I don’t see any point in calling up players to then only give them a few minutes or worse still just sitting on the bench.
Matildas friendlies in June 2026
- Thread starter rebelliousfeminist974
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Ideally we need to be giving all the players who get called up to the Matildas playing list consistent game time but giving game time to fringe players like Leticia McKenna and Izzy Gomez would be the first step towards phasing out the old guard heading into future major tournament cycles which is ultimately the aim for us in terms of rebuilding and rejuvenating the squad.
Agree but that seems not to be in the coach’s plans. Players like Izzy Gomez have been called up several times but has only had about 10 minutes of actual game time.
These stats can only be considered legitimate if they include Peppa Pig by my understanding on this forum.
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It's safe to say the Matildas were significantly more popular than Peppa Pig in terms of the television ratings on Saturday given that they finished top three in the 16-39 age bracket behind only the news.
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It’s pretty damning to hear that players are being labelled as “certainties” if available. Hopefully the coaching staff read that ESPN article and start to take it on board.
Obviously we can’t possibly take the same squad from 2023 due to retirements, but the squad should ideally be a lot different to the World Cup and Olympics squads and even at least fairly different Asian Cup one.
Looking at the Asian Cup squad and previous squads in the past year, who do we think won’t (or shouldn’t) make it? We’ll have a fair few players over 30 by then, playing at varying levels across the globe. Players in italics didn’t make the Asian Cup squad.
- Michelle Heyman (38)
- Tameka Yallop (35)
- Emily Gielnik (34)
- Katrina Gorry (34)
- Emily van Egmond (33)
- Sam Kerr (33)
- Steph Catley (33)
- Mackenzie Arnold (33)
- Hayley Raso (32)
- Caitlin Foord (32)
- Alanna Kennedy (32)
Looking at the entire 90 minutes there was some awful defending by the Tillies as a collective unit.
The media focused a lot on Foorde as playing well, which she did. Notwithstanding, I was very taken with Torpey at Left Back and Wheeler at defensive midfield. Both look angelic, as though butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, but both did a lot of rugged, grunt work. They look relatively physically unimposing, but both are hard women footballers!
What you might ask?
As well as Wherler’s consummate skill on the ball, she broke up a lot of attacks with blood and guts block tackling, and clever well- timed, well read side tackling.
She also tracked back a lot almost covering for CBs dragged wide. She has improved.
Unlike EVE, Wheeler can run effectively with the ball - and quickly as well.
Torpey - another angelic looking assassin. Won block tackle after block tackle, won plenty through more subtle side tackling, some rugged slide tackles, plus she constantly barged Mexicans off the ball. She might be right footed, but we have found a consummate LB if Catley plays CB.
She also ball carries well at high speed. Whilst flat out running with the ball she put the well weighted killer pass assist for Foorde’s goal. She tracked back a lot too.
These 2 are players improving fast.
Also liked the look of subs McKenna and Holly McNamara.
The media focused a lot on Foorde as playing well, which she did. Notwithstanding, I was very taken with Torpey at Left Back and Wheeler at defensive midfield. Both look angelic, as though butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, but both did a lot of rugged, grunt work. They look relatively physically unimposing, but both are hard women footballers!
What you might ask?
As well as Wherler’s consummate skill on the ball, she broke up a lot of attacks with blood and guts block tackling, and clever well- timed, well read side tackling.
She also tracked back a lot almost covering for CBs dragged wide. She has improved.
Unlike EVE, Wheeler can run effectively with the ball - and quickly as well.
Torpey - another angelic looking assassin. Won block tackle after block tackle, won plenty through more subtle side tackling, some rugged slide tackles, plus she constantly barged Mexicans off the ball. She might be right footed, but we have found a consummate LB if Catley plays CB.
She also ball carries well at high speed. Whilst flat out running with the ball she put the well weighted killer pass assist for Foorde’s goal. She tracked back a lot too.
These 2 are players improving fast.
Also liked the look of subs McKenna and Holly McNamara.
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Clare Wheeler’s always been a special player and I’ve followed her quite closely for a long time. Great player and a great person too. She would’ve had a far more successful career if we trusted her more. It’s still frustrating to know she didn’t play a single minute at the last World Cup, and at 28 (29 next year) this’ll probably be her last unless she survives to 2031 (which I think she could).
Kaitlyn Torpey should be off to a stellar season at Newcastle United now that she’s settled in. They’ll be aiming for promotion from the WSL 2 to the WSL. She wasn’t getting heaps of game time at Portland Thorns so made a downgrade to Newcastle, probably under the condition that they’d get promoted by the end of next season. She’s coached by an Aussie there too (Tanya Oxtoby, former Northern Ireland manager and a part-time commentator).
The first five shouldn’t be part of the squad for Brazil 2027 (although EVE probably will be picked). Kerr, Catley and Arnold should be first choice with Raso, Foord and Kennedy on the bench.
Fowler is a definite starter so that leaves us with 7 players to choose from the mostly under used squads that we’ve had to date.
I think we will rue that lost year between the Olympics and the Asian Cup.
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I agree.
You don’t think Teagan Micah should start?
In a tournament yes, and Ellie Carpenter would also be a locked-in starter. In friendlies we should try new things. Start Izzy Gómez in a friendly for example so we can see where she’s at ahead of the World Cup. We never know, someone may get injured and we need a backup.
For all the players Tom Sermanni brought in as part of his big squads (up to 32 players), Joe Montemurro pushed them out with his small squads (as few as 21 players). While we had quite poor results under the former, at least we capped plenty of new players (something Tony Gustavsson refused to do).
Yes, forgot about Ellie.
Micah should be in the squad if she’s fit as we are very light on experienced keepers.
For all the newly capped players under Sermanni it would seem that Montemurro has cast many aside.
Joe seems very risk averse I hope it doesn’t come back to bite him.
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Injuries (Sharn Freier, Grace Kuilamu, etc) and defections (Laura Hughes, not called up but Mary Stanić-Floody) certainly haven’t helped but we’ve definitely forgotten about some. Alexia Apostolakis didn’t even get a congratulations for winning the double from the Matildas social media pages, even though Leticia McKenna and Holly McNamara did.
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- #334
Joe Montemurro's risk averse attitude to selecting Matildas playing lists will inevitably come back to haunt him when we end up having another disastrous major tournament campaign.
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We need to be looking at other experienced keepers who have good form in the Dub to replace Teagan Micah in Matildas playing lists eventually though because she may well call time on her career due to her struggles with injury in recent times and we cannot be relying on Mackenzie Arnold and Chloe Lincoln as our first two choices between the sticks.
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If Emily van Egmond is picked for the 2027 Women's World Cup then it only reiterates that there are problems with the Matildas selection policy and we should be phasing her out in favour of other players like Leticia McKenna and Mary Fowler who can replace her in attacking midfield and take on the number ten role for us.