Montemurro: Germany game means we can trial our ideas against the best

CommBank Matildas Head Coach Joe Montemurro said that the upcoming match against Germany on Saturday morning (AEDT) provides an opportunity for the squad to test themselves against one of the best in the world ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027.

He was speaking to the media from Karlsruhe, where the side are preparing to take on the World No.3.

"We strategically started looking at our build-up for the World Cup straight after the Asian Cup," he explained.

"As soon as we qualified, the next day, I remember turning to my coaching staff and saying: now we start building for the World Cup. One of those was picking the teams that we wanted to play, because we need to be prepared against the best. We could have chosen teams that won't give us our true understanding of where we're at, but the excitement is the ability to see options that we could have available in the squad. 

"We're going to have to be able to be prepared with a lot of options - someone who can come on and change the game in the last ten minutes, someone who can come on and hold onto a game when we're winning. So, we need to look at all those options, and it's great that we can - against one of the best teams in the world - trial those ideas and have a look at some players that potentially could be in our squad in June."

Those options include three potential debutants - Tori Tumeth, Hana Lowry and goalkeeper Courtney Newbon. Montemurro said he was impressed by the quality in the squad.

"We've noticed that the levels and the standards, especially from a technical perspective, have been very important and very high," he said.

"No one comes into camp not understanding that the standards for us from a technical, a physical, and even a mental perspective have to be of a high standard. We're only seeing positive things. The quicker I can bring a lot of these players to understand the rhythm and the tempo of international football, the closer they'll be to being important players for the national team in the future."

With key players such as Mary Fowler, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Clare Hunt unavailable, Montemurro said the opportunity has opened up for others to make their mark.

"It's probably one of those things that's really positive in terms of being able to bring players in, and also give the players the rest that they need or the time that they need," he explained.

"A lot of these players are in big competitions with big teams, or playing a lot of football. So part of the process of building for June isn't just putting our best team out there and playing all the time. It's also about the mental freshness. It's also about the approach from a strategic scenario to understand that need to juggle their clubs also. So for us, it's all been positive. It's all been positive in terms of our squad."

He specifically praised the depth in midfield coming through.

"We're lucky that when we look at the whole squad or the depth chart in Australia, we have a lot of very talented midfielders," he said.

"This is a great opportunity to bring them in and to understand what we're trying to do from the whole of high performance scenario, but more importantly now to be able to expose them against some of the best midfielders in the world. I'm actually really excited to see them. You've got a Dani Galic who's doing fantastic, Alana Murphy's been brilliant at Forest, Hana Lowry at Valerenga who's really come a long way. They're names that I want you to remember because I really do believe that they're going to be the next generation of midfielders, and I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about the amount of talented midfielders that we have in Australia."

Finally, he gave his impression of Germany, and what the team could expect in the match.

"They will press high. They are a team that is very aggressive as we're progressing from the low zone into our mid zone, so they will send numbers forward," he said.

"They're very brave in terms of player-on-player defending at the back, but with the ball, their movement is fantastic, and we need that. We need to be able to understand, when teams have this type of movement, how do we counteract that? How do we make it work for us? A to regain the ball, but B also to be proactive with the ball. I'm actually really excited to see what we can do against the high pressing team. 

"That's why we've chosen Germany. They are very aggressive in their press and in our defensive third. I'm hopefully going to get a lot of data and a lot of information and a lot of clips and footage on finding solutions, because that's going to be a common theme in the World Cup. So, from a tactical perspective, it's perfect."