The Matildas are into the quarter-finals of a Women’s World Cup blown wide open, high on confidence and believing they can handle whatever opponent is thrown at them.
To top it all off, they’ve just got Sam Kerr back.
Everything is opening up perfectly for Tony Gustavsson’s charges after a mature 2-0 win over Denmark, where Australia coolly outpointed the world No.13 and, bar a shaky start, were rarely troubled defensively.
While the United States, Germany, Brazil and Canada have already crumbled and exited stage left, the Matildas have charged into the final eight for just the second time, and laid down their marker as a contender.
Australia professionally dealt with favouritism against Denmark, and whether they face France or Morocco on Saturday evening in Brisbane, will believe they can adjust accordingly – and handle the ever-growing weight of expectation.
“I don’t think we really feel the pressure,” star attacker Caitlin Foord told reporters.
“We’re just enjoying our performances and building on that.
“We want to keep building and keep coming out better, we’ve set the bar now to what our performance is and what the bare minimum is.
“We know we have to keep taking it to another level if we want to go all the way.”
Australia have had six goal scorers: Hayley Raso, Foord, Steph Catley, Mary Fowler, Emily van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy.
“Tournament football is about playing the game in front of you, whatever that looks like and find a way, and this team have proven now that they can always find a way,” Gustavsson said.
“They always score goals… As long as we can be solid defensively, we know we have individual brilliance, we have set plays, we have goalscorers in this team and we have multiple as well.
“Not just Sam Kerr – we have multiple options to score goals.”
Getting back Australia’s all-time leading goal scorer doesn’t hurt.
Kerr entered the fray in the 80th minute, making her return from the calf injury that scuppered the start of her tournament.
“It’s incredible,” vice-captain Steph Catley said.
“How many times can you get to a quarter-final and then add your best player, one of the best players in the world back into your team, your captain?”
In-form winger Foord delighted in her strike partner’s return.
“Sam was obviously ready to get some minutes and it was a massive boost for us to have her back and not only for us, I think for her as well, this is her dream as well as she plays a massive part in our team,” Foord said.
“It helped boost the team even more and I think looking ahead, it’s pretty scary to know that now she’s back on the team and she’s going to be a part of that with us.”
But Australia won’t look beyond Saturday’s quarter-final and towards their dream of holding up the World Cup just yet.
“That’s obviously the dream. Yeah, I mean, everyone’s here to to do that, right?” Kerr said.
“But we’ve said from the start, even before the tournament, we’re taking this one game at a time and we’re not going to look too far ahead because that’s when you slip.”
© AAP 2023
