The first arrivals for the CommBank Matildas October FIFA International Window entered the assembly in England as the team commenced their preparations for upcoming internationals against South Africa and Denmark.
Several UK-based players, including captain Sam Kerr and vice-captain Steph Catley, were joined by a raft of players from across Europe, the USA and Australia for the first training session in South-West London.
For London-based Catley, the travel into camp was a decidedly atypical affair to those in the past 18 months.
“It was extremely easy and different. Just a nice cruise in from where I am in St. Albans to here,” laughed Catley. “So [it took] about 50 minutes and [I’m] feeling fresh, feeling ready to go for day one. It's a nice change.”
Catley returns to the squad after a minor injury kept her out of both matches against Canada in October. The fullback has her eyes firmly focused on hitting the pitch against South Africa this Saturday with the opening training session geared towards that preparation.
“It was a good session. It was short and sharp, but we were able to sort of do some position-specific training.
“We were able to really home in on stuff that we need to work on and stuff that's specific to South Africa and making the most of sort of trying to score goals in the final third against them.”
In over 100 appearances for Australia, the Arsenal defender has only met an African nation twice (Nigeria in 2015 and Zimbabwe in 2016) and never in an international friendly. This record, Catley believes, underscores the importance of diverse opposition as part of the road to the World Cup.
Following Saturday’s match, the CommBank Matildas would have met a nation from each of FIFA’s confederations in the last 12 months.
“It's nice to have an opponent that we don't play often. It's really important to play all sorts of teams. They all possess different attributes that you have to be ready for, and you have to be used to playing against.
“It creates a new challenge and prepares us in a way that is so important leading into a World Cup. You don't know who you're going to get, and you don't want to get there and be completely shocked and that means that you lose the game. It’ll be a tough challenge, but we're excited for it.”
Australia v South Africa will be broadcast live on 10 Bold, 10 Play and Paramount+, with the fixture against Denmark live and exclusive to Paramount+.
CommBank Matildas v South Africa
Date: Saturday, 8 October 2022
Location: Kingsmeadow, London
Kick-Off: 12:30pm (local) / 10.30pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: 10 Bold, 10 Play and Paramount+
Denmark v CommBank Matildas
Date: Tues, 11 October 2022 (local) / Wed, 12 October (AEDT)
Location: Viborg Stadium, Viborg, Denmark
Kick-Off: 6.00pm (local) / 3.00am (AEDT)
Broadcast: Paramount+