Category Matildas

Matildas debutants backed to make step up at their first Women’s World Cup | Women’s World Cup 2023

“Are you positive?” Alex Chidiac needed to double examine when she came upon she was within the Matildas World Cup squad. The coach, Tony Gustavsson, had no cause to joke or lie, however Chidiac merely couldn’t course of what she was listening to. “I actually had no clue how one can deal with it,” she stated. “I simply hadn’t actually absolutely considered that as an consequence as a result of I believe I used to be defending myself from that information 4 years in the past.” Chidiac is certainly one of seven World Cup debutants in Gustavsson’s 23-woman squad – all with fewer than 30 caps every for the nationwide facet. Clare Wheeler and Kyra Cooney-Cross be part of Chidiac within the midfield ranks, Courtney Vine provides tempo to the assault, and Clare Hunt, Charlotte Grant and Courtney Nevin convey some a lot wanted depth to what has been an injury-depleted backline. Preparations proceed on Friday towards France in a ultimate warm-up recreation at Marvel Stadium and, after lacking out on the squad for the 2019 World Cup, choice this time round is the realisation of a lifelong dream for midfielder Chidiac. “I believe now…

Read MoreMatildas debutants backed to make step up at their first Women’s World Cup | Women’s World Cup 2023

Women’s World Cup 2023 team guides part five: Australia | Women’s World Cup 2023: Guardian Experts’ Network

This article is a part of the Guardian’s Women’s World Cup 2023 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between among the finest media organisations from the 32 nations who certified. theguardian.com is working previews from two nations every day within the run-up to the event kicking off on 20 July. Overview By no means earlier than has there been extra pre-tournament pleasure surrounding an Australian nationwide soccer group. A World Cup on house soil, a squad boasting a golden technology of gamers and an encouraging run of sustained good kind have piqued curiosity and heightened anticipation in a rustic the place soccer normally struggles for relevance. Led by their talismanic captain, Sam Kerr, the group have despatched expectations hovering, however it hasn’t at all times been so with Tony Gustavsson on the helm. Defensive frailties blighted the coach’s early tenure and, regardless of a fourth-place end on the Tokyo Olympics, a disastrous exit on the quarter-final stage of the 2022 Asian Cup raised questions in regards to the Swede’s means to mount a reputable World Cup problem. Australia’s shirt Gustavsson has sought to maneuver past a “simply give it to Kerr” mentality and tried to keep away…

Read MoreWomen’s World Cup 2023 team guides part five: Australia | Women’s World Cup 2023: Guardian Experts’ Network

‘It’s everything’: Matildas midfielder Clare Wheeler dreaming of World Cup debut | Matildas

Everton midfielder Clare Wheeler takes a second to ponder what it might imply to play within the upcoming Girls’s World Cup. “It’s positively what goals are fabricated from,” she says. “It’s every little thing you need as a child, to go to a World Cup and symbolize your nation.” Even higher, for Wheeler, having not too long ago damaged into the Australian girls’s nationwide group, this 12 months’s match affords the chance to make her World Cup debut on dwelling turf. “So as to add to that it’s going to be on dwelling soil, in entrance of your loved ones and pals, that’s not one thing each participant will get of their lifetime,” the 25-year-old says. “It’s an actual privilege. I’ve watched World Cups at 2am, 3am as a result of they’re being performed in Europe – to have the ability to play and showcase that down below might be wonderful for the area. I feel it’s going to be big for protection of the sport.” Wheeler, a combative, deep-lying midfielder finest within the conventional No 6 function, made her Matildas debut in 2021 in a pleasant towards Eire. She has since notched up greater…

Read More‘It’s everything’: Matildas midfielder Clare Wheeler dreaming of World Cup debut | Matildas

‘Better stuff to come’: former Matilda Moya Dodd recognised as football trailblazer | Matildas

“I suppose we all the time knew,” says Moya Dodd, as she displays on the expansion of ladies’s soccer. Dodd, a former Matildas vice-captain and trail-blazing sports administrator, represented Australia on the 1988 Fifa Ladies’s Invitation Match. The occasion in southern China was a test-run for the primary Ladies’s World Cup in 1991. Subsequent month, Australia will co-host the the 2023 World Cup; with 1m tickets already sold, it’s anticipated to be the most-attended ladies’s sporting occasion in historical past. Ladies’s soccer has come a great distance for the reason that Matildas walked out for his or her opening match of the 1988 match, beating Brazil in the summertime warmth in Jiangmen. However Dodd says even then they’d no doubts in regards to the sport’s trajectory. Moya Dodd was a member of the Matildas 1988 staff on the Fifa Ladies’s Invitation Match. {Photograph}: Provided/Moya Dodd The “88ers” gathered on Zoom earlier this month to replicate on that match 35 years on. “There have been lots of people at that recreation,” Dodd says. “For me, it was the primary time I had performed in entrance of a crowd of 15,000 or so. That, for us, was…

Read More‘Better stuff to come’: former Matilda Moya Dodd recognised as football trailblazer | Matildas

Australia v Canada: international football friendly – live! | Football

Key occasions Present key occasions solely Please activate JavaScript to make use of this function 78 minutes: A great deal of subs from either side. Too many to listing. Mary Fowler is without doubt one of the gamers to come back off. She had one other good recreation tonight. Like many teammates she light within the second half, however she has uncommon high quality. 76 minutes: One other Canada urgent win in midfield turns possession over. Soccer Clichés klaxon: this actually has been a recreation of two halves. Possibly there’s an enormous magnet in a single finish of the revamped Allianz Stadium, that means groups attacking just one finish can collect momentum? 74 minutes: It’s end-to-end in the mean time with the sector stretched and drained our bodies in midfield. Neither facet can take benefit with Rose persevering with to maintain Kerr in her pocket and Leon unable to bully her well beyond Yallop. 72 minutes: Higher from Australia with Fowler and Grant probing on the sting of Canada’s field, however neither can ship the killer move into Kerr and Canada clear. 70 minutes: Gustavsson is now sat on the bench arms crossed with a…

Read MoreAustralia v Canada: international football friendly – live! | Football

Hit-and-miss Matildas rue lost opportunities in defeat to Canada | Matildas

The Matildas did not capitalise on a number of gilt-edged scoring alternatives in a 1-0 loss to Canada in a pulsating worldwide pleasant at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. Canada took a 1-0 lead into half-time because of an outstanding strike by Adriana Leon and three cracking saves by goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan when Matildas skipper Sam Kerr appeared sure to attain. The primary half was an open affair with 11 pictures on purpose. The Matildas had seven of them. After the break it was end-to-end with Australia permitting Canada far an excessive amount of latitude whereas in possession, an space of their recreation they might want to enhance earlier than subsequent yr’s Girls’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand. Kerr laid a neat flick on for substitute Cortnee Vine to fireside simply broad within the 83rd minute as Australia pressed for the equaliser. Kerr missed out once more in harm time when Sheridan once more tipped a header over the bar. The Matildas have been properly served by 19-year-old midfielder Mary Fowler who was busy all through and concerned in a lot of the nice work executed by the facet. Central midfielder Katrina Gorry…

Read MoreHit-and-miss Matildas rue lost opportunities in defeat to Canada | Matildas