Players of the Australian women's football team celebrate goal at the Algarve Cup on March 7, 2017 (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)
By Michael Reid
CANBERRA, December 7 (Xinhua) -- The Australian women's football team has generated unprecedented excitement over the past two years with its success on the international stage and the Matildas, as the team is known, will once again be in the spotlight when the draw for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is made in Paris on Saturday night (local time).
At the ceremony, 24 qualifying teams will be placed in six groups of four for next year's finals in France.
Australia, now ranked sixth in the world, will likely be placed in pot 1, meaning it could avoid the top five teams ranked above it in the group stage: the host nation France, three-time winner the United States, two-time winner Germany, England and Canada.
Still, some strong teams lie in wait if the Matildas advance to the knockout stage, including past winner Japan, who beat Australia in the Asian Cup final in April.
Unlike their male counterparts the Socceroos, who regularly qualify for World Cup finals yet always manage to live down to low public expectations of progressing beyond their group, there is a wave of optimism about the Matildas' potential to go deep into the tournament.
But before talk of a possible semifinal beth gets too noisy, it must be remembered that the team has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals at the past three finals. The last-eight bogey extends to the Olympic Games.
It seems, however, that this golden generation of Matildas has the wherewithal to take that final step up to the elite bracket.
The player responsible for generating much of the excitement is undoubtedly Sam Kerr, who finished fifth in the inaugural Women's Ballon d'Or awards.
Kerr has been in hot form for club and country, scoring 13 goals for Perth Glory during the 2017-18 W-League in Australia, and another 16 for Chicago Red Stars in the 2018 U.S. national league. She has scored eight times for the Matildas this calendar year for a total of 27 goals from 72 appearances. Her goals and athletic back-flip celebrations have helped attract unprecedented crowds and TV viewers to the women's game.
The Matildas are heading for a seventh straight World Cup next year, and the tournament in France will be Kerr's third. "Anytime you get to qualify for a World Cup, it's a huge honor," she said. "I think we have a really great chance and we have a great team, so I'm really excited."
But the 25-year-old is not a one-woman team. Teammates Kyah Simon, Tameka Butt, Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond are established stars in their own right, while coach Alen Stajcic has added a depth to the squad.
In earlier times, the Matildas lacked quality match practice in the lead-up to tournaments. Not these days. The team has played 17 games this year for eight wins and five draws. Some have suggested the players may have peaked too soon and are in danger of burnout. To win a World Cup requires seven victories over a month of tough tournament play.
But there will be no easing off the accelerator in the lead-up to France. Having shared the spoils in a two-match home series with Chile in November - the Matildas lost the first in Sydney 3-2 but trounced the visitors 5-0 in Newcastle three days later - they will now tackle reigning world champion the U.S. in a friendly in Colorado in April, just two months before the finals kick off on June 7.
The marquee fixture is a measure of how far the Australian women's team has come, both in terms of results and box office appeal. The Matildas beat the Americans 1-0 at the Tournament of Nations in Seattle in 2017 and fought out a 1-1 draw with them in Connecticut at the same tournament this year.
The US team enter the competition as defending champions, having beaten Japan 5-2 at the 2015 World Cup final, largely due to a glorious hat trick from Carli Lloyd.
Only four teams have ever won the World Cup, and the US and Germany have combined to win five of the seven titles. France, England, Canada and Brazil are the highest-ranked teams never to have won the tournament, and all may be good enough to add a name to the winners' list next year. Behind them Australia - who topped the US, Japan and Brazil to win the 2017 Tournament of Nations, then finished second to Japan in this year's Asian Cup - could be the World Cup wildcard.
