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Australia v Taiwan: international women’s football friendly – live | Matildas Key events While we wait for the players to get kitted up and make their way on to AAMI Park, take the time to dig into the Guardian’s ever-expansive 100 best female footballers in the world 2024. Players to land in places 41-100 have, at the time of writing, been revealed. Spoiler alert: the list so far includes three Matildas. Let me know which Australia players might make the top 40 countdown? These two friendlies against Taiwan in Melbourne tonight and in Geelong on Saturday are the Matildas’ last matches for the year. Australia’s record this year is middling, in part due to a disappointing Olympic Games campaign, with six wins, five losses and a draw from their official matches. The women’s national squad will be back together in February for the SheBelieves Cup against Japan, Colombia and hosts USA. Who knows, the Matildas might even have a permanent head coach then, but in the meantime third-time mentor Tom Sermanni will take charge for the pair of clashes with Taiwan. The 70-year-old took a thinly veiled swipe at his predecessors for failing to properly balance present-day success with the future needs of the team.
Taiwan XITaiwan: Wang Yu-Ting (gk), Su Sin-Yun, Hsu Yi-Yun, Pu Hsin-Hui, Chan Pi-Han, Wu Kai-Ching, Chen Jin-Wen, Su Yu-Hsuan, Chen Ying-Hui (capt), Lin Hsin-Hui, Huang Ke-Sin. Matildas XIAustralia: Mackenzie Arnold (gk), Tameka Yallop, Charlie Grant, Clare Hunt, Natasha Prior, Sharn Freier, Chloe Logarzo, Emily van Egmond (capt), Daniela Galic, Emily Gielnik, Michelle Heyman. Veteran midfielder Emily van Egmond will again captain the Matildas in both friendlies against Taiwan after taking the armband at short notice when Steph Catley felt soreness in the warm-up before the second clash with Brazil. Chloe Logarzo returns to the Matildas’ starting XI after a long lay off, while Sharn Freier, Daniela Galic and Natasha Prior each make their starting debuts. The team sheet looks more suited to a 4-4-2, though Tom Sermanni has preferred to line up with a back five since returning as interim coach. That structure was at times exposed by Brazil on the counterattack, when the Matildas paid the price for the wing-backs pushing too far up the pitch, though they are less likely to face the same concerns this evening.
Resident football reporter Joey Lynch is at AAMI Park this evening and will be wrapping up all the action later with a match report. Joey has already looked at what we learned from the Matildas’ two matches against Brazil, who were of course continuing their on-field preparations before hosting the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Premable Hello and welcome to live coverage of the women’s international friendly between the Matildas and Taiwan at AAMI Park in Melbourne. Australia will field a new-ish looking lineup against Taiwan as opportunities are handed to fringe players and emerging talents after a more familiar XI battled out a pair of fiery clashes with rivals Brazil. The Matildas fell short in both of those games against the rapidly regenerating No 8-ranked side and are now out to return to winning ways against Taiwan. Australia will face a different sort of challenge against the world No 41 in the back-to-back matches in Melbourne and then Geelong, with the visitors likely setting up with a low block. Breaking down a deep-lying defence has not always been the Matildas forte, so this looms as a good test for interim coach Tom Sermanni’s outfit even while missing a host of stars. This is the first time that the Matildas have returned to AAMI Park since their 4-0 win over Canada during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, when Hayley Raso scored a first-half double before Mary Fowler and Steph Catley sealed the win that ensured the hosts topped their group. Those four regulars are all missing from the squad to face Taiwan but Sermanni has called the need to use these matches to develop the next generation. Kick-off time in Melbourne is 8pm AEDT. I’ll be back shortly with the lineups and team news. If you want to share any comments, queries, ideas or predictions, shoot me an email, or find me on Bluesky @martinpegan.bsky.social and X @martinpegan. Let’s get into it!
Source link Posted: 2024-12-04 09:49:13 |
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