Matildas to name squad for North Korea

Football in the Capital caught up with the Matildas to discuss their crucial Olympic Qualifier against North Korea and all things Matildas.

Coach Tom Sermanni will name his squad early this week for the crucial Olympic qualifier with North Korea on Sunday June 3rd in Pyongyang.

Sermanni had twenty-eight players in camp this week at the AIS, but will reduce his squad to 18 for the trip.

The Matildas have four ACT. players at the camp. Caitlin Munoz, Sally Shipard, Amy Chapman and Lydia Williams have all played a lot of football in Canberra. Worryingly, three of the Canberrans are under an injury cloud and must wait for final fitness assessments to see if they are on the plane to Korea.

“Sally and Caitlin are running freely. Lydia has a small wrist injury so we’re just hoping they are all okay. If they should miss the first game they could come into contention for the second game in Coffs Harbour the following week.” said Sermanni.

“We are well prepared and will fly to China next Monday. We’ll play a friendly behind closed doors in Beijing, against China, and then fly into North Korea on Saturday. Getting flights in and out of North Korea is difficult but we’ve done the best we can.”

Experienced defender, Cheryl Salisbury, was recently selected for the FIFA World All?Star team, which played China before the World Cup draw in April. She is one of the few players to have travelled to North Korea before.

“It’s grey. Nothing you have read or seen prepares you for this, but you have to cope with it. Last time we weren’t allowed outside our hotel, except to train and play. That just means we all become a little closer and bond better. So the morale of the team improves. Electricity shuts off, there is no access to computers or television so you have to find different things to do. It is hard seeing the poverty and it makes you appreciate what you have in Australia.”

This is a big year for Salisbury and her Matildas team mates. “We’ve got these Olympic qualifiers. We want to go to the Beijing Olympics next year and we want to do well at the World Cup in China in September.”

“Personally, the knees are holding up, just, but I had to have an injection before the games against Chinese Taipei. How long I can continue I don’t know, but I’d like to get to Beijing for the Olympics and then we’ll see.”

After football?

“Well I’d like to stay involved. I’ve played since I was an 8 year-old junior in Newcastle. More and more women coaches are coming into the game. When I started we relied on someone’s dad or an ex-player who had little coaching experience. Now we have the best. They are still mainly men, but the women now have the experience to start to come through. I’ll do my Asia Coaching qualifications and see how I go.”

“The young players today are so far ahead of where I was. They come into camp with much better technical skills. You can see how the junior coaching has paid off.

Sermanni is relaxed about the trip to North Korea. “We’ve done our homework. I expect the home side to attack and have a lot of possession. Even in the English Premier League an inferior side like Wigan will have a spell of sustained pressure against Manchester United if they are at home. The home crowd will give the players a lift. We’ve focused on this and what we can expect from the Referees. We don’t always feel we get a fair go in Asia. Different interpretations of the rules, but we get on with it.”

Football in Asia means more games and more travel for all the Australian teams.

“The Matildas’ and Young Matildas’ programmes have increased tremendously. There is so much more travel, so many more games to play to qualify for tournaments and the standard is much higher than when we went through Oceania. We’re in the middle of these Olympic Qualifiers whereas the Oceania Olympic qualifiers haven’t even started yet!”

“Our resources are stretched. We have nine international teams to spend our money on. The Socceroos are obviously the most important as they bring in the most revenue, but the rest of the teams get a fair go. It’s just a case of having so many teams with travel, training and playing costs. We do the best we can.”

“After the World Cup, the Young Matildas have the U19 Asia Cup in October. The program just continues.”

“Interestingly we have only two players from the Young Matildas in the senior squad. This shows the depth of women’s football now. We have a lot more quality at all age levels, and it’s harder for the young players to break-into the full squad.”

Caitlin Munoz, Lydia Williams and Sally Shipard have a nervous wait until the squad is announced later this week. Should they miss out at least they know they have many more Matilda days ahead of them.

This article first appeared at www.netfa.com