For Shay Hollman, Maddie Caspers, Tahlia Franco, Amber Luchtmeijer and Indiana Dos Santos, their FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup is set to get underway this weekend.
The five Sydney FC players were named in the Young Matildas squad last month and since then have been preparing for this tournament which included a two week pre-tournament camp based in Colombia.
The South American region will host the 11th edition of the U20 tournament and the Australians will be looking to improve on their 2022 showing in Costa Rica where they only managed one win against the hosts and sadly fell to Brazil and Spain in the Group Stage. Spain went on to win the title.
This time around, they will be taking on the hosts again, and the Colombians will be first up on Saturday night local time, Sunday morning in Australia and it is sure to be a vibrant match up with Linda Caicedo named in the Las Cafeteras (The Coffee Growers) squad as she was for the senior FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.
The Aussies qualified for the tournament after their third place finish at the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup with Hollman, Caspers, Franco and Dos Santos playing a key role in the success of that campaign. Luchtmeijer is in the Young Matildas set up for the first time after recently signing a contract with Sydney FC and impressing in the NSW NPL with Macarthur Bulls where she took home the golden boot with 23 goals in 23 matches.
The Australians will also face Mexico on Wednesday morning (AUS time) before concluding their group stage against Cameroon on Saturday at 8am AEST.
This tournament can provide valuable minutes for our girls as they head into the start of the Liberty A-League season which is set to kick off on the first weekend of November.
All matches for this tournament will be broadcast live and free on FIFA+.
Match Details
Colombia v Australia
Group Stage
Sunday 1st September
Estadio El Campin, Bogota, Colombia
Kick Off: 9:00am AEST (6:00pm local Saturday)
Mexico v Australia
Group Stage
Wednesday 4th September
Estadio El Campin, Bogota, Colombia
Kick Off: 8:00am AEST (5:00pm local Tuesday)
Australia v Cameroon
Group Stage
Saturday 7th September
Estadio El Campin, Bogota, Colombia
Kick Off: 11:00am AEST (8:00pm local Saturday)
