South Coast’s own Matildas Caitlin Foord, Michelle Heyman and Caitlin Cooper moved one step closer to realising their Rio 2016 dreams after they were named as part of the national squad for a farewell series against New Zealand early next month.
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The trio were named as in 20-player squad for two matches against the Football Ferns which will be played on June 4 (Ballarat) and June 7 (Melbourne).
The games are set to provide Matildas coach Alen Stajcic, who signed a new four-year-deal on Tuesday, with an opportunity to see his Rio hopefuls in action before he is forced to reduce the squad to 18 players for the Olympics.
“This squad (for the matches against New Zealand) will obviously contain a lot of the players that will head to Rio but it’s certainly not 100 per cent finalised yet,” Stajcic said. “There’s still a chance for players to put their hand up and again we’re trying to increase the depth of the team so we can be as competitive as we can internally and on the international stage as well.”
All three Illawarra players were a part of the Matildas squad which progressed to the Rio Games through the AFC Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016 qualifiers.
Since then, Cooper and Heyman have spent the past two months maintaining match fitness while playing for the Illawarra Stingrays in the NSW NPL competition.
Shellharbour’s Foord has also based herself back on the South Coast and has been a part of the Matildas camps with her two local teammates in recent months.
