Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova says she's still uncertain whether Mikaelya Moore will feature in their final game of the SheBelieves Cup, after the defender's hat-trick of own goals against the USA on Monday (NZ time).
Moore put the ball into the back of the wrong net three times in the first half, before making a tearful exit when she was substituted out of the game quickly after the final goal.
The Football Ferns went on to lose the match against the reigning World Cup holders 5-0.
The unprecedented nature of Moore's mishaps saw them attract worldwide attention, with the goals coming from her left foot, right foot, and head in what strikers would describe as a 'perfect' hat-trick.
With their final tie of the four-team tournament against Czech Republic scheduled at Dallas on Wednesday, Klimkova says she'll take more time to assess Moore's mindset at training, before deciding if the Liverpool player is ready to return.
"We are trying to help Meikayla as much as possible because this is a team sport, it is not an individual sport, and she has our back," said Klimkova.
"We will try to do everything to bring her confidence back and be back with us on the field as soon as possible.
"First things first, she needs to really put her mindset back and understand how great a player she is. It was really about our team, it wasn't about just her."
Klimkova attempted to deflect the blame from Moore, inisting the goals were symptomatic of an overall lack of urgency from her side.
"That moment was a tough moment for herself and for us," she says.
"We reflected as a whole team, what we could do actually to prevent those goals. It wasn't just about what happened in the box, but what happened before."
After defeats to Iceland and USA, the Football Ferns will try to close the competition on a positive note against Czech Republic, who held USA to a goal-less draw and fell 2-1 to Iceland.
Klimkova believes the side is capable of much more than they've shown in Texas and the improvements need to start with more attention to accuracy in the kinds of crossing situations which led to their first-half debacle against the hosts.
"We've put ourselves in this situation, and I think everyone on the team really wants to show what we can do and show that we're not a team that is going to concede in the first minute, five minutes, 10 minutes of every game we play," she says. "That's not us.
"We have better behaviours that we, I believe, usually show in terms of marking in the box, preventing crosses.
"It's been two games in a row where we've conceded early and then obviously four goals where it was crossing situations, and I think we all want to end this tournament on a high note individually and as a team."
