Matildas ready to get down to business at World Cup

Anna Harrington | July 19, 2023

The Matildas are finally ready to get down to business.

Sam Kerr and her teammates have travelled a long, winding, and at times difficult, road to Thursday’s Women’s World Cup opener.

That has included a roller-coaster two-and-a-half years of results under coach Tony Gustavsson that seem to have left Australia primed to deliver at the most important time.

After Friday night’s warmup win over France, Gustavsson reeled off a series of stats underlining how Australia had improved against top-10 nations and elite European opposition.

“(But) that doesn’t mean anything on the 20th when we play Ireland because that’s tournament mode,” he added. 

“Now it’s business mode. Now it’s time to focus on Ireland.

“Looking at the vibe and energy in the stadium now, and then thinking about adding another 30,000 (fans) – it’s going to be electric in the opening game and the players are going to love it.”

Football Australia and the players kept faith in Gustavsson amid a difficult first half of his tenure.

“We’ve always trusted,” defender Alanna Kennedy said.

“You have to believe and trust in the process, and we know what Tony brings as a coach. 

“We know the plan and the vision, and sometimes it takes time … the teething process blooding the young players as well.

“It’s all coming together now. People can see it all come to fruition and hopefully (it’s) peaking at the right time.”

Sydney’s Accor Stadium will be packed to its FIFA capacity of 75,784 for the clash with World Cup debutants Ireland, who expect to have midfielder Denise O’Sullivan available after she picked up a shin injury in last week’s aborted ‘friendly’ against Colombia.

Caitlin Foord is close friends with the combative Arsenal and Ireland left-back Katie McCabe, with the pair enjoying plenty of lead-up banter.

“Just her little comments make me really want to smash them – but I’ve just been biting my tongue and holding off,” Foord joked to AAP in May.

“It will be nice to share that moment with her as well.”

After the pair combined superbly against France, Kennedy could partner Clare Hunt in defence, with Clare Polkinghorne still building minutes as she returns from a foot injury.

“We understand each other. We’re both aggressive centre-backs so it’s taken a bit of pulling back from both of us to know that if one of us is being aggressive, the other one’s got to cover,” Hunt said of Kennedy.

“Each of the centre-backs brings their own capacities and their own abilities. Whoever takes those two central positions will do their job mighty fine.”

All 23 squad members trained on Wednesday, including Charli Grant, who has recovered from illness.

Tameka Yallop and Kyah Simon were both on the track but on different training programs, and appear unlikely to feature in the opening game.