Matilda's off to the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China
The Matildas will be looking to emulate the success of the Socceroos last year in Germany when the FIFA Women’s World Cup takes centre stage next week.
Despite being ranked third in their group behind Norway and Canada the Aussie girls go into the tournament with both confidence and high expectations after comprehensively defeating host nation China in two internationals just a fortnight ago.
Australia knocked over one of the traditional superpowers of the womens game 3-2 and 3-1 in Tianjin, with the latter match attracting 52,000 in what is believed to be a record crowd for a Matildas match.
The squad have been in camp in Sydney this week with coach Tom Sermanni fine-tuning his charges before Australia open their campaign against Ghana on September 12 in Hangzhou. This will be followed by the match against Norway on September 15 in the same city and the final group match against Canada on September 19 in Chengdu. (* See below for TV schedule)
Norway, the top seeded nation in the group, won the FIFA Women-s World Cup in 1995 as well as the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and are ranked four in the world. Canada were semi finalists at the 2003 World Cup and have a current world ranking of nine. Ghana are the lowest ranked team in the tournament at 47 but the Africans have denied the Matildas at the last two tournaments recording a win and a draw in their only two meetings against Australia.
The top two teams in Australia-s group will progress to the quarter finals and meet the top two teams of Group D which features China, Denmark, Brazil and New Zealand.
Australia, who have appeared in three previous FIFA Women-s World Cups dating back to their first appearance in 1995, are yet to win a match at a finals tournament. However the team are now ranked 15 in the world and under Sermanni have achieved a number of credible results against top ten nations including victories over Germany and China, and draws against DPR Korea and USA.
Australia qualified for the tournament after a second place finish at last year-s AFC Asian Women-s Cup where they lost the final on penalties to China, and in the process only narrowly failed to become the first Australian team to win an Asian championship.
Female participation in Australia has grown enormously in recent years with females comprising nearly 20 per cent of the registered players. There are now just on 100,000 registered players in Australia with numbers having grown by over 16 per cent in just one year between 2005 and 2006.
TV SBS TV will broadcast a selection of matches from the 2007 FIFA Women-s World Cup including LIVE coverage of ALL Matildas matches, both semi-finals and the final to ALL States and Territories.
Broadcast Schedule:- Wednesday 12 September Ghana v Australia LIVE @ 6.50pm (AEST)
Saturday 15 September Australia v Norway LIVE @ 9.50pm (AEST)
Wednesday 19 September Australia v Canada LIVE @ 6.50pm (AEST)
Wednesday 26 September 1st Semi-Final LIVE @ 9.50pm (AEST)
Thursday 27 September 2nd Semi-Final LIVE @ 9.50pm (AEST)
Sunday 30 September Final LIVE @ 9.30pm (AEST)