{"id":543481,"date":"2026-03-16T06:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/543481\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T06:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:14:16","slug":"emily-van-egmond-matildas-record-catley-and-raso-fit-for-semi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/543481\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily van Egmond Matildas record, Catley and Raso fit for semi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Montemurro has delivered a glowing tribute to Matildas midfielder Emily van Egmond as she stands on the cusp of overtaking Clare Polkinghorne as Australia\u2019s most capped international footballer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the Women\u2019s Asian Cup semi final against China in Perth, Montemurro also declared Steph Catley and Hayley Raso fit to play in a match that presents a huge stage for a new Australian sporting milestone to be set. <\/p>\n

32-year-old van Egmond will likely have a key role to play; she has remained a pivotal part of Australia\u2019s midfield since Montemurro has taken over and should she take the field on Tuesday night, will earn her 169th senior international cap, notched over a career spanning 16 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Van Egmond has been a core part of a golden generation of players who have grown from baby faced teens into national heroes as the side, and women\u2019s football, has exploded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the quietly spoken star is not one to covet the headlines, and definitely didn\u2019t want to dwell on her milestone in the press conference ahead of the Women\u2019s Asian Cup semi final with China \u2013 \u201cI hate talking about myself,\u201d she said \u2013 her coach was happy to pick up the mantle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to her the other day, I think you\u2019re one of Australia\u2019s most talented footballers and I still believe that,\u201d Montemurro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer football intelligence, her reading of the game, her technique, I think she\u2019s one of the best footballers that we\u2019ve produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the reason why she\u2019s here and is so known in the national team and is still an important part of the national team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the biggest thing is her humility, her ability to understand that the group is more important than the individual.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously she doesn\u2019t like it (when) she doesn\u2019t start, but that\u2019s normal. But there a few players that I\u2019ve had the honour of coaching that I can have a really good technical conversation (with). And to be honest, we have good discussions about football and technique and things like that, and that\u2019s unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if she wants to follow in her father\u2019s footsteps (Gary van Egmond, current Western Sydney Wanderers\u2019 coach in the A-League) and be a coach or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to tell her not to be a coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think even beyond football, think what Emily can contribute to us and what the family has contributed because her father\u2019s an amazing coach too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think is really, really special.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, it\u2019s about Emily, but it\u2019s also about the contribution that the van Egmond family has made to football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Montemurro has delivered a glowing tribute to Matildas midfielder Emily van Egmond as she stands on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,269272,596,85],"class_list":["post-543481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-emily-van-egmond","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543481","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=543481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}