Matildas winger Hayley Raso confident that Australia can win next year’s World Cup

The Matildas’ Asian Cup flop hasn’t dented their confidence about winning next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Matildas winger Hayley Raso says Australia can win the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Picture: David Lidstrom/Getty Images

Women’s World Cup glory remains within Australia’s grasp despite the Matildas’ Asian Cup failure.

That’s the belief of Matildas winger Hayley Raso, who says Australia is on target to achieve World Cup success on home soil next year.

“Absolutely,” Raso replied when asked if the Matildas could win the World Cup.
“We have a strong squad at the moment (and) we have a lot of depth.

“Over the past few months we’ve brought in some younger players, and we’ve experimented, and I feel like we’re at a good place within the team now.
“We’re looking forward to the World Cup and it’s going to be about clicking as a unit.”

Raso and her Matildas teammates have gathered in Townsville for the first match of their two-game series against New Zealand at Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Friday night.

It’s the first time the squad has been together since Australia’s Asian Cup quarter-final exit in January.

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“We went to the Asian Cup looking to win, we said that’s what we wanted to do and we fell short,” Raso said.

“We’ve analysed our performance and we know we need to do better.

“We are a group that fights, we bounce back, we stick together really well, so that’s what we’ll be looking to go again.”

Raso’s Manchester City and Matildas teammate Alanna Kennedy said the Australians had learnt from their Asian Cup flop, particularly the 1-0 loss to South Korea that ended their tournament.

“Just being composed,” defender Kennedy said.

“We still had plenty of time in the game (after South Korea scored), and sticking to our game plan and staying composed in those final minutes was something we felt we could have improved on, and just a little bit more consistency throughout the whole tournament.

“We all know what we’ve been through and how we can be better.”

However, there were also positives from the tournament that the Matildas intend to build on.

“It was nice to see us scoring a lot of goals in the early games. Those were the type of games that you could sometimes get complacent with or struggle to find the back of the net and have the patience to score lots of goals. That was pleasing to see,” Kennedy said.

“There’s a lot of focus on the final match, and the final minutes of that game, and that’s the one thing that we were really disappointed with because we were really looking forward to going deeper into the competition.”