Matildas ignoring ‘noise’ on eve of World Cup

Caitlin Foord is well aware football statistics can be moulded to fit whatever narrative best suits the beholder.

Caitlin Foord of Australia, left, is challenged by Jackie Groenen of Netherlands during a friendly last week. Picture: Getty Images

Caitlin Foord is well aware football statistics can be moulded to fit whatever narrative best suits the beholder.

Like the way Australia’s first Women’s World Cup foes, Italy, might fancy themselves because they’ve won seven of their nine games this year.

Or they might not, because Le Azzurre, ranked 15th in the world, haven’t faced any top-10 teams and the Matildas are a clear step up ranked sixth. Then again, Australia haven’t beaten a European side for 15 months, since edging past Norway 4-3 in the Algarve Cup in March last year.

And Italy might be rusty on the global stage given they’ve been World Cup absentees for two decades.

Then there’s the betting, which has Australia heavy favourites to kick off with a bang. Considering all that, it’s no surprise punters trying to pick a winner in Sunday’s Group C opener might be having a hard time of it.

The players themselves are taking it all with a grain of salt, reasoning simply that it’s a mistake to underestimate any side at France 2019. “There are a lot of people who see where teams are ranked in the world and write them off,” Matildas forward Foord said. “But every European team is strong — the European qualifiers are very hard to get through and there’s a lot of teams that missed out that could be at the World Cup.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re seeded in the world, when you’re at the World Cup everything changes.”

Foord felt Italy are “most definitely” underrated.

“We know how good a forward line they have and they like to interchange a lot, so that will be difficult to manage,” she said.

That forward line features star Barbara Bonansea and Juventus teammate Cristiana Girelli, who scored a bag of goals in UEFA qualifying and seems unlikely to stop her streak.

Regardless, the Matildas are keeping cool inside their bubble, shutting out external commentary and form concerns following the weekend’s 3-0 friendly loss to the Netherlands.

Ante Milicic’s squad switched back on yesterday after two free days and travelled from their Dutch base on the outskirts of Eindhoven to the small French city of Valenciennes.

“We’re all so focused that, to be honest, I haven’t really read anything online,” Foord said.

“Just because I don’t really want to be distracted by anything like that. The focus is just on the games. There were actually some really good positives to take out of that (Dutch loss), but we just wanted to address what had been done and move on.

“That game didn’t make us or break us, it was just one game.”