425 days ago the Matildas began their journey to France with a 0-0 draw against South Korea in AFC qualifying. On Sunday the real action begins.
It’s been an eventful four years since the World Cup in Canada, starting with the Matildas’ historic 2015 pay-strike, which saw them withdraw from a high-profile friendly series against the USA. A bruising two-year back-and-forth with Football Federation Australia followed, before a landmark collective bargaining agreement was announced in 2017.
Though the off-field distractions appeared to be over the biggest hand grenade was yet to land, with the bungled sacking of coach Alen Stajcic sending one of Australia’s most-loved teams off to France under a pall of accusation and counter-accusation.
This playing group is therefore battle-hardened to off-field distractions. Even the announcement this week that the Matildas would lead a global pay dispute over the discrepancy between Fifa’s prize money for men’s and women’s football appears to come as little diversion to the squad, whose focus naturally remains on the pitch.
For key defender Alanna Kennedy, there’s a sense of unfinished business from Canada 2015, where an 87th minute goal to Japan’s Mana Iwabuchi saw the Matildas tumble out at the quarter-finals stage for a third consecutive World Cup.
“We felt as though we had another step in us,” Kennedy told Guardian Australia earlier this week. “Four years later I feel there’s an expectation from us that we want to be in the semi-finals or final.”
The big challenge for the Matildas, new coach or not, is that women’s football around them has been improving exponentially. At the 2011 World Cup there were two or three standout nations, in 2015 that expanded to five or six. Heading into France 2019 as many as eight or nine nations could be genuine contenders.
That’s before you even consider nations like Spain or Italy, giants of the men’s game, where leading clubs like Juventus and Atlético Madrid are belatedly investing huge amounts in their women’s teams.
The mood from inside the camp appears to suggest that the team is in a better place under Ante Milicic, after a period of one or two years in which performances stagnated.
“Under Staj we had a very predictable style of play, we pretty much didn’t really have a solution when teams had worked us out,” Elise Kellond-Knight told Guardian Australia.
“They knew how to high-press us, and stopped us playing out, whereas under Ante we’ve now worked on a couple of styles where we are able to play out of extreme high pressure.”
Tactically, there’s a sense the Matildas are more sophisticated – the ability with which they posed serious questions of the world’s No 1 team a few months ago demonstrated this.
Conversely, while further evolutions were present against the Dutch in Eindhoven, eight goals conceded in consecutive friendlies against key rivals suggests there are very real defensive frailties within this Matildas team – not aided by the withdrawal through injury of experience defender Laura Alleway.
With as many as three teams going through from each pool, a group-stage exit appears unlikely for the Matildas. But given the complicated machinations of a six-pool World Cup, final group stage positions could prove critical, especially with a potentially stacked top half of the draw come the knock out stages.
Should the group favourites prevail, heavyweights France and USA could be on a quarter final collision course, with England also lurking. Australia would fancy their chances on the other side of the draw, where likely opponents could include a third-placed finisher and perhaps Canada or Japan.
There are too many permutations to set much store in crystal ball gazing at this stage, but suffice to say, if the Matildas want to go deep into the tournament, finishing top of Group C could be essential.
For that to happen, much will depend upon the opening group stage game against Italy, which looms as a potential banana skin fixture. The Italians are expected to be defensively resolute, but with 22/23 of their squad based domestically and few with experience outside of Italy they lack the international exposure of the Matildas.
Australia are expected to be without the services of youngster Mary Fowler who is awaiting scans on a hamstring strain, and while Milicic told media on Saturday that Kellond-Knight was available for selection, the key defensive midfielder could be well-short of match fitness.
Nevertheless, Milicic has emphasised the importance of squad depth if the Matildas are to go deep into the tournament; prioritising minutes for all his outfield players so that starting XI stars can remain fresh come knockout stages.
There’s certainly an abundance of talent and experience within the group – and the squad is coming into France 2019 at an excellent age.
Realistically though, Australia remain dark horses. The nations that have laid claim to the status of World No 1 (for the fifteen years since Fifa’s women’s ratings existed) – USA and Germany – go in as tournament favourites, as do hosts France, who are the only team to have beaten the US in the past two years.
England, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan also loom, depending on how the draw plays out. For Australia, it will take a good start against Italy and for talismanic striker Sam Kerr to fire.
Nevertheless, for a tight-knit group of women that has endured so much on and off the field together – there’s a sense that France 2019 could be Australia’s best ever chance at winning a World Cup.
“In my mind, definitely [it’s now or never]”, says Kellond-Knight.
“I think the last six years of work has really prepared us for this moment – if it’s going to come together, it’s going to be at this World Cup.”
