Matildas: Sarah Walsh will be missed.

"Sarah Walsh will be missed."

Coach Tom Sermanni speaking from the Matildas training camp in Vietnam on the eve of the Australians opening Asia Cup game against Chinese Taipei said, "First priority is to make sure we qualify for the next stage.

"I have a philosophy about going into football matches, and we talk about it in the dressing room, when you are out on the football pitch you never actually know if we are going to win games, but we always have a philosophy in this team now that we go out to win games, and it's the same going into this tournament.

"I don't know if we'll win the tournament but we're certainly going into the tournament and that's what we'd like to do.

"Our first priority is to make sure we qualify for the next stage. If we do that, have a look at what shape we're in, who we're then going to play in the semi-finals that will give us a better judge of where we're at.

"(In the past)Teams had generally understimated us. Teams thought we were just a big hard working strong team without any quality. We surprised everybody in 2006 and 2007.

"A bit like the Socceroos in the Asian Cup, we've now become one of the team that other teams want to beat. That makes life a bit more difficult. But it's a good thing.

"One great thing about this team in the last three years whoever comes into the team has performed well. We've tried to create an environment where young players or new players of any age come in they feel part of the team straight away.

"Overall, around this team there is a greater air of confidence that we can match it with the best in the world now. Once you get that attitude at the highest level amongst the players it tends to flow right down. So players coming into the team aren't intimidated either.

"Sarah Walsh will be missed, but we have some good strong back-up. If you look at our striking resources at the moment we've got Lisa De Vanna and Kate Gill, who are doing exceptionally well in Sweden, young Kyah Simon who has burst onto the scene and we've got Caitlin Munoz who has a habit of scoring important goals for us," said Sermanni.

Matildas have nine changes from their World Cup campaign forcing Sermanni to draft in new, younger players.

"I'm concerned about all areas of the team," laughs Sermanni.

"Probably in midfield we've lost a little bit of cohesion with Jo Peters and Sally Shipard not being here, they have been two regulars with the team over the last three years, and Heather (Garriock) who's been intermittently with the team this year, also Joey Burgess (is out), this is probably the area where we've been hardest hit with senior players, but saying that we've still got players with pace and players who we think can dictate games.

Highlights of first game SBS 5pm Friday.