Adam Peacock: What the Matildas line-up will look like for the next World Cup
The Matildas can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal, writes ADAM PEACOCK. But there will be some big personnel changes coming before their next World Cup campaign.
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Legends at the end of their career.
A couple of world-class stars in their prime.
And, hopefully, the emergence of a young crop of talent.
The Matildas 2027 World Cup squad won’t look completely different to the one that has just dispersed, but there will be significant rejuvenation.
“I hope the core group is together,” captain Sam Kerr said last week.
“The teams are forever changing, and women’s football is changing quicker than people could ever have imagined so I hope to still be here! Only 29! Nah joking!”
“Probably 10 or 12 players we’ve never heard of who will be at the next World Cup. And that’s really exciting.”
The Matildas can’t afford to stand still.
This wasn’t only the biggest Women’s World Cup, but also the quickest, most technical, and most physical.
With all of that in mind, here are the possibilities for the next World Cup cycle.
FORWARDS
Sam Kerr will be 32 for the next World Cup. Caitlin Foord 31. Hayley Raso 31. Still at their peak? Maybe, or just coming down the other side. With the club scene improving at a rapid rate, other 2023 squad members will be in their prime. Still just 20, goodness knows what Mary Fowler will be at the next World Cup, and the one after.
And later developer Cortnee Vine, now 25, will still be a game-breaking factor.
Kyah Simon done, whose selection, as it turns out, was purely for team moral and as a leader in the dressing room, will be 36.
Remy Siemsen, a natural finisher who just missed out on the 2023 squad, will be approaching her prime, while there are some at the start of their career with high ceilings, including Melbourne City’s Holly McNamara, and Adelaide United’s Emilia Murray, plus others of a young age like Sydney FC’s dos Santos sisters.
MIDFIELDERS
Here is where the biggest regeneration looks like, and the good news is there is emerging talent to fill some voids.
By 2027, Katrina Gorry, Tameka Yallop and Emily van Egmond will be in their mid-30s. Not impossible they make it, but unlikely.
Everything will be built around 21-year-old Kyra Cooney-Cross, whose magnificent performances in the knockout stages didn’t go unnoticed by the big clubs in Europe.
Alex Chidiac and Clare Wheeler, who will be in their prime.
Amy Sayer, who just missed the squad, will be an option too.
Critically, there is an impressive crop of midfielders developing through the Young Matildas program. Melbourne City’s Daniela Galic, Perth Glory’s Hana Lowry, and last season’s A-League Young Player of the Year, Sarah Hunter, are all on track for senior representation within the next World Cup cycle.
DEFENDERS
This year’s squad members Aivi Luik and Clare Polkinghorne won’t be around for the next edition, while Alanna Kennedy, sorely missed against England and Sweden, and Steph Catley will be reaching the end of their careers.
There is already established depth in this part of the pitch.
Clare Hunt is yet to play 50 games of club football, so her improvement will be exponential, while Ellie Carpenter will still be only 27 at the next World Cup.
Left sided defender Courtney Nevin is a centre back solution, while if Charlie Grant continues her improvement of the last 18 months, by 2027 she’ll be first-choice.
Grant, stuck behind Catley and Carpenter, was probably the unluckiest of the 2023 squad, playing just a couple of minutes off the bench against Canada.
Depth beyond that is required, with players like Jessika Nash, who was throw in the deep end against USA in 2021 and not seen again, needing time to develop their craft.
GOALKEEPERS
Matildas legend Lydia Williams, said goodbye to her fifth and final World Cup but leaning against the northern posts of Brisbane Stadium in tears post-game.
Hopefully she stays closely connected to the game. Too much to give.
Mackenzie Arnold will still be around in four years, and looks set for a healthy battle with Liverpool-bound Tegan Micah, who was an unrequited second choice at this World Cup.
The third spot is open, with Jada Mathyssen-Whyman used through the last campaign and a host of others set to get plenty of game time in the A League Women’s.
COACH
This is an intriguing situation.
Tony Gustavsson has a contract until the end of the 2024 Olympics.
Last week rumours emerged of interest from the US national team, whose round of sixteen exit was their earliest ever, and treated as the catastrophe it was. Apparently coach Vlatko Andonovski has resigned.
Whatever the truth, Gustavsson’s stock is sky high in a worldwide sense. First ever semi-final of a World Cup for Australia reads well on a CV.
Gustavsson, assistant for the US success in 2015 and 2019, knows the culture and the players.
And what do Football Australia think? If they are intent on backing Gustavsson, the only way to show it is a contract extension.
Everyone will sit down for the World Cup debrief in a few weeks. One question should be at the top of the list. Did the sum of all the Matildas parts get everything available from this World Cup?
Sure, a first ever semi-final was a great result. Team harmony was sky high. But was the tactical approach, and the physical preparation as good as it should have been?
Those on the outside of the bubble have a thousand theories. We don’t see what those on the inside know, but on face value, one major point of concern sticks out: the lack of player rotation during the World Cup.
It was sharply evident in the third placed playoff an unchanged, exhausted Matildas side was below-par and out-hustled by Sweden.
Gustavsson spent three years talking the talk about building depth, and he walked the walk throughout … right up until the World Cup.
Ninety-three per cent of the available minutes were played by just 12 players.
So how it shakes down in the review meetings in September will determine plenty, if Gustavsson isn’t offered a king’s ransom by US Soccer beforehand.
Should there be a change, the queue of candidates will be like a school holidays line for a roller coaster at Movieworld.
The Matildas have the best striker in the world, surrounded by an established team, young players emerging and backed by a federation intent on doubling down on the 2023 explosion of interest. Almost the dream job.
POSSIBLE 2027 SQUAD*
GK: Arnold, Micah, Mathyssen-Whyman
DEF: Carpenter, Grant, Nevin, Kennedy, Hunt, Catley, Nash
MID: Cooney-Cross, Fowler, Chidiac, Wheeler, Sayer, Galic, Hunter
FWD: Kerr, Foord, Raso, Vine, Siemsen, Murray
*Author holds no responsibility for the eventual inaccuracy of this
Originally published as Adam Peacock: What the Matildas line-up will look like for the next World Cup
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