Matildas focus on May 2010.

Coach Tom Sermanni laid out his plans for the Matildas as they build towards Asia Cup May 2010.

It's a constant battle to improve and keep up to speed with the teams in Asia.

What goes on in a Matildas Camp?

It varies from camp to camp. This camp is the start of our preparation for May 2010. So we've done some monitoring of players, repeat speed tests and skinfolds and get an idea of where the players are at physically.

We use this camp to set down our program for May 2010. Everything we do now with the National team is geared to that date.

The Asian Cup qualifiers take place in 2010 and they act as qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.

We're also looking at what our expectation of players and the team is. We're also spending a main focus at this camp on our defence.

Since the World Cup most of our defenders have retired or taken time away from the game. So we're virtually building a new defence.
We're probably going to lose a big amount of experienced players who are very comfortable playing International football.

We need to develop players who are used to playing at the International level but you don't want to lose momentum while you are doing that.

Collette McCallum, Sarah Walsh, Heather Garriock, and all those kind of players are going to be looking at taking more leadership roles in the team.

The changing pace of the Women's game

The fastest girls we have at the moment are the two Sykes twins who live on a property in NSW. We think they have a lot of potential.

The Women's games is getting quicker and in Asia the teams are very technical. So we need a mix in our team. Going into the next stage of development in Women's football we need to be mobile, we need players with good pace and improve their technical skills. It's a constant battle to improve and keep up to speed with the teams in Asia.

Where next for the Matildas?

The main emphasis for the Matildas over the next period of time is not tour and tournaments. We've got an Asean tournament in October so we'll probably take a younger team to that.

And hopefully we'll have some internationals here in Australia at the end of the W-League season. And next August go to Europe to play some European sides before the women's European Championship in 2009.