1 Aug 2012

Football Ferns into quarterfinals

12:27 pm on 1 August 2012

The New Zealand women's football team has qualified for the Olympic quarter-finals.

The Football Ferns beat Cameroon 3-1 in their final pool match in Coventry on Tuesday.

It was their first win of the competition and they qualify for a quarter-final match against the United States, as one of the best third-placed teams.

Rebecca Smith and Sarah Gregorius scored the goals, but there was also an own goal.

Smith says they have to take it one game at a time in these kind of tournaments.

"Having lost the first two results we just try to take the positive things out of those and move forward."

She says it was a good effort by her side and one of their more solid performances.

"Obviously it was our goal to get out of our group but we kind of did it the hard way."

Smith says she is very proud of the team and its performance.

"Now we're going to focus on the next step, which is in the quarter-finals and this is totally new for us - we've never gotten out of our group in any tournament. So we're looking to have a good performance against the US."

The quarter-finals are on Friday.

New Zealand coach Tony Readings says their 1-0 losses to Great Britain and Brazil have left the players disappointed, but hungry.