Impetus’ Ben Gilby heard from the Matildas star Caitlin Foord from Australia’s South-West London base ahead of this Saturday’s game against South Africa at Kingsmeadow (5/10/22).
Above: Caitlin Foord speaking to the media. The Arsenal attacker emphasised that results at present will have no bearing on the Matildas’ World Cup outcomes. Image: Football Australia.
Caitlin Foord spoke to the media about the importance of maximising every moment of international camps to ensure that the Matildas are as prepared as possible for next year’s World Cup.
“Time is limited when they get such a short window every month,” said Foord. “We’re just trying to take every opportunity we get within that time.”
“Obviously, this one’s a good example of that time with the camp being in Europe. We’ve already trained once where normally that’s us coming off the plane or coming in at different times, and all on different levels.”
“This camp has been really good so far to be able to start and prepare a lot earlier than normal. As I said, it’s just making the most of every opportunity we have.”
Australia’s build-up to the World Cup has seen a run of tough results. In ten games this calendar year, Tony Gustavsson’s team have won five – against Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and New Zealand (twice). Despite this, Foord is not overly concerned.
“Looking ahead to the World Cup, the results we’ve had don’t really have any bearing. Obviously, we’re footballers, we want to go out on the pitch and get the win. If we don’t it’s disappointing, but come the World Cup, that’s when we want to be flying. That’s what we’re preparing for and we want to get all this out of the way now. It’s about building on the positives and learning from the mistakes.”
After playing limited minutes in the series against Canada, Foord has been in strong form for Arsenal at the start of the Barclays Women’s Super League season. The winger is working to carry that form into the match against Banyana Banyana for the Matildas.
On a team level, Foord says attention is on producing a consistent performance against the 2022 Women’s African Cup of Nations Champions. “I think for us the main focus is on ourselves and to obviously try and exploit where they have their weaknesses.”
“It’s just about playing good football, feeling good, coming together again and playing how we know we can.”
Foord is no stranger to the Kingsmeadow venue for the weekend with her Gunners’ side visitors to a formidable Chelsea team in the past couple of years.
“It’ll be a bit weird but at the end of the day, when you’re on the pitch, you kind of forget about everything. That it’s another game of football. We’ll train there the day before so maybe we get all the weird stuff out then!”
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