Sydney FC’s Interim Westfield Matlidas’ Head Coach Alen Stajcic is set to bring in a number of Sky Blues faces when Australia take on Jordan tonight in their second AFC Women’s Asian Cup encounter at Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh.
Sydney FC-s Interim Westfield Matlidas- Head Coach Alen Stajcic is set to bring in a number of Sky Blues faces when Australia take on Jordan tonight in their second AFC Women-s Asian Cup encounter at Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh.
The short turnaround between games means Stajcic will go into the match with a vastly different team to the one that drew with Japan in their tournament opener on Wednesday night, in which Sydney FC’s Caitlin Foord scored a stunning solo goal.
Ten changes are planned with Sydney FC midfielders Nicola Bolger and Teresa Polias expected to come in alongside forward Samantha Kerr, and Leena Khamis also a chance to feature at some stage.
Stajcic has made no secret of the depth of talent at his disposal, particularly with the heat and humidity in Vietnam, and only right back Teigen Allen will front up from Game 1.
“There will probably be ten changes to the team, and on top of those ten, Hayley (Raso) and Ash (Sykes) will more than likely come on at some point as well,” Stajcic said.
“Everyone in the squad is pushing for a starting spot and I-ve got confidence in all of them so I-m sure they-ll do the job – there-s really good depth in this group.”
On his decision to turn over the personnel in the team, one thing Stajcic wanted to make clear was that by no means did it mean the Westfield Matildas would be taking Jordan any less seriously than World Champions Japan.
With the top five countries at the conclusion of the tournament set to book their place at next year-s World Cup, there is no way Stajcic is thinking positive results over Jordan and Vietnam are just going to happen.
“We can-t afford to be complacent, there-s a World Cup spot at stake so the game against Jordan is critical,” Stajcic said.
“We need two wins in this group phase, we haven-t won one yet, we-ve got two to go and we need to win both to ensure that we go to the World Cup, so we can-t afford to underestimate anyone.
“We-ll do our homework on Jordan and hopefully come out firing on Friday.”
Stajcic watched Jordan beaten 3-1 by Vietnam from the stands before his side tackled Japan yesterday, and he believes they will prove a tricky assignment.
“Jordan might play a bit differently against us than they did against Japan and only push one up front so it might be a bit harder to break them down,” Stajcic said.
“But we-ll try to attack and create, get the fullbacks overlapping and outnumber them in key areas of the field.
“We don-t want to give a team like Jordan any possibility of getting in the game so the sooner we can get on top of them the better.”
Kick-Off is at 8.15pm AEST and the match can be seen LIVE and exclusive on Fox Sports 1 and 1HD.
Jordan v Westfield Matildas
Friday 16 May 2014
Thong Nhat Stadium, Ho Chi Minh
Kick-Off: 8.15pm AEST (5.15pm local time)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMatildas #JORvAUS
Westfield Matildas squad: 1.Brianna DAVEY (gk), 2.Teigen ALLEN, 3.Kim CARROLL, 4.Clare POLKINGHORNE, 5.Laura ALLEWAY, 6.Leena KHAMIS, 7.Hayley RASO, 8.Elise KELLOND-KNIGHT, 9.Caitlin FOORD, 10.Emily VAN EGMOND, 11.Lisa DE VANNA, 12.Kate GILL, 13.Tameka BUTT, 14.Alanna KENNEDY, 15.Nicola BOLGER, 16.Stephanie CATLEY, 17.Teresa POLIAS, 18.Lydia WILLIAMS (gk), 19.Katrina GORRY, 20.Samantha KERR, 21.Casey DUMONT (gk), 22.Ashleigh SYKES, 23.Michelle HEYMAN, 24.Emma CHECKER
HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
This will be the ever first meeting between the two sides.
AFC Women-s Asian Cup 2014 – Group standings
Group A P W D L F A Pts
Vietnam 1 1 0 0 3 1 3
Australia 1 0 1 0 2 2 1
Japan 1 0 1 0 2 2 1
Jordan 1 0 0 1 1 3 0
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