Less than two weeks to go to the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011 (what a mouthful). This week's posts are given over to profiling some of the teams and players.
Question of the tournament: will Germany get their three-in-a-row?
A is for apple and ... Australia.
The Aussie team is known as the Matildas, taken from a well-known song Waltzing Matilda. (The boys team, if you're wondering, are the Socceroos) Ranked No 11 in the world, the team feels they're in with a pretty good chance of taking home some silver. Something to do with the elixer of youth if they do, a report in The Australian said the team "has an average age of 21.6 and nearly half the squad is 20 or under." This includes Caitlin Foorde, all of 16 years and 7 months young. Captain Melissa Barbieri (31) is looking forward to not being the underdog, saying in the same article: "I love the youth factor. It is an amazing feeling knowing they are so enthusiastic and unpredictable and that Brazil is going to have to worry about us for a change." In another interview, Barbieri and coach Tom Sermanni admits this is more down to injury and players committed to international clubs but is still hopeful it will all work out.
Their record, as you might have guessed from the above, doesn't include a win yet.
| 1991 | Didn't qualify |
| 1995 | Round 1 |
| 1999 | Round 1 |
| 2003 | Round 1 |
| 2007 | Quarter- finals |
| 2011 | Group D |
This year's team also includes two Indigenous Australians, Kyah Simon and Lydia Williams. This clip is from a documentary being made about their particular journey to the World Cup.
The Matildas opening game is on July 29th against Brazil with games against Norway and Equatorial Guinea to follow.
Who're you supporting? (if you are!)
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