6 days ago
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The Matildas will face South Korea with interim head coach Tom Sermanni still in charge for at least these two friendlies and possibly a couple more against Argentina in late May and early June. Sermanni has been a steadying hand during his third stint as Matildas coach but Football Australia surely needs to ramp up its search – or more likely, negotiations – for someone to take the reins heading into the 2026 Asian Cup.
Joe Montemurro is tipped to be among the frontrunners, along with Western United men’s coach John Aloisi. Sermanni would be comfortable with the current Lyon coach taking over as his permanent successor, yesterday describing Montemurro as an “outstanding coach”.
Preamble
Martin Pegan
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the women’s international friendly between Australia and South Korea at Allianz Stadium in Sydney. The Matildas are seeking a return to form in back-to-back friendlies against their Asian rivals after a horror campaign at the SheBelieves Cup but will have to do so without some of their leading players.
Australia lost all three matches at the tournament in the United States in February and have now slumped to a 20-year low in the Fifa world rankings at No 16. But they have no time to lick their wounds with the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup on home soil now less than 11 months away.
South Korea knocked the Matildas out of the last continental tournament with a 1-0 victory at the quarter-final stage and loom as a stern challenge in a pair of friendlies as both sides gear up for another shot at winning an Asian Cup.
The Matildas have handed several debuts and additional opportunities to emerging and fringe players during interim head coach Tom Sermanni’s third stint in charge and are likely to call on many of those fresh faces with the first-choice XI hit hard by injury. Katrina Gorry (ankle) withdrew ahead of the players landing back in Australia while Ellie Carpenter (ankle) and Hayley Raso (thigh) were ruled out on Thursday and sent back to their respective clubs.
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold will also miss at least tonight’s game after injuring an arm in Matildas training this week. Liverpool shotstopper Teagan Micah will take the gloves at Allianz Stadium while Arnold will hope to return to face the world No 19 In Newcastle on Monday night.
Kick-off is at 8.10pm AEDT. I’ll be back shortly with the line-ups and team news.
In the meantime, get in touch with any questions, thoughts and predictions. You can shoot me an email, or find me on X @martinpegan and Bluesky @martinpegan.bsky.social. Let’s get into it!
