Consistency The Key In Gustavsson’s Latest Selection

27/9/22

Above: The Matildas gather together once more ahead of two friendlies in the coming weeks. Photo: Football Australia.

A 23-player Matildas squad has been named to take on South Africa and Denmark for two international friendlies in London and Viborg, respectively.   

Australia will host a ‘home’ match against the reigning Women’s African Cup of Nations champions on Saturday, 8 October at an as yet-to-be-confirmed venue with a local kick-off time of 12.30pm, before jetting to Midtjylland for a clash with Denmark on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 (kick off 6.00pm local). 

Forwards Kyah Simon and Hayley Raso are available for the roster after injury and rehab saw them miss the series against Canada, as consistency is the theme with 21 players featuring in the last assembly.  However, defender Alanna Kennedy has been ruled out due to injury, while midfielder Elise Kellond-Knight continues to be monitored upon her return from long-term recovery. 

Above: Hayley Raso’s return is a boost for the Matildas. Photo: Football Australia.

With two matches in Europe, all but two members of the roster ply their club trade in Europe or the United States including nine in the Barclays Women’s Super League. 

Head coach Tony Gustavsson said: “With only four international windows until the World Cup, every match has meaning, and every training camp is vital for us to continue building understanding and chemistry in our game plan.

“Maintaining the core of the squad is still our focus but unfortunately, there are still a couple players that we will make a call on once we have further medical updates closer to the camp. 

“Last window we saw encouraging periods of how we want to play as a team, and we hope to have more players available for this window to give us the opportunity to get the consistency we are working towards. We understand the task ahead of us as a team to prepare for the World Cup and we are all committed to keep progressing every window.” 

Australia Squad:

Name Position Club Caps (goals) 
Mackenzie ARNOLDGoalkeeper West Ham United 29 (0) 
Steph CATLEY Back Arsenal WFC 102 (3) 
Alex CHIDIAC Midfielder Racing Louisville FC 19 (1) 
Kyra COONEY-CROSS Midfielder Hammarby IF 18 (0) 
Larissa CRUMMER Forward Brisbane Roar 26 (4) 
Caitlin FOORD Forward Arsenal WFC 102 (22) 
Mary FOWLER Forward Manchester City 28 (8) 
Emily GIELNIK Forward Aston Villa 55 (11) 
Katrina GORRY Midfielder Vittsjö GIK 83 (15) 
Charlotte GRANT Back Vittsjö GIK on loan from FC Rosengård 8 (0) 
Sam KERR Forward Chelsea WFC 112 (59) 
Chloe LOGARZO Midfielder Kansas City Current 54 (8) 
Aivi LUIK Back BK Hacken 38 (1) 
Teagan MICAH Goalkeeper FC Rosengård 10 (0) 
Courtney NEVIN Back Hammarby IF 13 (0) 
Clare POLKINGHORNE Back Vittsjö GIK 146 (12) 
Hayley RASOForwardManchester City62 (9)
Kyah SIMONForwardTottenham Hotspur111 (29)
Emily VAN EGMOND Midfielder San Diego Wave  121 (30) 
Cortnee VINE Forward Sydney FC6 (0) 
Clare WHEELER Midfielder Everton WFC11 (0) 
Lydia WILLIAMS Goalkeeper Paris Saint-Germain 102 (0) 
Tameka YALLOP Midfielder Brann 108 (12) 

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