Australia captain Sam Kerr injured
Straight in with some breaking news, and it is the doomsday scenario for Australia. Captain, goalscorer, and driving force Sam Kerr will not play tonight, or on matchday two after picking up a calf injury. More to follow.
SQUAD NOTE: Sam Kerr is unavailable tonight after she picked up a calf injury at training on MD-1. Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches with the Matildas Medical Team to re-assess her following our second group stage match.
— CommBank Matildas (@TheMatildas) July 20, 2023
Key events
5 mins: Vine again showing her blistering pace to time her run in behind on the left and control a raking pass in the channel. Ireland do well to get bodies over to cover, but they soon concede a corner.
4 mins: Lovely play form Gorry in midfield, interchanging passes with Raso then jinking her way into space. She feeds Vine on the left with a switch of play but the Sydney FC forward’s cross is easily blocked.
3 mins: The Irish fans may be outnumbered but they are in full voice. Ole, ole, ole, ole, is followed by an audible rendition of The Fields of Athenry.
2 mins: Australia immediately on the front foot, probing first down the left, then allowing the back four plenty of touches of the ball to acclimatise to the occasion. The Matildas are structured as expected with Fowler tucking in behind Foord.
Kick-off!
Australia’s World Cup campaign on home soil is under way…
As kick-off approaches, players stand around the centre circle to observe a moment’s silence for victims of today’s shooting in Auckland.
Final shout out to readers tuning in from Sydney, Amman, and even Proxima Centauri. Barry Foley, your hopes for an Irish win are lucky to make the cut.
Kick-off is imminent. Let’s hope we’re in for a match worthy of the occasion.
Advance Australia Fair receives a much louder rendition, with most of the 70,000+ crowd joining in. The Matildas are in gold jerseys tonight, green shorts, white socks. Everything is in place.
Ireland’s players drape their arms around each other’s shoulders for the national anthem. The underdogs will be in traditional green this evening, with white shorts and green socks.
The teams are about to come back out on to the pitch.
Here are some warm up snaps from earlier.
Out stride the two teams onto the Stadium Australia turf. A moment each of the 22 players will remember for the rest of their lives.
Tonight’s officials are all from South America. Brazilian Edina Alves Batista is the referee, with compatriots Neuza Back and Leila Moreira da Cruz running the line.
Fourth official María Carvajal is from Chile, and the VAR is Daiane Muniz dos Santos from Brazil.
Are you lot winding me up now? “I’m watching from mostly cloudy Reykjavík, where it’s 12 degrees and mostly windy. Behind the screen I’m watching there’s a rose bush which is as buzzing with bees as I am buzzing with excitement. Also, I’m buzzing from the third cup of coffee of the morning. Best wishes.”
Best wishes to you too, Kári Tulinius.
In news that will not surprise Sydney commuters, reports are coming through of long delays for fans making their way to Stadium Australia by rail.
Stick a pin in Thailand on the map of liveblog readers, thanks to Andrew Wright. “Just watched the opening game here in Bangkok as the monsoon rains came down. Great work by New Zealand! Hoping Mary Fowler can step up and score a few – should be good seeing her play further forward and more centrally. Along with Raso, Vine and Foord, that’s still a very incisive forward line with pace on the flanks too.”
It’s clear Australia are going to attack at pace down the flanks and get the ball forward as quickly as possible. However, without Kerr in the box to target there’s the risk of a lack of potency in front of goal – especially in the air.
Is it even football without David Squires?
We’ve had readers getting in touch from Ireland, the US, and now Lebanon. “I’m watching live from my place in Beirut where it’s heading towards 30’C,” emails Miriam Adams-Schimminger. “I’ve taken the day off from my thesis and I’m confident that the mighty Matildas can do us proud.”
Kieran Pender
The Kerr news comes as a huge shock, barely an hour out from the opening match. But the shock is compounded because yesterday evening, at the pre-match press conference, it was business as usual from Kerr and coach Tony Gustavsson. Neither said a word about Kerr’s injury, which we now know was suffered on Wednesday morning at the team’s final pre-match training session. Kerr seemed confident, upbeat, excited – no hint that she might not play in the opening matches of a home World Cup. But here we are – the Matildas Kerr-less ahead of the biggest match in their history.
A mild and sunny winter’s day has given way to a cool dry evening in Sydney. A northerly breeze may keep the corner flags active, but it shouldn’t interfere with play.
HarryofOz is here, so everything feels right with the world. “What a fantastic start to the World Cup. A terrific and fully deserved win for New Zealand. And what amazing scenes at the end, is that not the reason that we all follow sport? Just to see moments of joy and scenes like that.
Saddened of course to now hear the Sam Kerr will miss the first two matches, but hopefully we can overcome that. Come on you Matildas. Make the night even better.”
“As an Irishman, I am very excited about today’s match v Australia,” emails Niall O’Keefe. “The match is at 11 am here and many young Irish girls here will have, what I call, their ‘Italia 90’ moment. That was the first World Cup Ireland qualified for and we did OK, losing to hosts Italy in the quarter-finals! Naturally, I feel empathy for Sam Kerr. Top player and person and we are lucky she is out. I predict an Irish win.
In the 1994 World Cup in the USA, 90% of the crowd who witnessed Ireland beating Italy in New Jersey, was in green. Irish folks have a knack at getting tickets. My bold prediction is half the crowd at kick off will be in green! COYGIG. Come on you girls in green.”
The parallels are easy to draw between the World Cup debuts of the Irish men and women. Vera Pauw feels it too, channelling Jack Charlton in her press conference a few days ago, urging her charges to “give it a lash”.
If this experience is anything like Italia 90, Irish fans are in for a treat.
Speaking of Julie Dolan, here she is in conversation with our own Jack Snape outside the ground a short while ago.
The journey to nights like tonight has been long and full of sacrifices, driven by the passion of individuals like Julie Dolan.
Julie Dolan is @TheMatildas cap number one.
When Julie started, they weren’t sponsored by @CommBank – she fundraised by selling lamingtons.
Julie was the first Australian woman to walk onto a football pitch representing our country in an official international football match.… pic.twitter.com/u01LuK08ak
— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) July 20, 2023
“Greeting from pitch dark California,” emails Mary Waltz. It’s 2am Mary, I hope you have a good barista. “Gutted for Kerr, and the Aussies. I decided to set my alarm so I could see the best striker in the women’s game and the first thing I read is she is injured. This is the drama of the World Cup. It will be fascinating to see how the home side responds to this blow.”
It sure will. The solitary goal against France last week came without her on the pitch, so the alternatives are there. But it’s the intangibles – the leadership, the confidence she exudes, the fear she generates in her opponents – that Australia will miss the most.
Here’s the full story of Sam Kerr’s absence from Australia’s opening two matches.
Ireland XI
Vera Pauw sticks with the XI that started their farewell friendly with France in Dublin recently. Arsenal star Katie McCabe has the honour of captaining Ireland on their World Cup debut, and her battle on the left flank with Real Madrid flyer Hayley Raso will be one to watch.
Ireland: (5-4-1) Brosnan (GK), Payne, Quinn, Fahey, Connolly, McCabe © / Littlejohn, O’Sullivan, Farrelly, Carusa / Sheva.
Australia XI
Tony Gustavsson’s starting XI features ten of the same faces that defeated France in Melbourne last week. Of course, the one change could not be more significant, with Sam Kerr replaced by Mary Fowler. Without Kerr leading the line it will force a reshuffle of the forward line with Caitlin Foord likely to start as an out-and-out striker with Fowler tucking in behind.
Australia: (4-4-2) Arnold (GK), Carpenter, Hunt, Kennedy, Catley / Raso, Cooney-Cross, Gorry, Vine / Fowler, Foord.
KP has also cast his eye on Ireland’s preparations in Brisbane.
Pauw’s Republic of Ireland side make their Women’s World Cup debut on Thursday. As if that moment was not significant enough, Ireland’s opponents are co-hosts Australia, in the Matildas’ opening match of their first home World Cup. The Irish players will walk out to a record-breaking crowd at Stadium Australia, with most of the 81,500 fans anticipating a home victory.
But Pauw and her players have other ideas. In their last training session in camp at Football Queensland’s headquarters, before the team travel to Sydney to begin final preparations, the Irish are plotting what would be an almighty upset.
Kieran Pender is our man with the Matildas, and he set the scene from the Australian camp in Sydney – before the bombshell news about Sam Kerr was public…
In the search of the intangible, last week the Matildas backroom staff brought Cathy Freeman into camp. The Sydney 2000 Olympics sensation knows all too well how to succeed with the weight of a nation’s expectations on her shoulders, and agreed to meet with the Matildas to share her wisdom. “It’s just a crazy, wild ride,” Freeman told the players. “You’re writing your names in history, ladies.”
Kieran Pender
Matildas captain and star striker Sam Kerr has been ruled out of the opening matches of the 2023 Women’s World Cup due to injury.
Barely an hour before Australia’s campaign began at Stadium Australia on Thursday, Football Australia announced on social media that Kerr would be unavailable due to a calf injury picked up on Wednesday. “Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches with the Matildas Medical Team to re-assess her following our second group stage match,” the team tweeted.
Manchester City striker Mary Fowler was picked in the starting eleven in Kerr’s place. Kerr fronted at press conference on Wednesday evening and gave no indication that anything was amiss.
Kerr added in a post on Instagram: “Unfortunately I sustained a calf injury yesterday in training. I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve. Of course I would have loved to have been out there tonight but I can’t wait to be apart of this amazing journey which starts now.”
Australia captain Sam Kerr injured
Straight in with some breaking news, and it is the doomsday scenario for Australia. Captain, goalscorer, and driving force Sam Kerr will not play tonight, or on matchday two after picking up a calf injury. More to follow.
SQUAD NOTE: Sam Kerr is unavailable tonight after she picked up a calf injury at training on MD-1. Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches with the Matildas Medical Team to re-assess her following our second group stage match.
— CommBank Matildas (@TheMatildas) July 20, 2023
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of Australia v Republic of Ireland from Sydney’s Stadium Australia. Kick-off in this World Cup Group B opener is 8pm.
It is the biggest moment in the history of football in Australia, at the start of a month that could see such a statement superseded many times over.
It is a moment Australia has been building towards since 2019 and the start of the host nation bidding process. During that period the women’s national team has continued its inexorable surge in popularity. The Matildas are now in the conversation for Australia’s team and star players like Sam Kerr have blossomed into household names.
Kerr has claims to being the greatest female footballer on the planet, and the majority of her teammates play for the best clubs in the most demanding leagues. The Matildas may have proven themselves adept at PR and brand partnerships, but high performance is a prerequisite.
For a period after the appointment of coach Tony Gustavsson in 2020 that wasn’t the case. But the Swede’s long-term plans appear to be coming together with perfect timing. Victories this year over England and France are testament to the potential of Australia being more than just gracious hosts. Ranked tenth in the world by FIFA, on current form they warrant a nudge up the ladder, then throw in home comforts and passionate support over the next few weeks and the profile of a genuine contender emerges.
By contrast, Ireland’s ambitions are more limited. Drawn in a group alongside the tournament hosts, as well as Olympic gold medallists Canada, getting to the knockout stage will be a minor miracle. But, on debut, there will be much to take away from the World Cup experience nonetheless, not least the thrill of an opening night full house in the stadium that hosted the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
I’ll be back with team news and insights from the two camps shortly. If you want to get in touch at any point you can always send me an email.
