Federation says Matildas are ready to up the ante

THEY have sold out suburban grounds and now the Matildas are looking to ride their wave of success by packing out Australia’s major stadiums with blockbuster games against the likes of the US and England.

Fresh from back- to- back wins against Brazil in Penrith and Newcastle, the Australian women’s football team has locked in friendly matches against China at Melbourne’s 30,000 seat AAMI Park and Geelong’s 34,000- capacity Simonds Stadium in November.

If the reaction is anything like what happened in NSW last week, the Matildas will break the 18,600 attendance record the Opals set at the Sydney Olympics for a stand- alone women’s team sport.

But Football Federation Australia officials are dreaming a lot bigger.

FFA is continually holding talks with women’s football heavyweights the US to tour Down Under. And, if that happens, FFA has Australia’s big stadiums in sight.

“If we can get a strong opponent, a US or an England, one of those kind of nations, and if we market it right, I think the interest would be there,” FFA’s head of women’s football Emma Highwood said. The Matildas sold out Pepper Stadium and drew a large crowd in Newcastle on the back of their Tournament of Nations triumph.

Officials believe a big turnout at AAMI Park would give them further confidence that Sam Kerr and co could draw bumper audiences to Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, Adelaide Oval, Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium or the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“I’ve always had big ambitions for the Matildas,” Highwood said.

“I don’t think we should underestimate what this winning team can achieve.”

On the outside the Matildas appear an overnight sensation, but FFA has been strategic this year in its planning for the women’s national team.

They went to Portugal to compete in the Algarve Cup in March then headed to the US in August for the Tournament of Nations, where they went through undefeated against Japan, Brazil and world No. 1 the US.

Brazil visited this month and FFA announced the friendlies with China to go off the back of that.

Each step was planned to feed into the next and a groundswell of support has come with the team getting the results and playing exciting football.