With recollections of the record-breaking Ladies’s World Cup fading, the Matildas are again on residence soil this week for an important Olympic qualifying match in Perth, the place they’ve already given a reminder of their pulling energy. The three matches over the course of the subsequent week – towards Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan – rapidly bought out the 20,000-capacity HBF Park, prompting a shift of one of many fixtures to the far bigger Optus Stadium.
Matildas fever is being felt in Western Australia lower than three months after the Matildas’ stellar match resulted in defeat to Sweden within the third-place playoff, with gamers having travelled from their golf equipment – principally within the northern hemisphere – for the second spherical of Asian qualifying for the 2024 Paris Video games. Coach Tony Gustavsson has made it clear that enhancing on their fourth-place end on the Tokyo Olympics is the workforce’s subsequent aim.
Ellie Carpenter, a type of who has travelled again to Australia from Europe the place she plies her commerce for Division 1 Féminine membership Lyon, stated it has been a whirlwind because the World Cup and he or she and her teammates have had little time to relaxation.
“You don’t actually have a lot … downtime, simply straight into a brand new season,” she stated on Tuesday. “You don’t actually have time to mirror and cease for a second, however I feel it has been unbelievable to see the aftermath of the World Cup and what we have now accomplished in soccer in Australia and for ladies as properly.”
Because the No 2 aspect in Asia, Australia robotically certified for spherical two of qualifying together with Japan, China, South Korea and North Korea. The primary spherical passed off in April, when 26 groups have been whittled all the way down to seven. The second spherical sees 12 groups cut up into three teams of 4 vying for a spot within the third and last spherical. The winner of every group might be joined by the best-ranked runner-up in late February for last home-and-away matches with the 2 winners stamping their tickets to the Olympics.
The USA, Canada and Brazil have already booked their locations in Paris, in addition to France because the host nation. They are going to joined by the 2 Asian nations, two European, two African and one from Oceania.
Iran, the Matildas’ first opponents, are ranked 63 on the earth and solely performed in a global match for the primary time in 2022, however topped their group within the first spherical of qualifying. They’re pushing to alter attitudes in direction of ladies’s soccer and ladies in sport extra broadly of their nation, the place ladies aren’t allowed to attend soccer matches. In the event that they qualify towards the chances for the Olympics, the IOC has dominated the gamers might be allowed to put on hijabs, regardless of France’s ban on its athletes from carrying them.
The Philippines, ranked forty fourth, are probably the most acquainted opposition to most after they very almost grew to become the fairytale story of the World Cup as they only missed out on the final 16. They are going to be hoping to construct on the momentum of their first World Cup win (towards hosts New Zealand) and first World Cup aim, however have misplaced Australian Alen Stajcic who helped them get to the match; Mark Torcaso, previously of Western United, has taken the previous Matildas coach’s place. Sunday’s fixture was moved from HBF Park to the 60,000-capacity Optus Stadium to offer extra followers an opportunity to see Australia play.
Three-time Asian champions Taiwan await within the Matildas’ last recreation of the match subsequent Wednesday. As soon as a powerhouse in ladies’s soccer however now ranked thirty eighth, Taiwan have come up simply quick at latest tournaments and missed out World Cup qualification. Together with the Philippines they’re seemingly to supply the hardest problem for the Matildas.
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Australia’s squad is basically unchanged from the group that went to the World Cup, with simply Amy Sayer and Charlie Rule (train-on solely) changing Kyah Simon and Aivi Luik. Captain and Perth native Sam Kerr is again scoring objectives for Chelsea after being sidelined from a calf harm, and Arsenal trio Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross have all made their mark within the WSL. In optimistic information for the Matildas, forwards Mary Fowler at Manchester Metropolis and Hayley Raso at Actual Madrid have loved significantly extra recreation time because the World Cup.
As soon as this spherical of qualifying is over, the Matildas will once more fly off to their golf equipment all over the world till the subsequent worldwide window in December. Then, Australia will finish their monumental yr with two pleasant matches in Canada towards the Olympic champions on 1 and 6 December.
Olympic qualifying spherical two fixtures:
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Australia v Iran: HBF Park – Thursday 26 October, 7pm AWST/10pm AEDT,
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Philippines v Australia: Optus Stadium – Sunday 29 October, 3pm AWST/6pm AEDT
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Australia v Chinese language Taipei: HBF Park – Wednesday 1 November, 7pm AWST/10pm AEDT
Comply with every Matildas recreation on the match with Guardian Australia’s minute-by-minute stay blogs
