There won’t be an international window like the one the Matildas have just experienced until after the World Cup in Brazil in 2027.
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Results from the two games against the South American champions and the pair of fixtures against Chinese Taipei were both everything and, at the same time, completely irrelevant compared to other objectives.
Impressive crowds followed the team from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and on to Victoria and winning for those who paid their hard-earned money will always be the goal. However, with continental and global silverware up for grabs over the next two and a half years, those games will be the last where player selections, formations and form won’t be scrutinised heavily for some time.
Stylish Tillies crush Chinese Taipei | 03:08
THE SELL OUT CROWD STREAK
The Matildas streak of selling out stadiums on home soil stopped at 16.
47,501 packed into Suncorp Stadium and 25,297 rocked up on the Gold Coast for the games against Brazil.
The 26,795 in attendance at AAMI Park in Melbourne for the first match against Chinese Taipei fell just shy of ensuring the house full sign went up.
The teams who featured on the sellout list make the length of the streak even more impressive.
It started with 50,629 packing into Marvel Stadium for the last fixture the side played before the Women’s World Cup, against France, in 2023.
By the time the full-time whistle went in their third-placed play-off defeat to Sweden in Brisbane the streak sat at eight.
The wave of enthusiasm didn’t wane after the World Cup.
59,155 were at Optus Stadium in Perth for an Olympic qualifier against the Philippines. That fixture was wedged either side of sellouts at HBF Park against Iran and Chinese Taipei.
54,120 against Uzbekistan at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne saw them seal qualification for the games in Paris while 76,798 were in attendance at Accor Stadium in Sydney for a clash with China. It doubled as a farewell match for the side prior to the ill-fated Olympic campaign and veteran goalkeeper Lydia Williams’ final game on home soil before retirement.
That figure is almost unheard of for a Monday night in Sydney and it came off the back of 52,912 at Adelaide Oval for the first game against China.
Those are remarkable numbers.
THE COACH SEARCH
When will Football Australia settle on Tony Gustavsson’s replacement as Matildas coach?
All the governing body will confirm is that the search is ongoing.
It’s been ongoing since August and is likely to continue into 2025.
There are six international windows next year as the side prepares for the Asian Cup on home soil in March of 2026. The side will head to America in the first of those windows in February for the SheBelieves Cup. They’ll take on Japan, the USA and Colombia and it’s unclear, at this stage, if the search for a coach would’ve concluded by then.
Players, former players and pundits have all aired their opinions over the last few weeks on the qualities the new coach should possess.
The man currently filling the void, Tom Sermanni, also had some thoughts.
“Somebody young,” the 70-year-old quipped when asked.
“Ideally its someone that has to be here; that has to be invested in the game here, that has to take greater responsibility than just a one singular national team.
“That would be the ideal role.”
That would require any foreign candidate to relocate and immerse themselves in pathways programs.
In the meantime, Sermanni has turned his attention to the SheBelieves Cup.
“I’m in here as a coach. I haven’t thought about it as if I’m just here in the interim. What I’ve tried to do is do what I would’ve done had I come in here under a two, three or a four-year contract.”
Incredible story behind Tillies new star | 01:12
THE YOUNG AND THE RETURNING
The experience of Sermanni – this is his third stint as coach of the Matildas – perhaps explains why Football Australia feel like they’ve got time to settle on the right coaching candidate.
He’s already set about building depth in the squad. Sermanni created headlines – something the affable Scot is not prone to doing – by saying depth building was something the program hadn’t done well enough. It was seen as a shot at Gustavsson and was widely reported as such. He was at pains to clarify on Friday that he meant it was a decade old problem that Football Australia needs to address.
Either way, it’s a valid point on the road to the Asian Cup and World Cup.
His solution, so far, has been to not just name generation next in the squad, but actually give them game time.
Bryleeh Henry, Daniela Galic, Winonah Heatley, Sharn Freier, Natasha Prior and Leah Davidson all got minutes at stages, and none looked out of place at international level.
Freier is the most established of those players and looks increasingly dangerous with every appearance.
“I think the first thing that we learned is that some players have come in and really stepped up to the level that we’re playing at,” Sermanni said.
“We actually have some talent around that we need to try to utilise a little bit better.”
More established players like Emily Gielnik, Chloe Logarzo and Remy Siemsen, who missed the profile boom of World Cup induced Matildas-mania, have also returned to the fold.
A mix of the young and the returning will be required for the side to get its hands on silverware.
CLARITY ON SAM KERR
Sam Kerr has been sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury since suffering the setback at a Chelsea training camp in January.
Hard details around her recovery have been difficult to come by since.
Now, new Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor has provided a ballpark timeframe for Kerr’s return.
“We are looking to have her back with us in February, March, not before that,” Bompastor said.
“She didn’t start yet to train, even being modified with the group, so she’s still on her individual process rehab and I think it will take at least two or three more months for her to be fit enough to be with the squad.”
That means the SheBelieves Cup will, most likely, come too soon and Chelsea would surely hold reservations about Kerr departing for international duty if she was only just back on the park.
Having Kerr fit and firing for the Asian Cup in 2026 and the World Cup in 2027 must be the goal after an injury interrupted run at the last edition before missing the Olympics in Paris completely.
Tillies snap losing streak with 3-1 win | 01:34
THE HARDEST MOMENT TO WATCH
Chloe Logarzo made her first appearance for the Matildas since October 2022 in the game at AAMI Park against Chinese Taipei.
After a lively first half-hour spent cleverly linking up with the strike pairing of Emily Gielnik and Michelle Heyman, a head clash while competing for a ball saw her night come to an end.
The next day she was ruled out of the second match in Geelong.
“She has got the old egg on the side of her head at the moment,” Sermanni said after the AAMI Park game.
“She is devastated at having to go off. She waited quite a long time to get back in the team.”
It’s not hard to understand why Logarzo was pleading for the medical staff to let her continue.
The 29-year-old has had a horror run with injuries.
The midfielder tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during a friendly against Ireland in September of 2021.
Issues with her foot followed the completion of rehabilitation on her knee.
Logarzo wasn’t fit enough for the World Cup and turned television pundit for the tournament instead.
The Western United star will be desperate to be on the pitch instead of in a TV studio when the Asian Cup rolls around.
The tears that followed her substitution in Melbourne were a raw and honest expression of how cruel professional sport can be.
THE BEST MOMENT OF THE FOUR MATCHES
Clare Polkinghorne take a bow.
You know you’ve made it when you enter the Australian consciousness just by your nickname.
“Polks” got a celebration game against Brazil in-front of family and friends in her home state in Queensland and then a farewell game against Chinese Taipei in Geelong.
The defender made her international debut in 2006 against China in Shanghai as a 16-year-old and went on to be picked for five World Cups, five Asian Cups and three Olympic Games.
The 35-year-old exits the game with 169 appearances for the Matildas to her name that saw her go from playing in-front of small crowds to selling out stadiums.