Victoria's Alana Murphy made her CommBank Matildas debut as the National team fell to a 2-1 defeat against world No. 1 USA on Monday morning. Murphy became cap #235 and the 20th Victorian to pull on the green-and-gold jersey.
The Melbourne Victory midfielder started her football journey at Langwarrin and spent three seasons as a prolific scorer in the FV NTC program from Under 15s to the Seniors.
Matildas interim Head Coach Tom Sermanni explained that introducing Murphy and fellow debutant Laini Freier in a game against the world's best in front of a large, parochial crowd was a great way to accelerate their development as players.
“We need to introduce players into this environment,” he said.
“To come straight from the A-League Women, to playing the US in an arena like this, it can be quite daunting. So it’s good to get those players on the field and to give them a taste of international football.
“The key to running any national team is that you have to play for the present and get a result in the present, but be planning for the future whilst you’re doing that. It becomes a really important balance to continue to bring young players in and to let them see what the environment is. Let them see what the level of international football is.
“It’s something that over the next couple of years, we really need to focus on, and we really need to start producing another generation of players.”
Despite the positives of the performance, Sermanni pinpointed certain areas to improve that would help secure the result in the future.
“We do need to keep the ball better. I think our movement needs to be a bit slicker. Our rhythm needs to be better,” he said.
“We also need to identify threats and be a little bit more aggressive with our forward running. Our ability to see forward passes. That’s something that we need to do much better.”
Sermanni also praised the performance of Moe-born goalkeeper Teagan Micah, who pulled off a number of fantastic saves, particularly in the second half. However, he stopped short of identifying who the starting goalkeeper would be against Colombia.
“The situation at the moment is that Teagan has been playing week in, week out in the WSL and performing really well, whereas Mackenzie [Arnold] is barely back in pre-season training,” he said.
“Particularly for a goalkeeper, they need to get matches under their belt before they come in at this level.
“It’s too premature to know what we’re doing against Colombia. We need to get in the dressing room, see how everyone is, and then tonight we’ll start to look ahead at what we’re going to do.”
CommBank Matildas v Colombia
Date: Wednesday, 26 February 2025 (local) / Thursday, 27 February (AEDT)
Kick-off: 4.37 pm PST (local) / 11.37 am (AEDT)
Venue: Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego (CA)
Broadcast: Paramount+
Tickets: ussoccer.com/shebelieves/cup