Montemurro may loom, but Sermanni has his hands on the wheel
Signs may point to Joe Montemurro's imminent arrival but Tom Sermanni, while giving 'Pep' a strong endorsement, says his process for selecting the Matildas squad to play Argentina remained unchanged.
All signs may point to Joe Montemurro soon being named coach of the Matildas but this hasn’t been felt at the selection table, with Tom Sermanni saying his squad selection process for upcoming friendlies against Argentina has remained unchanged. Nonetheless, the interim is confident that Montemurro would do the job “very, very well” even if he had to deal with the handicap of being from Melbourne.
Sermanni unveiled a 23-player squad that will take on La Albiceleste at Marvel Stadium on March 30 and Bruce Stadium on June 2 on Wednesday, one in which former Western United and now Calgary Wild attacker Kahli Johnson received a first-ever call-up for the games and in which Amy Sayer, Isabel Gomez, Jada Whyman, and Morgan Aquino all earned recalls.
There will be no time for celebrating for Arsenal trio Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, and Kyra Cooney-Cross should they triumph against Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final on May 25, with Sermanni saying he expected them – hopefully with a winner’s medal around their necks – to jump on a flight Down Under in the immediate aftermath of that game.
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Of the side that defeated Korea in back-to-back games in April, Ellie Carpenter and Katrina Gorry have been granted personal leave at the end of their long European seasons, while Mary Fowler, Mackenzie Arnold, Tameka Yallop have all dropped out of the squad through injury — the former having suffered an ACL injury that casts a shadow over her chances of playing in next year’s Asian Cup.
Amid reports of a falling out with club side Tottenham, Hayley Raso remains out after already missing those two wins over Korea. Despite suffering a concussion and broken nose in Melbourne City’s controversial semifinal loss to Central Coast, Holly McNamara is expected to be fit to play — even if she might need to wear a protective mask.
First stepping in as an interim following the end of Tony Gustavsson’s contract following the Paris Olympics, all signs point to the coming window being Sermanni’s last in charge, with French outlet L'Équipe reporting that the 55-year-old will depart Lyon at the end of the season to take up the Matildas role.
Often in these circumstances, an incoming coach will, unofficially, provide a bit of a steer when it comes to selection. But speaking in Melbourne following the squad’s unveiling, Sermanni said that the process for selecting this month’s squad had been business as usual for him.
“I've just gone about [squad selection] the normal way we've gone about the squad over the last seven or eight months,” said the interim.
“I'll definitely be in this one, [coaching] like every one of the windows that I've done so far. It's what happens next. I'm not sure, but I'm here until I'm required not to be here.
“It's a fairly mixed squad. With a balance of a group of our senior international players, but quite a few young players that have been brought into this squad. It's been quite significantly hit with injuries and withdrawals. So the upside of that is it gives opportunities for other players.”
Football Australia announced on Monday that the Matildas would play a four-game series against Slovenia and Panama in West Australia across June and July, a series of fixtures that will likely feature a heavy contingent of locally-based players but which will also likely be Montemurro’s first in charge.
A title-winner with Melbourne City, Arsenal, Juventus, and, should they defeat PSG in the Division 1 Féminine final on Friday night, Lyon, his commitments in France conclude with that game and Sermanni, eventually, provided a ringing endorsement on Wednesday.
“{He’ll do terrible -- he's from Melbourne!” Sermanni joked. “No, Joe would do fantastically in the job. He knows the players intimately. He's coached at the highest level for a very long time. And he's been extraordinarily successful. There'll be no issue with Joe coming in and doing the job very, very well.”
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Another absence from camp later this month will be Sam Kerr, who linked up with the squad in April as she continued what is coming to a 16-month recovery from an ACL injury after wife Kristie Mewis gave birth to the couple’s first son, Jagger, last week.
“She's tracking pretty well, but she's not just quite ready yet to come in and play,” said Sermanni. “From our situation, it's a camp-by-camp sort of scenario. Obviously, for Chelsea, now they're at the end of their season, so now they'll be looking at her coming back and ready for the preseason to start next season.
“We're constantly in communication.
“We've got a physio in London, and he's doing a significant amount of work in conjunction with Chelsea, with Sam. So we're regularly updated, and we keep in touch as frequently as players do."
The window in which the Matildas will play in Kerr’s home state of West Australia is the only one scheduled before Chelsea returns to action in the WSL in September.
Unlikely as it is that Football Australia would signal an intention to do so, given that they’ve got tickets to sell for those games, Sermanni acknowledged that giving the skipper a preseason in London before she returns to the national fold was a realistic option.
“That's one of the scenarios, and probably not a bad one. I think that will depend on Sam and Chelsea," Sermanni said.
"So it could be that Chelsea says, well, if - and I'm saying if - Sam feels that she's ready, and they feel that she's ready to come back for our next window, whether they think, 'well, it'd be good for you to come and get some game time. That might happen.
"If, on the other hand, they say, look, we just want her now to take this time to get her preparation really well done, so that come the start of preseason, she's ready to go. That's, I would say, probably a more likely scenario.
"But again, you know, that's something that I can't answer specifically.”
Header Image: Matildas/Football Australia