Historic First Afc Final At Stake In Tonight's Sem
The Qantas Young Matildas will tonight aim to become the first Australian national team to make a final of an Asian competition, when it plays DPR Korea (North Korea) in the semi finals of the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship, being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The Qantas Young Matildas will tonight aim to become the first Australian national team to make a final of an Asian competition, when it plays DPR Korea (North Korea) in the semi finals of the AFC U-19 Women-s Championship, being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Also at stake in tonight-s game is a place at the FIFA U-20 Women-s World Championship in Russia later this year, with the winner guaranteed one of three AFC spots.
Qantas Young Matildas coach Alistair Edwards will start with the same team, bar one, that beat China 1-0 in their opening clash of Group B. Servet Uzunlar will start instead of Leah Blayney, who has started in all three group games.
He will also have a team that will be fairly fresh from an exhausting schedule in the hot and humid conditions that have been presented in Malaysia.
“We will be going into the game with the same team that started in our opening game win against China with the exception of Servet Uzunlar who comes into the side for Leah Blayney,” said Edwards ahead of tonight-s clash.
“Lydia Williams, Kim Carroll and Danielle Brogan will make their first start since the opening game against China, with all the other starting players fresh and focused after being used sparingly since the great opening day win.”
The starting line-up is: Lydia Williams (gk); Clare Polkinghorne, Kim Carroll, Danielle Brogan, Olivia Kennedy, Sally Shipard (c), Kylie Ledbrook, Servet Uzunlar, Collette McCallum, Sasha McDonnell, Leena Khamis
Edwards is no doubt expecting a tough game from DPK Korea, who upset defending champions and arch rival Korea Republic (South Korea) in their final group match to earn the opportunity to play Australia, who are the only team not to concede a goal in the tournament.
“DPR Korea play a direct physical game,” said Edwards. “They get the ball forward at every opportunity and so far this has been effective for them, so we will have to continue to be very disciplined as a defensive unit to combat this threat.”
“The key to today-s game is going to be how DPR Korea adapt to our possession game. We have had 70 - 80% possession in all of our games so far and our ability to control the game and subsequently our opponent.
“This will cause DPR Korea problems they haven-t encountered before. If we can stifle their direct game approach by winning the ball back quickly then it is going to be interesting to see how they react when they are struggling to get the ball back.”
Sally Shipard will captain the team after Collette McCallum and Kylie Ledbrook led the team in the games against Malaysia and Jordan respectively.
Previous Tournament Results Australia 1 China 0; Australia 16 Malaysia 0; Australia 7 Jordan 0 DPR Korea 0 Japan 3; DPR Korea 14 India 0; DPR Korea 2 Korea Republic 1
The match kicks off at 7.45pm (9.45pm AEST).