailed how she was chosen by Panama to represent it internationally.
“I had to choose between representing Switzerland or Panama. I let my heart choose and I decided for Panama, for my grandfather and for my family. These are personal things that I don’t always say, but, deep down, that is the reason why I want to play for Panama,” he said.
Both New Zealand and Panama will be training for the rest of the week with the aim of arriving prepared for this first friendly duel, of two, at the Rommel Fernández stadium.
