Matildas The Matildas Thread

[stax on the mull]

They do give too much adulation to team Matildas when there's only a couple who played tonight that are world class players in Women's Football. Like at the end of the game the commentator referred to Raso as "one of the stars". Apart from one nice cross into the box she pretty much had a shocker giving away possession and fouls.

The 1st and 3rd goal were player errors which continues to be a problem. They gotta keep finding new players which is part of what playing these friendlies is all about. Unfortunately a couple got injured before getting to camp for these games.

 

[Del125763]

I wouldnt look at beating Germany in a friendly not so long ago as how much this team has progressed. Will be judged on the major tournaments but the signs are not good with the Aussies hosting the Asian Cup not too far ahead.

 

[jhong]

 

[damicky]

Terrible defending

 

[jhong]

Just being outclassed atm .

 

[Reign Man]

This commentator, wtf. Brazil played dirty at best last game and he called them "tough" and "athletic"

We score a goal with a great ball in and his first comment is that Brazil won't be happy about the ref's non call back in the defensive half. wtf.

The female commentator keeps pulling him up. Sorry i dont know their names.

 

[jhong]

This commentator, wtf. Brazil played dirty at best last game and he called them "tough" and "athletic"

We score a goal with a great ball in and his first comment is that Brazil won't be happy about the ref's non call back in the defensive half. wtf.

The female commentator keeps pulling him up. Sorry i dont know their names.

Kate Gill , former Matilda .

 

[stax on the mull]

I don't know about complaining about the refs. The other night it seemed like we initiated it sometimes will pulls on shirts. To me it looked like a grab by Yallop before the Matildas goal. Anyway, only Carpenter and Foord are champion footballers. Cooney-Cross is a little bit lost without another complimentary midfielder to play with her. There's no future in Van Egmond. Yallop and Heyman should be on their way out too but I can understand their selections because some injuries.

Brazil have as many players out of their No 1 as we have.

Kate Gill , former Matilda .

Not Kate Gill. Grace Gill. There was a Kate Gill though.

 

[jhong]

I wish our team would stop whinging to the ref .

 

[damicky]

They need to do something about the diving/ staying down

It is embarrassing

 

[stax on the mull]

The 2nd half subs (except for Foord who needed the rest) made the team quicker. Grant being able to run back and cover when Brazil found those spaces out wide in their front half. Freier is raw but she's a goer.
Young Daniela Galic did very well replacing Van Egmond's role and coincided with Cooney-Cross lifting the team.
Micah had a good game in goal. She saved a couple and it wasn't her fault the defenders were nowhere for Brazil's goals.
I find Raso so frustrating. She's a chaos creator with her run but she hardly ever finishes her work. OK, she scored when Foord put it to her on a plate and she should get credit for making the run to the far post but she stuffs it up a lot - not just chances to score but chances to pass into the box or hold the ball up in the front half.
Give Carpenter the captaincy.

 

[jhong]

The 2nd half subs (except for Foord who needed the rest) made the team quicker. Grant being able to run back and cover when Brazil found those spaces out wide in their front half. Freier is raw but she's a goer.
Young Daniela Galic did very well replacing Van Egmond's role and coincided with Cooney-Cross lifting the team.
Micah had a good game in goal. She saved a couple and it wasn't her fault the defenders were nowhere for Brazil's goals.
I find Raso so frustrating. She's a chaos creator with her run but she hardly ever finishes her work. OK, she scored when Foord put it to her on a plate and she should get credit for making the run to the far post but she stuffs it up a lot - not just chances to score but chances to pass into the box or hold the ball up in the front half.
Give Carpenter the captaincy.

I find Raso frustrating as well .

 

[swingdog]

The 2nd half subs (except for Foord who needed the rest) made the team quicker. Grant being able to run back and cover when Brazil found those spaces out wide in their front half. Freier is raw but she's a goer.
Young Daniela Galic did very well replacing Van Egmond's role and coincided with Cooney-Cross lifting the team.
Micah had a good game in goal. She saved a couple and it wasn't her fault the defenders were nowhere for Brazil's goals.
I find Raso so frustrating. She's a chaos creator with her run but she hardly ever finishes her work. OK, she scored when Foord put it to her on a plate and she should get credit for making the run to the far post but she stuffs it up a lot - not just chances to score but chances to pass into the box or hold the ball up in the front half.
Give Carpenter the captaincy.

Agree with everything here.

Once the subs were made at about the 60 minute mark, you could see the future. The matildas are like the Australian cricket team, hanging on to players based on past reputations too long.

I've been saying that has to be it for van Egmond for over a year now but she still keeps popping up.

 

[Pres]

Geez these ACLs can take a women's footballer so long to recover from. Feel like Ellie Carpenter has only now finally returned to her absolute best. Looks genuinely world class.

 

[jhong]

Thought Yallop had a good game . A lot of youngsters got minutes .Freier looks a prospect . Looks like a mostly A-League team for the last match .

 

[stax on the mull]

Gawd knows what happened with that goal we let in. Grant did a step over it when she could have just kicked it away, Arnold came right out and was within a metre of Grant and Hunt who would have known there their attacker was just moved away from the ball. Hunt and Grant are in the same squad at Tottenham, although I don't think currently either is a starter which is probably why they didn't have to fly back with the other overseas based players.

I think one of the A League teams could have beaten this Matildas team tonight.

 

[stax on the mull]

Just listening to Sermanni's post match it seems Grant, Hunt and Galic are flying back to their clubs in UK and Europe before the Saturday game. Logarzo a wait and see on the concussion protocols but he said she feels ok.

 

[swingdog]

Liked seeing Grant at CB, we need speed in the centre defence.

Good to see 'play the kids' was the theme.

 

[stax on the mull]

Chloe Logarzo's concussion diagnosis means she'll miss the 2nd game on Saturday. Laura Hughes, a midfielder from Melbourne City, has been brought into the squad.

By my calculations I think there's just enough players left to play 11 and have a full bench of 5 or 6.

Edit: Now I've had a look at the squad there's 19 players still here, but 3 are GK's. It also includes Polkinghorne.

GK's: Arnold, Aquino, Lincoln
Defenders: Roestbakken, Nash, Prior, Polkinghorne, McNamara,
Midfielders: Van Egmond, Hughes, Davidson, Chidiac, Heatley
Forwards: Heyman, Gielnik, Henry, Siemsen, Freier, Yallop

It's a pretty inexperience, mostly A-League squad for the final game.

I've put them into general groups. Yallop can play back as well as midfield but prefers a forward role where she has been in good form with Brisbane. Heatley was a central defender but seems to have moved to a midfield role since leaving Aust. Freier can play wing back. Henry has played right back recently for Melb City. Nash has been playing as a central defender at Central Coast but has previously played right back.

 

[Satan]

Another knee at KP

 

[stax on the mull]

Don't think there's much to take out of a 6-0 win against poor opposition who could only give the ball straight back to us. Their coach had said that his aspiration for his players is that some might get looked at by our A-League, so they're a significant level down from our domestic competition which is a significant level down from the leagues in UK, Spain, France Germany etc.

I really liked Heatley's passing tonight. She put a bit of punch behind the ball so that it got to a teammate with pace unlike some of the slow dribble passes from other players over the 4 games.

Prior and Freier good.

 

[GC2015]

Interesting to see Queensland's dominance continue within the Matildas squads. I know it got a bit of a mention during the World Cup last year, but it's continuing with the younger players as well. 7 of tonight's starting 11 are from Queensland:

Mackenzie Arnold (Gold Coast)
Winonah Heatley (Cairns)
Clare Polkinghorne (Brisbane)
Tameka Yallop (Gold Coast)
Emily Gielnik (Brisbane)
Sharn Freier (Brisbane)
Leah Davidson (Gold Coast)

There's obviously others like Mary Fowler (Cairns) and Hayley Raso (Gold Coast) that would've also played had they been available. Not really sure why the female players from Queensland are so prominent, but it's definitely a noticeable trend.

 

[jhong]

I actually enjoyed seeing a bunch of youngsters playing, even if the opposition barely gave a contest. The smile on these women’s faces said it all .

 

[stax on the mull]

Mary Fowler was back playing with Man City on the weekend scoring the 4th goal in a 4-0 win over Leicester City. Courtney Nevin in defence kind of sets her up for a shot with a poor clearance attempt. Powerful left foot. The Leicester GK seems to be in the right spot but it's just hit with too much force.

 

[stax on the mull]

Saw this last night. Mary Fowler continuing her good form of recent times, scoring a goal for Man City from outside the box when the score was 2-2. Looking at the highlights this morning, Fowler was involved in the build-up in 2 of the other goals, but there was a slightly better goal scored by Miedema in the same game.



In other Matildas related news Alana Kennedy, who hadn't been getting game time at Man City has departed the club and will be playing for the NWSL side Angel City, based in L.A. The US season begins in March.

Also reported in the news a week or so ago was Brisbane Roar's Sharn Freier move to Germany to play with Wolfsburg at the end of the A League season. A successful club that plays regularly in the Euros and the contract she has signed goes until mid 2028.