CommBank Matildas Head Coach Joe Montemurro said that the two-game series against Mexico was a successful one in the team’s development ahead of next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™.
He was speaking in Sydney after the Matildas defeated Mexico 3-1 in the second match of the window.
“We worked on a couple of things after the game on Saturday, and a lot of those things came to life,” he said.
“There were errors, but we have to make them in these games because of the type of pressure and the type of aggressive team that Mexico are. We got what we wanted out of it, in terms of our growth, now leading into the World Cup. For me, it was a successful little tournament.”
He specified the areas that the team focused on between games one and two.
“We want to win football matches, but we felt on Saturday that as we were progressing into the attacking third, there was an extra pass, and there wasn't a run to take their defensive line away, and they were always defending with five,” he said.
“The longer it took to get into the attacking third, the more numbers they got back. On Saturday, it was always 9v4 or 9v5, and it's always going to be difficult. So we worked getting forward quicker as we were progressing, so that we could expose them and use a little bit more space behind, and we found that space tonight, which was good.
“Bringing on Hayley [Raso] to stretch the line a little bit more gave more room for our midfielders. It helped us to get forward a little bit earlier, and we got the result.”
Montemurro explained some of his selection decisions for the window, based on the long gap now between the next international games.
“The next window is in four months,” he said.
“That’s probably why I put out a starting 11 that's close to where we want to be. I'm not saying it's going to be the one at the World Cup, but it's close to where we want to be, to have that continuity.
“I could have done a lot of rotations in this camp and played a lot of players and tried things, but I don't think it was necessary because we needed that continuity. Playing against the team that played that way - we're not sure whether a lot of teams are going to play like that - but that sort of pressure, we hope that it sticks in Wini [Heatley’s] mind or it sticks in Charlie [Rule’s] mind.”
He clarified some of the roles of the players who came off the bench in the second half.
“Leticia McKenna is one that we're really looking closely at in terms of the number 10 role,” he said.
“Holly McNamara is also one who we feel is very close to starting in this team. We just felt that we could inject a little bit more speed going forward, because Mexico started to push on, and we felt that we could get a little bit more in those areas.
“Remy [Siemsen] is doing very well at club, she's playing consistently, scoring goals, doing really well, so we wanted to see where she was at. It was an opportunity to have a look at those couple of players.
“A lot of these players now are in a position where they've got to find some continuous football; they've got to be playing continuously. I've said from day one, there's no guarantees in this national team - you've got to be playing regularly at club, you've got to be performing regularly at club, and you'll be considered for this national team.”
The next international window will be in Europe, against some “big teams” in October.
“I feel that the group is growing really well, and solving problems,” he said.
“We just now need continuity. Our biggest problem is when we've got too much of the ball, we’re vulnerable, so we have to be smarter in those areas when we have momentum.
“We have to start now pushing two or three [new players] to really start being that number two to the players that are there. Again, it was a camp where we needed a little bit of continuity because we were not going to see each other for a while. The next two camps, we will be able to rotate a lot more because they're closer together.”