Two years older, two years wiser.
Since their final Below-20 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup marketing campaign in Costa Rica in 2022, the place they did not make it previous the group stage, lots has occurred to Australia’s Younger Matildas.
Most secured senior skilled contracts throughout the A-League Ladies, with many develop into key gamers of their golf equipment over the previous two seasons.
They watched from the stands in 2023 as their senior counterparts completed fourth of their house World Cup, beaming as they noticed their very own futures unfold earlier than them.
And in March of this 12 months, they grew to become simply the second Australian aspect ever to win a medal on the U20 Ladies’s Asian Cup, securing third place for the primary time since 2006.
The Younger Matildas certified for his or her fifth U-20 World Cup in March of this 12 months. (Soccer Australia.)
Coached by Leah Blayney, herself a former Younger Matilda and the primary Australian lady to guide a nationwide workforce to 2 World Cups, it is a workforce now trembling with chance and potential.
Because the senior Matildas start their very own generational transition, a number of of the gamers who might be participating on this month’s U-20 Ladies’s World Cup in Colombia would be the ones who will inherit the jerseys and numbers that their idols will go away behind.
With one other two years of video games and development beneath their belt, the group is poised to take the Matildas and Australian girls’s soccer ahead into its subsequent period.
So who’re the gamers to control as Australia contest the 2024 Below-20 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup?
Naomi Thomas-Chinnama (Perth Glory)
Naomi Thomas-Chinnama might be a key defender for the Younger Matildas in Colombia. (Getty Photos: FIFA/Tim Nwachukwu)
Coming into her second Below-20 World Cup, the 20-year-old centre-back is likely one of the most skilled and mature gamers within the squad.
She was Australia’s rock throughout their Asian Cup marketing campaign earlier this 12 months, and a stand-out as they got here up in opposition to heavyweights Spain and Brazil on the 2022 World Cup in Costa Rica, enjoying each minute of those aggressive matches.
Regardless of her age, Thomas-Chinnama already has over 40 senior membership appearances with Melbourne Metropolis, with whom she received the newest A-League Ladies Premiership. Now becoming a member of Perth Glory for a brand new journey, the defender has a recreation model paying homage to French legend Wendie Renard: calm, composed, and commanding in each bins.
A terrific decision-maker, key distributor, and robust bodily presence on the again, Thomas-Chinnama is a pure chief and can play a vital function within the Younger Matildas’ progress in Colombia.
Alexia Apostolakis (Melbourne Metropolis)
Alexia Apostolakis burst onto the scene with the Western Sydney Wanderers. (Provided)
Having debuted within the A-League Ladies when she was simply 15 years outdated, the Younger Matildas vice-captain has develop into one of the vital vibrant and versatile defenders within the league.
Able to enjoying at centre-back, full-back, and throughout the midfield, Apostolakis makes up for her unassuming body with a ferocious ball-winning means, which she enhances with a stunning artistic aptitude, formidable distribution, and forward-thinking attacking instincts.
Like Thomas-Chinnama, Apostolakis comes into her second U-20 World Cup this month, proper off the again of securing an enormous transfer to reigning Premiers Melbourne Metropolis following a number of seasons with the Western Sydney Wanderers.
With high-intensity video games unfold simply three days aside in Colombia, the 18-year-old’s shapeshifting qualities could possibly be a selected asset as harm or fatigue start to take their toll on a younger squad that is performed little soccer, both for membership or nation, prior to now six months.
Lara Gooch (Newcastle Jets)
Lara Gooch (proper) is likely one of the quickest gamers within the Younger Matildas. (Getty Photos: Scott Gardiner)
A lightning-quick winger who can play on both aspect, Lara Gooch burst onto the scene with the Newcastle Jets, scoring eight objectives in 28 appearances over the previous two seasons.
She was essential within the Younger Matildas’ Asian Cup marketing campaign, beginning repeatedly and scoring the match-winner in opposition to South Korea within the semi-final to safe third place.
The attacker is lethal in opposition to a excessive defensive position, consuming up open area in just some strides, however she’s additionally extremely bodily in one-on-one challenges, unafraid to make use of her physique to burn or barrel previous opponents courageous sufficient to try to cease her.
With a counter-attacking, transitional model doubtless wanted in opposition to among the extra ball-playing opposition in Colombia, Gooch’s pace and deliveries from huge areas might be vital in serving up goal-scoring alternatives for her extra central team-mates, and even taking a crack herself.
Indiana Dos Santos (Sydney FC)
Indiana Dos Santos grew to become the A-League Ladies’s fifth-youngest goal-scorer this season at 15 years and 170 days. (Getty Photos: Matt King)
It has been a large twelve months for Indiana Dos Santos. After changing into the youngest ever Sydney FC participant when she debuted at 15 years and 146 days, the midfielder added to these data by changing into their youngest ever goal-scorer and youngest participant to seem in a grand ultimate, all within the area of a single season.
However one season was sufficient to cement Dos Santos as considered one of Australia’s most promising attackers. Now 16, she comes into her first U-20 World Cup as one of many squad’s youngest members, following within the footsteps of her older sister Jynaya (18), who involves Colombia for her second consecutive event.
Nicknamed “Indy,” the youthful Dos Santos’ technical qualities with the ball at her ft, her balletic motion to bop round opponents one-on-one, and her spectacular passing imaginative and prescient makes her one of many Younger Matildas’ most dangerous central attacking weapons, able to unlocking compact defences and inflicting havoc in entrance of any back-line.
Sasha Grove (Western United)
Sasha Grove is likely one of the nation’s most enjoyable younger full-backs. (ABC Information: Anthea Moodie)
Already with three seasons beneath her belt, having graduated from the Canberra United Academy to signify her hometown membership’s senior aspect and rapidly changing into a fan favorite, full-back Sasha Grove will lastly make her World Cup debut this month after changing into one of the vital eye-catching younger defenders within the A-League Ladies.
Her recreation consciousness, tenacity, and bravado in particular person duels have shades of Ellie Carpenter to them, whereas her quick-thinking reactions after successful the ball again usually set off her entire workforce’s transition right into a counter-attack with a single pacey dribble away from strain.
Having secured a transfer to Western United for the upcoming season, the diminutive defender makes up for her brief stature along with her persistence, maturity, and “by no means say die” angle: precisely the qualities that might put her in body for a captain’s armband at some point.
Shay Hollman (Sydney FC)
Shay Hollman captained Australia’s U-17s workforce to an historic AFF Championship win. (tty ImaeG)
After shadowing the likes of Teresa Polias, Clare Wheeler, Taylor Ray, and Sarah Hunter at Sydney FC, younger midfielder Shay Hollman had a breakout season with the Sky Blues of their Championship-winning marketing campaign final 12 months, changing into a mainstay within the workforce’s midfield and a vital cog of their history-making machine.
Hollman, whose older brother additionally performs within the A-League Males, is a basic holding midfielder: calm, balanced, composed on the ball, and in a position to management the tempo of video games virtually single-handedly.
The 18-year-old not often makes the incorrect determination when passing out of strain or breaking by way of traces, and has developed a defensive recreation consciousness that provides her workforce an additional little bit of safety as she patrols the world in entrance of her centre-backs.
Whereas this might be her main event debut with the U-20s, she comes into it having captained Australia’s U-18s aspect once they received the ASEAN Soccer Federation’s youth event again in 2022, and has the makings of one other leader-by-example on the pitch.
Peta Trimis (Central Coast Mariners)
Peta Trimis may cause all types of havoc in opposition to any back-line in Colombia. (ytteG)
Teenage striker Peta Trimis did not take lengthy to make her mark within the A-League Ladies: incomes her first skilled contract final 12 months with the returning Central Coast Mariners, after carving it up at Nationwide Premier League degree, she grew to become a daily game-changer because the Mariners stormed to the semi-finals.
Capable of play throughout the entrance three, and with tempo to burn, Trimis’s ending skills have been on present for the U-20s over the previous 12 months. She scored the opening aim in icy circumstances in opposition to South Korea within the group stage of final 12 months’s Asian Cup earlier than including to her tally in opposition to Uzbekistan, and was Australia’s solely goal-scorer in a loss to eventual silver medallists Japan.
Her performances all through that event earned her a Future Star Participant of the Match award nomination, the place she was the youngest by two years in comparison with the three different gamers who made the short-list.
In an indication of her membership’s religion in her future, the Mariners have lately re-signed Trimis for an extra two years, recognising her potential and realizing that golf equipment from elsewhere on the earth will doubtless start circling the 18-year-old with one other spectacular season beneath her belt.
Avaani Prakash (Western United)
Avaani Prakash could possibly be the distinction for the Younger Matildas. (Getty Photos: Jonathan DiMaggio)
Midfielder Avaani Prakash virtually did not make the Younger Matildas squad for Colombia in any respect, however a last-minute harm to Emilia Murray noticed the younger Western United star known as as much as the aspect lower than two weeks out from the event’s begin.
Having represented Australia in any respect age ranges, Prakash was a part of the workforce that received the AFF Championship in 2022. A fast-footed, delicate, difficult central attacker, she is most harmful with the ball at her ft and time to string an ideal move.
Regardless of simply ten appearances for Western United within the ALW final 12 months, Prakash made sufficient of an impression to complete third within the membership’s fan group Participant of the Season award, coming in behind Matildas veteran Chloe Logarzo and star USA striker Hannah Keane.
The 17-year-old’s particular person abilities, passing imaginative and prescient, one-on-one trickery, and bravado when dribbling make her one other attacking choice for Leah Blayney’s aspect, and doubtlessly the impression participant that might crack a must-win recreation proper open.
Chloe Lincoln (Western United)
Chloe Lincoln is poised to be a future senior Matildas goalkeeper. (Provided: Soccer Australia)
Extensively thought to be Australia’s greatest up-and-coming goalkeepers, 19-year-old Chloe Lincoln emerged onto the scene with Canberra United, making 39 appearances throughout three seasons.
Lincoln was essential within the Younger Matildas’ Asian Cup marketing campaign final 12 months, along with her distribution, aerial prowess, snug palms, and exact timing making her Australia’s doubtless beginning goalkeeper, inheriting the gloves from the spectacular Sally James who steered the Younger Matildas by way of their final World Cup.
Along with her bodily skills, her communication from the again, management, and organisational abilities at set items are additionally notable strengths, and will definitely turn out to be useful the additional the workforce progresses.
For the primary time, 24 groups will contest this 12 months’s event, with the highest two in every group and the 4 greatest third-placed sides going by way of to the knockouts: one thing the Younger Matildas have not achieved since 2004.
The Younger Matildas start their marketing campaign tomorrow morning in opposition to Colombia.
Colombia v Australia
Date: Sunday, 1 September 2024 (AUS)
Time: 9:00am (AEST)
Venue: Estadio El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia
Mexico v Australia
Date: Wednesday, 4 September 2024 (AUS)
Time: 8:00am (AEST)
Venue: Estadio El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia
Australia v Cameroon
Date: Saturday, 7 September 2024 (AUS)
Time: 11:00am (AEST)
Venue: Estadio El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia
