SÃO PAULO: Australia’s football women have spent nearly a month in Brazil preparing for their first Olympic tilt in 12 years, time their coach hopes has them primed for Games glory.
The Australian Women’s Football Team wrapped up their preparations at São Paulo’s Parque São Jorge today, with coach Alen Stajcic still to finalise the eleven that will tackle Canada at the Arena Corinthians tomorrow (Thursday AEST).
It’s an occasion as big as any the team has faced in its recently history, though four weeks in the host country, which started with a fortnight in tropical Fortaleza, has been ideal for a team that has set it sights on a historic podium finish in Rio.
“We’re obviously very excited, but very focused on the task at hand,” said Stajcic.
“From a team perspective, we needed to come here early due to the weather conditions back home in Australia being the middle of winter.
“Also, the thirteen hour time difference, which is a massive length of jet lag to get over and really took the team somewhere between five to seven days to get over that.
“Really we’ve had between two to three weeks of really quality training and it’s been essential training, but I’m sure it’ll be beneficial come the end of the tournament.”
Australia boasts one of the youngest and most dynamic squads of the twelve that will take part in Women’s Football competition.
Sydney-born 16-year-old Ellie Carpenter – the youngest Australian at these Games – is among them, but is an exception to the record that shows many of Australia’s young stars have accumulated close to 50 international caps already in their young careers.
“They may be young, but many have been to more than one World Cup already and more than one major tournament,” said Stajcic.
“They’ve played in enough big matches to be ready for an occasion like this.
“Every match is important, tomorrow obviously gives you a bit of momentum, but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to get through to the quarter-finals and then from there it’s life and death.
“This team certainly has the capacity to beat any team in the world on our day, so our job is to be as consistent as we can throughout the tournament and get to the finals series and be at our best possible shape.”
Wednesday's match kicks off at 3pm local time (4am AEST Thursday).
Ben Coonan
olympics.com.au
