Matildas, women's football are developing beautifully

When the Matilda’s beat Ghana 4-1 in Hangzhou, China, almost four years ago, winning for the first time in a World Cup game, it barely rated a mention across the nation. Most Australians, sadly, had no clue the tournament was on, let alone that we had a team representing us, and doing a mighty fine job of it.

That was despite the Matildas games being broadcast live on SBS and coming only 14 months after the euphoria of the men’s World Cup in Germany.

Only a couple of dedicated football bloggers, namely Eamonn Flanagan and Hamish Alcorn, dared champion the cause of Tom Sermanni’s girls in the build up to China.

By the time the Matildas had drawn their second game, against former World Champions Norway, then part of the women’s football establishment, a few more sat up and took notice.

I was certainly among them, impressed primarily by the on-field quality from the likes of Lisa De Vanna, Sarah Walsh, Collette McCallum and Heather Garriock.

With the pace of De Vanna and Walsh up front, and the prompting from the prodigious left feet of McCallum and Garriock, the Matildas were not only watchable, but damn good.

Leading up to the final group game and needed a draw against Canada to make the quarter finals, the whispers were getting louder.

Alcorn, despite keeping a football blog at the time, felt compelled to plug the Matildas by writing this piece for Webdiary, one of Australia’s first blogs.

Here is a part of what he wrote;

“The Matildas are not just good. They are clearly special. As players and personalities, and as a team, they have that bit of magic which compels one to believe in them. They are the most brilliant role-models for our young girls, and perfect icons for Australian patriotism and pride. And I don’t particularly blame the Australian people for not being more passionately behind them. Clearly their marketing has failed them because they are about the most marketable product in the country. They are young, beautiful, sexy, talented, committed and Australian. Their personalities and obvious team magic are inspiring. They are doing well on the highest stage available, and don’t look like they’ve peaked.”

While the Matildas went on to lose a thrilling quarter final to Brazil, coming back from two goals down, to level it at 2-2, before being sunk by an outrageous Cristiane goal (you can re-live the highlights here), it was massive break-through tournament for the this team, captured in the moving Never Say Die documentary.

Brazil went on to dish up one of the most remarkable displays in the semi final, smashing the USA 4-0 with some of the most outrageous football you will ever see.

Analysing it for SBS at the time, Craig Foster described it as one of the best games he’d ever seen, and I was equally as effusive about their performance and the overall standard of that tournament in my wrap on The Round Ball Analyst.

Four years on and I think it’s fair to say that the Matildas, both as an on-field and off-field product, have evolved in a big way.

In the past few weeks, in the build up to their departure to Germany yesterday, the team led by Melissa Barbieri have featured not only in the blogsphere, but across national broadsheets, on national radio and in football magazines, to name a few.

Yesterday they even took a pit-stop at the biggest bandwagon of them all, Channel 7’s Sunrise, getting Kochie in a huff and puff about the “strip” they presented him, before popping past FFA headquarters for one last farewell.

The night before they were showered with a cocktail function, decked out in their impressive new Carla Zampatti black and cream suits. Heady days indeed.

Speaking yesterday on Fox Sports News, before boarding the plane, experienced central midfielder Sally Shipard described the build-up as a “whirlwind”.

With the extra attention, of course, comes the expectation, and after the catching the eye last time around and opening even more eyes with their impressive win at the Asian Cup last year, there’s no doubt the pressure is on to deliver.

When their plane touches down in Germany today, it will be all business, with warm-up games against Mexico and England before kicking-off their campaign in a fortnight against Brazil.

As far as first-up tests go, it can’t get more difficult, and with the squad missing two of its experienced forwards in Walsh and Kate Gill, there’s plenty of pressure on others to step up, especially at the pointy end.

Whereas in the past few years the likes of De Vanna, Garriock and McCallum have shouldered most of the responsibility, this time around youngsters like Kyah Simon, Sam Kerr, Tameka Butt, Servet Uzunlar, Kim Carroll and Elise Kellond-Knight are expected to be among the biggest contributors.

Indeed, for the team to meet the expectations by getting out of a tough group that also includes Norway and Equatorial Guinea, it would need a bevy of these youngsters to take the next step, backing up their excellent work at the Asian Cup.

Behind them are a bevy of more fresh-faces, including the likes of Emily van Egmond, Laura Alleway, Caitlin Foord, Ellyse Perry and Casey Dumont.

Wherever there has been a contentious call, Sermanni, it seems, has gone for a youngster, choosing van Egmond over Kylie Ledbrook, Alleway over Thea Slatyer, Perry instead of Aivi Luik.

While the team, no doubt, wants to achieve something in Germany, clearly one eye is focussed on Canada in 2015.

There’s no doubt a great deal has been achieved since knocking off Ghana, but, to borrow the words of Hamish from four years ago, the Matildas “don’t look like they’ve peaked”.

This World Cup looks like another step on the way.

Matildas squad (Name, Club, Age)
1. Melissa Barbieri, Melbourne Victory, 31
2. Teigen Allen, Sydney FC, 17
3. Kim Carroll, Brisbane Roar, 23
4. Clare Polkinghorne, Brisbane Roar, 24
5. Laura Alleway, Brisbane Roar, 21
6. Ellyse Perry, Canberra United, 20
7. Heather Garriock, Sydney FC/LdB Malmo, 28
8. Elise Kellond-Knight, Brisbane Roar, 20
9. Caitlin Foord, Sydney FC, 16
10. Servet Uzunlar, Sydney FC, 21
11. Lisa De Vanna, Brisbane Roar/magicJack, 26
12. Emily van Egmond, Canberra United, 17
13. Tameka Butt, Brisbane Roar, 19
14. Collette McCallum, Perth Glory, 25
15. Sally Shipard, Canberra United, 25
16. Lauren Colthorpe, Brisbane Roar, 25
17. Kyah Simon, Sydney FC, 19
18. Lydia Williams, Canberra United, 23
19. Leena Khamis, Sydney FC, 24
20. Samantha Kerr, Perth Glory, 17
21. Casey Dumont, Brisbane Roar, 19

Group D World Cup fixtures (all on SBS)

Vs Brazil on Thursday, June 30, 2.15am AEST
Vs Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, July 3, 10pm AEST
Vs Norway on Thursday, July 7, 2am AEST