A 1-0 defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Australia in Sydney on Saturday has left Football Ferns head coach John Herdman demanding a ruthless streak from his players heading into the Beijing Olympics.
Leena Khamis scored the only goal of the game after 25 minutes, drifting un-tracked into the box from a quickly-taken wide free kick, before flicking the ball over a late-arriving Jenny Bindon in the New Zealand goal.
New Zealand pushed hard for an equaliser creating numerous chances to get back in the game and had a strong penalty shout for handball turned down in the second half.
Winger Ali Riley was the standout among a number of players getting behind the Australian defence to deliver crosses, but despite extended periods of pressure, New Zealand coach John Herdman said his team needed to find something extra to get results against the big nations.
"I'm sick of making excuses, we have to be more ruthless in the attacking third," said Herdman.
"I'm patting the players on the back saying well done at the end of the game, but it's not enough to get results."
"It's the most dominant I've seen a New Zealand team over Australia in my time, even Aussie coach Tom Sermanni said to me we should've got something out of that game.
"There were some pretty impressive individual performances out there but anything outside that - it's about results heading into the Olympics."
The Football Ferns fly out to China on Sunday for two internationals against the Olympic hosts in Qinhuangdao before finishing their pre-Olympic build-up with matches against Singapore and Canada in Singapore.
New Zealandthen return to Qinhuangdao to begin their Olympic campaign against Japan (August 6) and Norway (August 9) before finishing group play against the USA in Shenyang on August 12.