Women’s FIFA World Cup 2023: Elise Kellond-Knight says Matildas’ depth could help them win tournament
Injured Matilda Elise Kellond-Knight says coach Tony Gustavsson’s criticised player call-ups have put the Australian team in the best position possible for a World Cup.
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An achilles injury has ruled Elise Kellond-Knight out of the World Cup but the Matildas’ defender says coach Tony Gustavsson’s criticised player call-ups have put the Australian team in the best position possible for a World Cup.
In the lead up to the Cup Gustavsson has often been questioned over his decisions to blood inexperienced players in big matches and rest the stars.
But Kellond-Knight, who has pulled on the green and gold 113 times, said the move means the Matildas will go into the World Cup with 23 players ready and able to play on the big stage.
With so many players out injured or racing the clock to be fit – the Matildas’ depth will play a major role in how well they go this World Cup.
“The last two years have been really difficult for the national team,” Kellond-Knight said.
“But it’s been an important rebuilding phase where we identified areas we needed to work on which was definitely depth.
“When you go deep into a tournament you need 23 players and we haven’t really had that depth at previous tournaments.
“You look at the squad that we’ve spent two years rebuilding, giving younger players opportunities, giving young players minutes, we’re now at a level that we can afford to have key players missing and we’re not massively disadvantaged.
“It is exciting because if you look at any of the winning countries in the past, they use all 23 players.”
Kellond-Knight said if the Matildas bring the right level of self-belief there is no reason they cannot progress far into the tournament.
“You have to believe and I think the team fully believes,” she said.
“A World Cup is complicated, you need a large portion of luck and things to really just fall in line for you.
“I think if we have that portion of luck and we perform well of course we can go all the way.
“There is no expectation that we can, we have never won a major tournament like this, we have never even medalled so I think Australia can’t expect us to be there but I have full belief that we have the potential to be there.”
KERR SHINES AGAIN
Sam Kerr has added a few more awards to her trophy cabinet this past week and there could be more on the way.
The Chelsea forward was picked by supporters as Chelsea Women Player of the Season for the second year running. She was also dubbed the Chelsea Women Players’ Player.
Kerr is also in the running for the Barclays Women’s Super League goal of the season award for a stunning goal scored against Manchester United in March.
It was a crucial top of the table match, which Chelsea won 1-0 thanks to Kerr’s goal.
Lauren James placed a beautiful long-range pass right into Kerr’s path. Kerr took the ball in her stride before lifting it over keeper Mary Earps and into the far corner of the net.
TEAMS NAMED
England, Netherlands and Germany have named their squads almost 50 days out from the World Cup.
The Roses will be without stars Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby – who are all out injured.
Kerr’s Chelsea teammates Lauren James and Niamh Charles are among six tournament debutants named in the squad.
Netherlands coach Andries Jonker announced a 30-player preliminary squad this week.
The Dutch, runners-up at France 2019, will be without super shooter Vivianne Miedema due to an ACL injury. But Jonker’s squad still has plenty of stars including Lieke Martens, Jill Roord and Danielle Van de Donk.
German coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg has until the FIFA July 11 deadline to cull her 28-player list to 23. She is without Giulia Gwinn and Linda Dallmann due to injury but Alexandra Popp and Lena Oberdorf are named in the initial squad.
World Cup legacy tipped to rival Sydney Olympics
The FIFA Women’s World Cup will create a “giant awakening” says Football Australia CEO James Johnson and spark a change in women’s sports from grassroots to elite level.
The tournament is still 48 days away but Johnson said football fever was already catching.
“I think we will see the giant awakening, because we’ve got the biggest sport in the world and one of the biggest sporting events in the world coming to our shores,” he said.
“There will be 1.5 million people that will attend stadiums in Australia and New Zealand.
“Two billion people will actually watch from around the world – that is a big number, that is one quarter of the population.”
The event has proved so popular FIFA will release an extra 250,000 tickets next Tuesday, across all 64 matches in Australia and New Zealand.
Johnson said the event would create a legacy in two ways – the first through the memories of those watching. But it is the second that will live on long after the hundreds of thousands of fans head home.
“There has been a high level of investment in stadiums that will host matches at the competition. There have been upgrades to Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, AAMI Park in Melbourne and HBF stadium in Perth,” Johnson said.
“Then there has been the establishment of the home of the Matildas’ in Melbourne, which is a world class, high performance facility.
“So these are fantastic for elite football whether it be the national team program or for fans of football that want to watch and have better experiences.”
Johnson said it wasn’t just the “top end of town” benefiting from the tournament.
“There is lots of investment that’s gone into community clubs, like Altona FC in Melbourne,” he said.
“It is a great community club with boys and girls teams from the age of four all the way to senior teams, they are getting about $4 million of investment (jointly funded by the club, state and local government) into the club as a result of the Women’s World Cup. It means their main pitch will be redeveloped and they will get two extra pitches for community football.”
Johnson said the investment and focus on the women’s game was “just the right thing to do”.
“It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s a smart thing to do, because why have a sport that only half the population can enjoy or participate in,” Johnson said.
“I think what we are seeing at the moment, I can only speak for football but I know there is a trend in other sports, is (women’s sports) just got twice as big because there is a lot more girls playing football now and a lot more girls watching and I think it is very much connected with the broader growth of women in sport.”
Legendary sports broadcaster Bruce McAvaney, who will co-host Channel 7s coverage of the World Cup, alongside Mel McLaughlin, said the legacy created by the tournament would rival that of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
“Sydney was a pivotal point in women’s sport. Women’s water polo wasn’t played at the Olympics until our girls got down to the airport and commissioned the IOC to change those rules, then that magic Monday night with Cathy Freeman carrying the nation on her shoulders,” McAvaney said.
“Her whole career was defined in 50 seconds, it was extraordinary that she could hold her nerve and do what she did and that’s a bit what these Matildas are going to go through.
“As big as we feel it is today, several weeks out, we don’t actually realise how big it is going to be.”
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Originally published as Women’s FIFA World Cup 2023: Elise Kellond-Knight says Matildas’ depth could help them win tournament
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