Congrats are in order; The Matildas are now officially FIFA's #5 team in the world! Hopefully they'll have a strong pre tourney schedule on the road to Rio. Their fast paced & aggressive, physical style easily beat their slower Asian counterparts over at the AFC tourney, but they now need to show that they can handle the big girls out of Europe & N America as well. btw...........does anybody know if this is the highest ranking Australia ever had?
the Matildas clobbered New Zealand, 2-0, in their first friendly with them. No highlights as of yet, but from the brief recap, Catlyn Foord scored the brace, Hmm............does this mean she's playing forward? and are Kerr & Crummer back?(as they're no mention of the lineup in the recap that I read). A crowd of 4371 attended the march. For me this is sort of a disappointing. I mean if a country similar in scope & size like Canada can turn up crowds of up to 42K, than Australians should be able to do the same,, because right now they don't seem to know that they got something really special, and yet it can be spoiled by lack of funding & sponsors. If Lauren Jackson can sign a contract for a million dollars with her basketball club, Canberra Capitals, then it's showing that there is money in women's sports in Australia! The crowd should be bigger in the 2nd friendly with the Ferns, as the Matildas host a double header with the Socceroos
4,400 crowd very good turnout for a regional town (population ~100,000) ; tuesday nights match will be interesting to see exactly when they count the stats for the attendance (kick-off of the first game?) - DEFINITELY will be bigger. Trawling through some (incomplete) statistics on Wikipedia, last time they got a bigger crowd in Australia was ~5,000 for the Final of the Asian Cup against China in 2006. Perhaps there was a bigger crowd at MCG that year against Mexico, as it was also part of a double header (Soceroos again were playing Greece). Matildas play +80% of their games overseas , and since that 2006 Asian Cup, about half of the home games against New Zealand who are not generally a big crowd puller.
not sure you can call 2-0 a clobbering ! BTW, we haven't got more than 3 past them in our last 10 outings (i.e. this decade)
stats;.......... Australia.. 19 shots, 10 on target ................... Ferns.. ....8 shots. ZERO on target sounds like a dominating game! and this was vs a full strength NZ that had the return of Hanna Wilkerson. my bad in thinking that there was a heated, AU/NZ sort of across town rivalry. but right after I wrote that post, Canada's woso NT*(a rather physical, brutal side) played a friendly in front of over 28K home crowd fans! And believe me, the Matildas are so much more of an exciting team & players to watch---Sam Kerr, in my book the most entertaining player in last season's NWSL., and after that you still got, Foord, Devanna & Catley to stir/excite things even more! That's(as an outsider) is what I don't understand why it don't click with AU fans? (and of course their morbid fascination instead with Netball LOL)
I'm not sure how match fit Hannah is after returning from her torn ACL last fall. I would assume it will take her a few months to return to her previous form.
She's probably dating one of these 15 year old boys .............. http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...se-70-to-team-of-15yearold-boys-a3257266.html
here is the only footage I've been able to find of the Matildas recent deuce with the Ferns. It's last 30 minutes as both squads bring an array of subs on. Unfortunately missing id both of Foord's goals. But the Matildas are able to keep a well disciplined, tight defense for the remainder of the match. Nice park atmosphere, but not the best toilet facilities!
Scramble off a corner kick (at 54:25 of video). I was doing other things, but this caught my eye like Blue Origin landing. 45' 1-0 #6 Logarzo left ck, drops untouched past a 1-v-2 at 2m left post, bounces at 1m 1/6 right. #9 Hearn turn-and-clear off goalline as Nayler scrambles across -- blocked point-blank by #14's Kennedy's knees sliding into goal, ball rebounds into Hearn's and Nayler's legs at 1 diameter and stops. All 3 topple each other slowly into goal while foot-wrestling, #8 Kellond-Knight arrives at 1m 1/4 right just as ball gets poked past her, to 6-top 2-left. #16 Heyman pokes it up toward left post, #4 Duncan blocks with chest at 4m -- AUS raise arms for handball, ignored. Duncan flicks ball out to box top center while falling down. #19 Gorry tries half-volley ball-stop, but backspin makes ball bounce up-and-away from her like a Superball off a garage wall, drops to box top 1/3 right. #12 Hassett jump-flicks right foot quarter-volley to clear, somehow quacks it like a slow putt goalward along 1/3 right. Heyman turns at 10m 1/3 right, standing-shoots rising over 3 defenders -- off crossbar center with Nayler off-line and jumping (her) right. Ball bounces left to 12m mid-left, De Vanna settles and kicks it to #4 Polkinghorne at 9m left post. One-touch chip blocked by Percival's torso, bounces left to 7m 7-left. Percival wins race to ball and blasts it into far touch. HT 1-0 whew
here's the Matildas final 18 member squad for Rio GK; Williams,. Arnold DF, Polkinhorne, Carpenter, Kennedy, Alleway. Catley MD Kellond-Knight, Van Egmond, Gorry, Logarzo, Butt FW DeVanna, Kerr, Foord, Crummer, Simon, Heyman comments; obviously their FW selection is 2nd to none, but they're spread a little thing at MD, and the DF can be down right scary! Especially on the right side, where Staj decided to go with the 16 year old, Carpenter & Alleway, instead of the T Allen & Cooper, who didn't make the squad. Alleway has been a nightmare to watch over the last few months, as she's had the ball continuously stripped right from under her feet, whether it's in the NWSL or like in the last game vs the Ferns. Oddly, Cooper played well at cb in the Matildas 1st game vs NZ, Alleway, of course a total disaster in the 2nd one when she started....hmm Staj, what are you thinking? Which makes me wonder too.......in group opponents, Germany & Canada are two teams that will try to dominate the middle with numbers, aren't Staj only using 3 mids going to get overwhelmed? In the meantime; using their 3 fwds for a high pressing game can work only so well. It did great against Japan in the Asian qualifiers, but if they can't get the turnovers, then they'll exhaust themselves to death, and wouldn't be able to give much support to the mids.
The Australian defender from the 2011 WWC was a nightmare for them as well and she was on the team for too long after that. But Canada could have at least kept Sesselmann on the roster and had her play in the group match against the African debutant nation in their group, as not even she could have screwed that game up for them.
My gosh, Servet Uzunlar, if I remember well. *facepalm* She was really beyond awful. Genoveva Añonma probably still feels grateful, a five full years after that...
Exactly. Laura Bassett's mistake was simply a total "Fluke". And nothing more, as Bassett was having a good tournament. Uzunlar made more than one incompetent error, and did so in their next game as well against Norway at that WWC. She was a deer in the headlights in that environment on that big of stage. She really shouldn't have been there. It's a World Cup. It comes with criticism (which comes with the territory). It wasn't the HerGrateful Cup, held in Aurora, Colorado. It was a World Cup. Criticism is always going to occur.
Good times. De Vanna was blonde, back then, Van Egmond was just 17, and hand-balls in the box were free of charge...
and yet Australia used Uzunlar again as the right fb vs the US in the first game of the 2015 WC. She got completely torn apart by Rapinoe(who scored 2 goals) She would never play again after that as Foord took her spot for the rest of the tourney. Only problem now is Foord looks like the best forward the Matildas got as of late, as Kerr is still not 100% back. Most likely they'll put Polkinhorneat right fb. But she got released by the Thorns and no other NWSL team wanted to pick her up for some reason the English hold the world's record for scoring against their team! In the WSL, a cb scored twice in one game against her home side, and who can forget 'hot legs' Rafferty, who scored an own goal both games of the Chelsea/Wolfsburg CL series. Don't know why? Probably cause the English tend to play their cb's way up that their facing their own goal on defense. if I recall, it was the fb, Bronze, that had to race back on defense, most often when either Pugh or Morgan broke through in the SBC match as their cb's, Houghton & Flaherty, were nowhere to be found
Nice overview: http://thewomensgame.com/2016/07/stajcic-we-have-had-to-leave-out-good-players-in-good-form/
I'm no fan of Gorry and this last game showed why; after taking a 1-0 lead over Brazil at half time, Gorry gets stupidly red carded at the 46 minute. The Matildas get completely dominated after that, giving up 3 goals in about the last 30 minutes. They definitely got a lot of work cut out for them, as their defense stunk in that latter 2nd half. I also feel that they got to watch their pacing; Matildas came out strong at the beginning with a high press, but they seemed completely exhausted by toward to the end. The only good thing to say, they didn't play either Kerr or Cately & Devanna only popped up for the last minute of the game. But here's the full game
Looks like that the Matildas have some new supporters here in Italy too: http://www.ondanews.it/rofrano-ha-una-sua-rappresentante-alle-olimpiadi-di-rio-de-janeiro/ Chloe Logarzo has been contacted by the mayor of Rofrano, a small village in the Salerno province, not far from Naples, and has confimed that her grandparents were born here, where this family name is very common.
Congrats to the Matildas for a great game, definitely silver medal worthy(as I pick Brazil to eventual win the gold(and who knows if only Catley didn't get injured so early?) And maybe they didn't medal but they're easily were the most entertaining team to watch play out there(why ain't there no medals for that?)
I don't know if they were more entertaining than Brazil, but it was certainly an excellent, entertaining game and confirmed what we already knew - that Australia is a very, very good young team.
where as Brazil/South Africa game was a dud, the Matildas spiffed things up in all of their matches. That's partly due to their fast counter attacks, but also their deficiencies, especially at mid, where they only got 3 players, and in my opinion, ready need to replace Gorry. She missed a lot of tackles in this tourney and then of course had to miss the pk that would of given to win. I was waiting along for El Dorko(the name of the coach) to bring in Tameka Butt to replace her, but sadly, it never came
was she the only one on the squad that didnt get any time on the field ? I thought the Matilda's played exactly at the level they're capable of, and (almost) the standard they've been achieving for the last 2 years. Bowing out at the quarter finals was appropriate. I am so sick of Stajic's long-ball-bypassing-the-midfield tactics - we have to learn to control through the midfield on the ground to move up to the next level, as Canada has done. Hopefully next Olympics it will be expanded to match the men's 16-team competition : 12 is horrible in terms of the format, and also punishes AFC in terms of qualification spots. 2/12 would presumably turn into 3/16 (where AFC has 5 countries in the top 20)