Matildas midfielder Chloe Logarzo urges her young teammates to value World Cup opportunity

Chloe Logarzo is desperate for the Matildas to make the most of co-hosting next year’s Women’s World Cup.

Chloe Logarzo is working hard to be available for 2023 Women’s World Cup selection. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images for Football Australia

Recovering Matildas midfielder Chloe Logarzo hopes Australia’s Asian Cup failure serves as a lesson to the squad’s younger players to value the importance of 2023 Women’s World Cup success to their older teammates.

As of Monday, there were 500 days to go until next year’s World Cup, and while it seemed a long while away, Logarzo expected time to fly between now and the tournament, which is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s always a dream of ours to come home and play, but to have a World Cup to inspire the next generation is something that I would have never been able to imagine growing up and playing,” she said.

“It’s incredible to be able to have this in front of us with only 500 days to go.”

Logarzo urged the Matildas not to waste the chance to win the World Cup on home soil but said lessons had be learnt from Australia’s disappointing Asian Cup quarter-final exit.

Unable to participate in the tournament in India after having a knee reconstruction in November, Logarzo was among a host of frustrated onlookers.

NSW Women’s Minister Bronnie Taylor celebrates 500 days to go until next year’s Women’s World Cup with Matildas players Bryleeh Henry, Chloe Logarzo and Hana Lowry. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Football Australia

“I find it difficult because I feel as if what we did at the Asian Cup was good,” she said.

“I think it’s one of those unfortunate times where it’s football, it’s unpredictable; certain things didn’t go our way (in the 1-0 quarter-final loss to South Korea).

“We didn’t score goals, we didn’t take the opportunities, we could have got a penalty and all of these kinds of things that fall into place when it happens in a football game.

“The thing that we can take away from that is just knowing that you can do all that you do inside of a group stage, but as soon as we get out of the group stage, it’s a completely different mindset and how we shift from being in a position where it’s OK if we drop a point, to a position where it’s life or death and that there are no second chances, and maybe bringing that mentality into every second of the game without panicking.”

She said such lessons were particularly applicable to the squad’s younger players, who needed to learn from their experienced teammates

“The experience that the girls got, the younger ones … would be that how much it means to the older girls,” 27-year-old Logarzo said.

“When you’re young, you’re just grateful for the opportunities that you get and to learn from the older girls.

“But to be in a scenario where we could have won an Asian Cup and to look at the older girls and see how much it means to them is a good lesson for the younger kids to know that what they’re doing is super important – how important it is to all of us, and how much more they should value what we’re doing, and that we need to be switched on for the whole entire time that we’re there.”

Logarzo was pleased with the progress of her own recovery from surgery, and stressed she would not rush back and jeopardise her chances of World Cup selection.

“I’m taking it as a blessing,” she said.

“The last couple of years I’ve had quite a few just niggling injuries that have not put me in the position that I would like to be in, so for me, this is an opportunity.

“I have 12 months to solely work on myself as an individual to make myself the best player I can be for the national team leading into a home World Cup.”

Originally published as Matildas midfielder Chloe Logarzo urges her young teammates to value World Cup opportunity