Para Matildas’ Quest For World Cup Glory
The 2nd IFCPF Football World Cup kicks off this week, with Australia the top ranked side.
Australia’s Para Matildas - the elite women’s football team for athletes with Cerebral Palsy, Symptom of Stroke and Acquired Brain Injury - have arrived in Salou, Spain for this week’s IFCPF World Cup.
The team head into the second such event as the number one ranked team, and have the opportunity to become the first senior Australian football side in history to win a World Cup, having been runners-up to the USA two years ago at the inaugural event.
On that occasion, the Para Matildas team had only been formed a few months before the tournament. Since then, the team has evolved under coach Kelly Stirton, with the number of athletes competing for places in the squad growing all the time, and last year the team won the Asia Oceania Championships held in Melbourne.
Of the 10 players selected for this week’s World Cup, six remain from the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Oceania champion sides - Tahlia Blanshard, Lainee Harrison, Katelyn Smith (co-captain), Eloise Northam, Rae Anderson and Georgia Beikoff.
One of those making their World Cup debut is co-captain Carly Salmon. While this will be Carly’s first time on the World Cup stage, she has experience representing Australia at major events from her time in athletics. Carly spoke to HER WAY about her rise to the co-captaincy:
“It’s a bit crazy. I’m so new to football, I’ve only been playing for just under two years, so to think I’m a captain of a football team is absolutely insane. I’m super grateful, and I think definitely having experience - I started athletics when I was 13 and started travelling ove rseas then. So I had to learn fast and I was thrown in the deep end. So I guess I’ve just learnt professionalism and leadership skills from athletes in the sport of athletics. Even though I’m a captain of this team, I still feel like we’re all leaders in some way.”
Heading into the tournament as the top ranked team, Carly is trying to keep her approach to the tournament as simple as possible:
“The World Cup for us is the pinnacle, it’s the highest level we can get to at this stage. There is a bit of pressure around it, but I think for myself, just reminding myself that I love football, I love the game, I love the girls - so just making sure I strip it back and just remember that. I’m there to have fun and show people how inclusive and how amazing the game is.”
Having spent a little bit of time with the Para Matildas over the past couple of years, I can tell you that there is a very unique love and care amongst this group of women.
I saw it illustrated first hand when Tahlia Blanshard, instantly recognisable by her brilliant red hair, distributed handmade bracelets to her teammates to celebrate the World Cup journey, and I was extremely honoured when she gave me one as well.
This group of athletes have fun, they deeply respect and welcome each other as individuals and their unique journeys, and they work hard to get better on the pitch each day. Every time they come together for a training camp, competition or event, it seems like a family reunion.
“The group of girls that we have heading into the World Cup are absolutely phenomenal, and the vibe coming into the camp is really high”, Carly said.
While the original core group of six players remain in addition to Carly, that leaves three others in the side who are still very young or new to the squad.
Annmarie de Uriate is still just 16 years old, and burst onto the scene last year as a goal scoring threat with 11 goals from just seven matches in the Japan series before becoming part of the Oceania-winning team, while both Rebecca Jones and Trinity McPhie have been involved in past training camps but are yet to debut.
With Carly herself able to play either goalkeeper or as a midfielder, it makes the squad versatile, dynamic, and bring different strengths depending on the situation, as the co-captain told HER WAY:
“It’s really good for multiple reasons. The teams don’t know what they’re going to get from us. We’ve definitely got some new faces, and I think that adds an extra level of excitement, because seeing some of the girls who haven’t put on the green and gold kit before - just seeing that fresh excitement and the goosebumps they got, it kind of takes you back to the first time you got to experience it. But then also having girls who have been to the World Cup before, being able to go to them and ask for advice and just understand their process and how they have got through it before.”
For debutant Trinity McPhie, the chance to possibly step onto the pitch as a Para Matilda is a dream come true, telling HER WAY, “I’ve never thought of myself as being here before. I only got introduced to this last year, so it’s been a very big two years. It’s just a huge honour to represent my country, there’s no words for it.”
The Para Matildas will take on four other countries in the women’s pool - USA, Japan, Denmark and Ireland. While they have played Japan extensively over the past 12 months and have history against the USA, there is an element of the unknown given how rapidly teams are improving in what is still a new space for football:
“It’s really interesting”, Carly says. “A lot of our focus has been, ‘we need to beat the USA’, because we went down to them at the last World Cup. But we spoke about it yesterday, and we actually don’t know what we’re coming up against with any of the teams. Even Japan - we went over (in 2023) and played them in a few friendlies and we beat them by quite a lot, and within a couple of months they came to the Asian Cup and they were so developed and so much stronger. I think that will be the case with lots of teams. They’ve all had time now to develop and grow, we’ve got two new teams. So it’s exciting, and I’m really interested to see what they’ll throw at us.”
The unknown factor could end up being a positive for the Para Matildas, as it means they’ll be able to focus on their own processes, and won’t have preconceived ideas of what to expect in terms of performance and results from their opposition:
“It means we can’t overthink it too much, and we’ve heard the word ‘complacent’ a lot. We’re going in ranked number one, but you definitely cannot be complacent with any of the teams. So yeah, I’m glad we don’t really know what we’re facing.”
For Rae Anderson, one of the inaugural Para Matildas who has represented Australia at both Summer (javelin) and Winter (skiing) Paralympics, the chance to represent her country with this group of women is something she cherishes.
“I’ve always loved my other sports, and being an individual athlete and having my own goals is really special, but to have a team goal and have these girls with me and behind me and always supporting me in everything that I do, I think the value of it is so much more than I could have ever imagined.”
The defender holds a possibly unwanted piece of Para Matildas history - she is the only currently capped player to have not scored a goal for her country.
She joked with HER WAY that a childhood bet with her father would see him give her $10 if she ever scored a goal at any level, which she is yet to do. Rae is adamant that if she nets her maiden goal in Spain, joking, “there’s inflation and everything, so if I score a goal at the World Cup, does he owe me $20 maybe?”
Personal milestones aside, the Para Tillies have the chance in Spain to do what no other Australian senior national football has ever done - lift a World Cup.
“Just thinking of the football teams that we have,” Carly Salmon pondered. “Obviously the Matildas are absolutely phenomenal, definitely a team we look up to. But to be able to get that title over them would definitely be pretty cool!”
PARA MATILDAS SCHEDULE: (all times AEDT)
Friday 15th November 12:30am - JAPAN
Sunday 17th November 12:30am - USA
Monday 18th November 12:30am - IRELAND
Tuesday 19th November 12:30am - DENMARK
Games will be shown on YouTube.
Later in the week, get to know members of the Para Matildas more with a fun new episode of Q+HER WAY.