Three wins from three games that is all Matildas coach Joe Montemurro is focused on and he is confident the team can pull that off regardless of who is on the pitch. <\/p>\n
Montemurro\u2019s decision on which 11 players will start the match in front of an expected sold out crowd at Cbus Stadium on Thursday night will have more to do with who he needs at full fitness for the following match just 48 hours later.<\/p>\n
Montemurro said things such as on-field partnerships and connection would be taken into account when choosing the starting side but ultimately it was about ensuring the best team possible was fit for the game against South Korea. <\/p>\n
As it stands South Korea are top of the group on goal difference as they defeated Iran 3-0. They are also the team that knocked the Matildas out of the Asian Cup back in 2022. <\/p>\n
Goal difference will only come into play if the Matildas and South Korea are on equal points at the end of the group stage. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going out to win all three games, so goal difference doesn\u2019t really come into consideration,\u201d Montemurro said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go out to get results, with three points against Iran and then (South) Korea, we want to finish this group on nine points.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Matildas go into the game on the back of a 1-0 win over the Philippines. Sam Kerr, Katrina Gorry, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter, Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso all started that match and played big minutes. <\/p>\n
Montemurro didn\u2019t hide the fact he would be heavily rotating players for the game with Iran. <\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the schedule before the actual tournament started we knew there was a (tight) turnaround between games two and three and games two and three were the difficult ones in continuing the momentum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLogic says there will be some rotation in (Thursday) night\u2019s game but also in preparation for us to come, to make sure the squad is in good shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great group and whoever comes in we\u2019ll keep the standards high.\u201d<\/p>\n
He confirmed Mary Fowler was available and while goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold was fit for selection hinted back up keeper Chloe Lincoln could be called on again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMacca is fine, there is no real issues,\u201d Montemurro said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve both been training well it\u2019s really to just look forward no and just see what we need to get out of (Thursday) night\u2019s game and also looking forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those, if we play her on Thursday night and then we look at the recovery, the recovery is tight, so we just need to see who\u2019s going to recover better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last time the Matildas played Iran was in 2023, an Olympic qualifier in Perth. Matildas triumphed in a hard-fought 2-0 win.<\/p>\n
Matildas will play Iran at Cbus Stadium on Thursday night at 8pm (AEDT). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three wins from three games that is all Matildas coach Joe Montemurro is focused on and he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[258564,3486,1724,64,63,689,43256,258565,258561,9239,132254,28516,596,2105,67617,27507,108342,257730,258563,177794,677,258566,258562,258560,5813,85,49980,43245,104403],"class_list":{"0":"post-517578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-actual-tournament","9":"tag-albert-perez","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-caitlin-foord","15":"tag-chloe-lincoln","16":"tag-coach-joe","17":"tag-eastern-asia","18":"tag-ellie-carpenter","19":"tag-erin-smith","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-getty-images-inc","22":"tag-goal-difference","23":"tag-group-stage","24":"tag-james-worsfold","25":"tag-joe-calls","26":"tag-joe-montemurro-on-mary-fowler","27":"tag-katrina-gorry","28":"tag-oceania","29":"tag-on-field-partnerships","30":"tag-opening-asian","31":"tag-real-issues","32":"tag-south-korea","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-starting-side","35":"tag-steph-catley","36":"tag-tough-call"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}