Matildas must play more games to be ready for Asian, World Cup, says Alan Stajcic
MATILDAS coach Alen Stajcic has declared his fast-improving side needed more games to round out their Asian Cup and World Cup preparations after sweeping China.
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MATILDAS coach Alen Stajcic has declared his fast-improving side needed more games to round out their Asian Cup and World Cup preparations.
The Matildas will rise to No.3 or 4 when the updated FIFA world rankings are released next month after they completed a near flawless 2017 with a clean sweep win over China.
The ranking won’t impact April’s Asian Cup hugely, but could play a huge role when seedings are released for the 2019 World Cup in France.
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Sunday’s 5-1 romp of China in Geelong, headlined by a Sam Kerr brace - taking her tally to 11 goals in six games - secured a seventh-straight win.
While the Matildas’ schedule has increased, Stajcic said it was still well short of their opponents’.
“The aim next year is to try and get 15-20 matches under our belts for this team and play as many games as we can going into the 2019 World Cup,’’ Stajcic said.
“Everyone plays that many – we want to get to that. Most of our opponents this year have played 20 matches, that was our 11th match.
“We all know how difficult it is for Australia to travel and the costs compared to other countries. China has 10-12 matches in between now and the Asian Cup, we’ve got four. That’s our competition. If we want to stay above the pack, we need to aim to play more games.
“We’ll have a camp straight after (the W-League season) before we go to (the) Algarve (Cup in) Portugal – have four matches there, come back have another camp or two then go to the Asian Cup.
“It all happens pretty quickly, there’s a small possibility of a tournament in January but we’ll have to see if that pans out and hopefully some more matches.”
While Stajcic labelled the 5-1 “flattering and disjointed”, he said hailed 2017 a stunning success for the Matildas, which includes prized scalps USA, Japan and Brazil.
“There is (so much to be proud of). The things we set out to do this year we achieved,’’ he said.
“It was to build a squad, where we don’t have to rely on one player, where we’ve got so many players that can play in so many different positions.
“To have a group of 25 players that we can draw upon is something that will give us strength going forward.
“Even when we weren’t great, the amount of combinations we played in and around their penalty box I thought was really good.”
Originally published as Matildas must play more games to be ready for Asian, World Cup, says Alan Stajcic