WSW Oceania-OFC

The Selection for this team is particularly significant because the Australian olympic Committee will name the Olympic teamone week after the end of the Pacific Cup on June 18, 2000. Individual performances during the Cup could make or break the chance of being named to the Olympic Team.

National Team Head Coach Chris Tanzey is presently in England with his family following the death of his mother 1ast weekend after a long illness. Assistant National Coach Ian Murray is running the program in Australia, although have stayed in close contact during the selection decision.

Competition for a coveted place has never been fiercer amongst the 24 Squad members . Striker Julie Murray and midfielder Danielle Smal1 were ruled out because of injury.

Seventeen-year-old Kate McShea receives her Matildas' selection. Heather Garriock, also 17 years, celebratees the opporamity of playing in front of her home crowd in the Matildas first ever match at Campbelltown Sport's Stadium. Despite thecloseness of the Olympic selections, the coaches stress that today's selections won't close the door to making the eighteen player Olymplc Team.

"The decisions over this selection have been very, very difficult," said Coach Murray. "All the players involved have been very professional and worked immensely well, and I congratulate them all on that. Unfortunately some miss out on this tour and I expect them to bounce back. I aIso expect the Pacific Cup players to justify their selection."
Pacific Cup schedule

Matildas Roster for Pacific Cup

Matildas face early showdown with the world's best

The 1st Pacific Cup will bring the Australian National Team closer to answering the question is the team a threat to the world dominance of USA and China?

The six-nation event brings together three sets of traditional rivals in Canada and USA, China and Japan, and Australia and New Zealand, but the rivalry between the three 2000 Olympic qualified nations Australia, China and the USA is likely to be even more intense.

The Matildas posted their best ever result in November I997 beating China 2-1 in Canberra. The Australians were heralded the most improved team in the world before returning winless from the USA '99 World Cup, compiling a 1-1 draw with Ghana and 3-1 losses to Sweden and China.

National Coach Chris Tanzey has been in charge since the World Cup and will name his 18-member Pacific Cup squad on May 26th. The tournament takes on added significance with the Australian Olympic Committee announcing their 2000 Women's Football Team on 18 June, seven days after the Matildas play the final game of the series against World and Olympic Champions USA.

USA capped a remarkable decade of dominance by adding the USA 1999 World Cup to their Atlanta Olympics Gold Medals l991 FIFA World Cup triumph.

China will be desperate to shake their mantle of"world's second best" after finishing as runners up to USA at both the most recent World Cup and the 1996 01ympic Games.

The tournament wil1 be staged in Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle from May 31 to June 11, 2000. Pacific Cup Schedule New Zealand's (SWANZ) squad announced for upcoming Pacific Alliance Cup in Australia, along with a revised tournament draw
by Jeremy Ruane

The first SWANZ squad to take the field in eighteen months was named today by national coach Doug Moore, the inaugural Pacific Alliance Cup tournament in Australia being the first stage of New Zealand's preparations to qualify for the 2003 Women's World Cup Finals.

The round-robin tournament will see the SWANZ take on the host nation, along with Canada and Japan, and the two nations which contested the 1996 Olympic Games Women's Final and the 1999 Women's World Cup Final, the USA and China, winners and runners-up respectively in both those contests.

It promises to be a demanding tournament for the New Zealand squad, who, unlike USA and China rarely get the opportunity to perform on the international stage - only 86 internationals have been played by New Zealand since their first such match, in 1975.

Mr Moore, who was appointed national women's coach early in 1999 following New Zealand's failure to qualify for last year's Women's World Cup Finals, has selected the squad after having overseen several regional clinics during the past four months.

New Zealand Roster

# Name Pos. DOB Province Caps / Goals

1 Yvonne Vale GK 29/8/70 Auckland 5 / 0

2 Jane Simpson DF 4/2/71 Canterbury 6 / 0

3 Jill Corner DF 5/4/73 Auckland 12 / 0

4 Terry McCahill DF 1/9/70 Auckland 31 / 0

5 Melissa Ruscoe DF 15/12/76 Canterbury 17 / 2

6 Rebecca Smith DF 17/6/81 USA 0 / 0

7 Maia Jackman FW 25/5/75 Auckland 12 / 1

8 Nicky Smith MF 15/2/80 Wairarapa 7 / 4

9 Wendi Henderson FW 16/7/71 Wairarapa 39 / 14

10 Simone Ferrara MF 7/6/77 Auckland 0 / 0

11 Amanda Crawford FW 16/2/71 Auckland 36 / 9

12 Zarnia Cogle MF 10/5/76 Canterbury 5 / 0

13 Rachel Oliver MF 24/7/71 Canterbury 15 / 0

14 Vicki Ormond FW 29/9/82 Auckland 0 / 0

15 Tarah Cox MF 9/1/71 Auckland 0 / 0

16 Meisha Pyke DF 12/10/92 Waikato 0 / 0

17 Marlies Oostdam MF 29/7/77 Australia 4 / 0

18 Michelle Hodge GK 18/1/75 Auckland 2 / 0

Wendi Henderson, New Zealand's Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year in 1999, succeeds Terry McCahill as captain of the SWANZ.

There are a number of other noteworthy selections. Two players, Simone Ferrara and Rebecca Smith, are New Zealand citizens from the USA. The former plays for the country's leading club side, Three Kings United, while the latter plays for Duke University.

Vicki Ormond's selection sees her following in the footsteps of her father, Duncan, who played eight times for New Zealand. Meanwhile, Tarah Cox's selection completes a tremendous family achievement, with her mother, Barbara Cox, being a former SWANZ captain, and sister Michele not selected for this tournament, as she is recovering from knee surgery.

And Yvonne Vale's return to the international stage follows a thirty-month absence at this level, due to the demands of motherhood.
Pacific Cup Schedule

Matildas Struggle To Down Ten-Woman Czechs
by Jeremy Ruane in Melbourne

Australia struggled to overcome the ten women of the Czech Republic at Bob Jane Stadium, Melbourne, on January 10, eventually running out 3-0 winners in the fourth match of the six-game Australia Cup series.

The Matildas, noteworthy nowadays more for their questionable off-field promotional activities than for their on-field exploits, spurned a golden opportunity to redress the balance in front of a disappointing 2500-strong crowd when Czech defender Marie Tlachova was sent-off for her second bookable offence in just the 23rd minute of a decidedly physical encounter.

The home team failed to make best use of their numerical superiority for much of the remainder of the game - it wasn't until the 56th minute introduction of their experienced striker, Julie Murray, that the Matildas' attacks began to show glimpses of the coordination and direction necessary to exploit this advantage.

Within three minutes of her arrival, Australia hit the front, Anissa Tann-Darby curling home a twenty-yard free-kick from straight out in front, partly aided by a somewhat flimsy Czech defensive wall. Barely sixty seconds had passed when Murray herself struck, the substitute gleefully steering the ball into the back of an empty net after the Czech goalkeeper, Dagmar Cilova, gifted Murray possession with a woeful clearance.

Another substitute, Sharon Black, wrapped up the scoring four minutes from time with a well-taken strike across Cilova and into the far corner of the net, following good work by Danielle Small. This brought about the final 3-0 scoreline, but convincing it most definitely was not.

Indeed, Australia could well have conceded as many goals themselves inside the first sixteen minutes - to say their rearguard was rather porous in this period is an understatement!!

Iveta Dudova was their prime source of consternation, the Czech Republic striker pressurising opponents into making mistakes whenever the opportunity presented itself. Katerina Doskova was the first beneficiary of her team-mate's doggedness, but her fifth minute strike was superbly saved by the Matildas' debutant goalkeeper, Leanne Trimboli.

Pavlina Scasna, Eva Knavova and Pavla Mackova all squandered chances to put the Czechs on the board in this spell, as Australia struggled to counter Dudova's lively initial promptings.

Australia had their own chances in this time, Sunni Hughes and Katrina Boyd both left to rue their luck after Australia's best performer over the ninety minutes, captain Alison Forman, and fellow midfielder Heather Garriock, had engineered the first opening, Hughes doing the honours in the second instance.

After the sending-off - referee Tammy Ogston had her hands full in this match, showing the yellow card six times in all (with a couple of other offences going close to adding to that tally) - the locals sat back in anticipation of an Australian onslaught, which never came about.

Boyd, twice, and Small both squandered good openings, while Cilova proved equal to efforts from Boyd (two), Hughes, Tann-Darby and Kelly Golebiowski. On the one occasion, prior to Murray's arrival, when the Matildas did find a way past Cilova, Knavova was on hand to clear off the line in the 25th minute, much to Hughes' consternation. These efforts apart, Australia made little headway against opponents they were, in all honesty, expected to eclipse quite comfortably. Until Murray's arrival, however, they appeared completely bereft of ideas with regards how to make their numerical superiority count on the scoreboard.

At the final whistle, the chants of "One Julie Murray" from a small but enthusiastic group of supporters among those present were well justified one wonders what the outcome would have been had the FIFA World All-Stars team member not been introduced to the fray.

Australia: Trimboli; Tann-Darby (booked, 80), Alagich, Salisbury (booked, 11), Wainwright (Golebiowski, 28 (booked, 32)); Small, Forman, Wilson (Black, 79), Garriock (Duus, 79); Boyd, Hughes (Murray, 56)

Czech Rep.: Cilova; Tlachova (booked 15, 23 - sent-off), Zahorikova, Knavova, Hrenova (Cervenkova, 63); Jedlickova (booked, 63) (Valkova, 70), Scasna, Chlumecka (Kohoutova, 82), Mackova; Dudova (Petranova, 90), Doskova

Referee: Tammy Ogston

Scoring - Australia: A. Tann-Darby (59), J. Murray (60), S. Black (86)

More about the Australian Team Calendar

Twelve of the team posed for the calendar with a group photo and individual photos on the other monthly pages. It was presented at a Press conference on Tuesday and the Australian Women's Soccer Association told WSW that they have been overwhelmed with calls and mail from around the world ever since.

Australian Olympic committee requested the word "Olympic" be removed from the calendar, but otherwise had no comments. Sample photos from calendar (warning discreet nudity)

Waltzing Matildas now the "Flashing Matildas"

Following in the footsteps of some of the Norwegian players who posed for a TV Tabloid magazine before the1995 World Cup, some of the Australian players reportedly posed nude for a calendar that will be out December 1.

They claimed that it was done to promote female soccer for the Sydney Olympics. Amy Taylor was quoted in the Italian press as explaining that she "posed in her birthday suit to show people that female soccer players are not uncouth and masculine but can be attractive and feminine."

Second Australia Cup schedule set for USA, Sweden, and Czech Republic

2nd Australia Cup Schedule

January 2000

Friday 7th Australia v Sweden North Sydney Oval 6.00 pm