Women's Asian Cup Draw

[Music] Hello and welcome to ESPN's The Star Post Podcast. We are back for a very special episode. Tonight we find out the Matilda's opponents for the 2026 Women's Asian Cup. We're doing something a little bit unusual, record-wise. We're literally watching the draw as it is happening. So you will have our most current thoughts on what is going down. So we're very excited to bring this to you as always. We're very excited and just happy to be talking tillies once again. But before we get stuck in, we want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands we're recording on today. The laundry and radical people and pay our respects to their elders past and present. For this draw, Deepry, if you'll have me, Marisol Odanic, Sam Lewis, Anna Harrington, and Angela Christian Wilk. So friends, listeners, this is unlike anything we've ever done before. So it is literally 7.30 p.m. on the 29th of July to make Eolape has just entered the stage. She's talking to Tara Rushden and we are literally absorbing the draw right now. So if this sounds good, you will be listening to it. Otherwise, I could just be talking to the three of you. How are we all feeling? A lot of power suits so far. It's delightful. It's all the pads. How are they? It's all the pads. I think I'm loving it. I think? I don't know. We had the strong colour. I wasn't sure what the address code was. So I was going to like put it on a blazer, but let's just look at it actually. Look how it's just there. Can I just say, I feel a lot more comfortable knowing our fate could potentially be in Tamika Eolape's hands. I feel like it's very calm presence to have in this situation. I know it all comes down to luck, but like if there's anyone you can trust, it makes right? Manifesto, good things, Shirley. Shirley? Oh, she needs me allowed to draw their own country. I'd love to know. I've already seen how this works. Yeah, same. Are you suggesting that Tamika has like special powers where she sticks her hand in the pot and she's like instinctively knows which ball is the Matilda's ball? Like, is that what we're such? That is not what you're suggesting. I mean, we're not suggesting that. And Australia has default and default. Restricted. You're going to see in this coming. We don't know how works. Here we are. I've cracked the open the little ball like the kind of surprise thing and there's a tiny trophy inside. I think this means we've won tonight at the draw. Let's go. Oh my god. But our second draw assistant is, I think she's a player from India if my brain has remembered. So I'm so excited that India qualified because nothing like makes me feel worse than remembering how shit there, 2022 Asian Cup was like all of the hype around them hosting and then it just got coveted as many things did at the start of this decade. So and it's like the worst part of the way, right? Like actually, Shirley Yalap also got COVID at that Asian Cup from that. And then she had to be isolated from everyone. But for India, it was just so much worse. Like they had multiple players get it and then they didn't have enough players to to feel the squad size. And if you guys remember, like they then had to fall for every game because of how the rules work. Like and that was, you know, the show, this piece exhibition. So you really feel volume. But yeah, so good qualified, right? Yeah, it was devastating. It was no poor India. And that would have been their first Asian Cup too. It's the host. Skullvine is the hosts. Yeah. So yeah, it's awesome to send them back actually. And like I hope that like we see some good football from them as well. Yeah, because there are some really interesting countries in here that I don't think a lot of Aussies are familiar with or probably ever seen before. So yeah, go on then. Got John Newgong from South Korea is the next assistant here. South Korea, I think that was a team that I know we Australia in 2022 were filthy with going out in the quarterfinal. But South Korea had to throw fee in their hands and let it slip, right? Like they've got a point to prove if anyone has. Also, that's a hell of another power suit. That's I love loving that. Also, it's like big K-pop boy band vibes I'm getting from them. Love that. The hair. Yes, more of that please. You might see this later listeners, but Angela is putting on a blazer. She's just trying to select which one to put on because the occasion calls for it. So at least one of us will be wearing a blouse. She's gone with the far post pink blazer. Let's fucking go. We can surely make some sort of social media with that sped up. Like, yes. I mean, by that I mean, Angela can surely make a tick tick or real or something. Yes. Just you know, that is the next thing to hear. They're dropping up. So we are getting closer to go time. Off air, we had a little bit of a raffle to see what time the draw would actually start. I said 7.29pm. Foolishly, it's already 7.34pm. We're not close. So hopefully our draw predictions go a little bit better than my expectations of the AFC and the City of Sydney's time management skills. Excuse me. That's not Sydney's fault. It's absolutely AFC's fault. But also, probably just like the vague wording of like the draw will start at because this is technically the draw. It's just all the faffing about before the actual draw draw. The draw part of the draw happens. As it always does. Draw? The draw draw of the draw. The drawing part of the draw. Yeah. Everyone knows that. We do. We do. We do. I think we are getting closer though. The trophy is making her grand entrance which is very exciting. Before we look to meet her once again. That makes it sound like she walked in by herself. She's being carried by a nice person. The trophy grew legs Angela. Oh my god, what do you mean? And she's wearing a power suit. She looks beautiful here. Really so. Yet powerful. We were talking off air before we got started about what our ideal draw would be by what we mean the Matilda's. Sam, I think you're in our along a similar page which is easiest possible, right? Like on paper, at least as straightforward as possible. Angela, you wanted a bit more of a challenge. Sam, what was your ideal draw when we look at the box? 100% you want the easiest route through the knockouts, right? Like I don't really care about being challenged. I don't really care about any of that. Just like give me the absolute easiest teams possible so that you can just like play together a little bit. Like the problem with tournaments like this is that national teams don't get the huge amount of time to like play together before they have to go and face really big teams. So like let's try and use the group stage tactically and strategically to just like have some games against some teams and figure out who we want to play like and so that we can actually face when we come to face the bigger teams later on in the tournament. We've got some games under our belt. So for me, the ideal draw would be Vietnam from Pot 2. It's Pakistan from Pot 3 and Bangladesh from Pot 4. All the lowest ranked teams from all the other pots that hopefully we'll just absolutely clumber. And you know people will probably talk about oh well like what you know what was the use of that? What was the point of that game as they did during the the women's age in Cup in 22 in India where we smashed you know Indonesia and Indonesia. What do we learn? 18 now. 18 now. It's not about taking lessons folks. It's about winning. This is a tournament right? Come on get your game faces on. But I feel like with the uh well I was just going to say we did have a really easy run at 2022 and then we crumbled the bag so I don't know I don't know. I feel like a little bit a smitch of a challenge is helpful just so that there is some kind of like I guess data to work with. I don't know. Yeah, I feel like having a team that like for example with the panel of our games like coming up against a team that's a bit more I guess. Nippie would be useful early running the tournament or a team that sits a bit deeper defensively because yeah progressing I don't know there's going to be all sorts of challenges once we well touching wood if we get out of the group but yeah all of this is kind of structured around getting out of the group. Pop 4. Well that the grabbing balls. Grabbing the pop 4 team. Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. No, no, no, no, this is early. Is it? Oh, oh my god. We don't even know how the bloody draw works. We should have been making it. We should have been accepted. I thought to do it. Am I right? But it's fine. Yeah, where Iran is going? Iran has been selected but I don't know if that necessarily means they will be in pot A or it does mean they're in pot A. Oh my god. I'm so sorry listeners. So they are pot A. Oh, this is the position. Okay, I don't know what the positions mean in each group around A3 and that means Australia will play Iran. That because we are A1 so we have our first opponent friends. We will be playing Iran. Cool. That's that's a if Angela wanted a challenge. I think that's the biggest challenge we could have got in in this group. We've just seen better than strong. 100% yeah from pot 4 around we saw them actually play a pretty tough qualifier against the Matilda's within the past couple of years. Really stern defensively. Really dug in like a disciplined and it was a really good story that they they qualified for this tournament as well. So yeah challenge like as far as I would think with all respect to Bangladesh and India as far as these groups go. Yeah, that's great. How exciting and also like Australia's got a really big Iranian community. So like I really hope that that's an opportunity for all those fans to get out and support the team as well. That'll be a really fun game I reckon. You were right Harro the first time and only time Australia has played Iran was the Olympic qualifiers in 2023. Remember those games in Perth where like everyone was still riding the post-World Cup high. We defeated them two nils so yeah it was a good a good game. We've just had Bangladesh drawn into group B position B3 maybe by the end of the draw we'll know what that means specific place. That's a fair. It's just in terms of the fixture right in terms of who plays what game in Perth versus what game in Sydney versus what game in Garcose versus what game in Melbourne. And we we've said we have prepared much to tell you the fixture friends but you'll know when you're listening. And Sam I love what you said about the Iranian community here. I remember the 2015 men's Asian Cup in Melbourne when around played here there was huge turnout in Melbourne. It was amazing like it was just a fantastic atmosphere and I think that's what we really hope we see also with India and in groups as we mentioned they missed out on the opportunity last time so hopefully you see some great men who's come out to support these teams in what's going to be a huge event. Yeah. All right we are now learning which teams are in pot three and there's some beautiful vision. Oh my god remember Angie Beard what could have been. Phillip Pains is one of the pot three groups if that was not obvious from my Angie Beard logings. We've got Taiwan in pot three as well who I forgot we played in like the lead up to Tokyo they were one of our opponents for the qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics. I completely forgot about that. And then whose Becker Stan is the the final team in this pot. We all have fond memories of beatings Becker Stan so happy to run that one back if the ball is the one who's throwing that one back. You wonder if the Phil Pains would love to get Australia after how the Olympic qualifiers went last time which was for them very badly. Here we are the pot three. Is this cool all the teams in pot three have really interesting stories as well as kind of like historical national teams and they're all in very different parts of their journeys so yeah like I'm I don't really care I'm just like keen to see these teams playing football into I understand how far they've progressed over the last couple of years. Phillip Pains first team draw were about to get their first ball. Oh boy. There's Mark Tulkazo. No mania. There's got another Australian link at the the Phillip Pains national team. It's not the only one. We also got an Aussie coaching China. I'm Tamila. I'm Tamila. I'm Tamila. I'm Tamila. I'm Tamila. I'm Tamila. I'm only blindy as a Japan. Is that keeping us? Yeah. Luckily we can't possibly face Leia in the group stage so that's a positive. Eight four. That means the tutors are playing the Phil Pains. So I think it's because the stuff is it could be so far and I blame Angela. Not legit. I wrote down worst group and ideal group and it's happening. This is the closest you can get given the the pot. This is the closest you can get to a group of this. So far so I look forward to us having either China or South Korea as our third team. Thank you. Just a quick shout out to the absolute absolutely legends who immediately edit the Wikipedia pages. Australia will open the Asian Cup against the Phillip Pains in Perth. That is what the positions of these teams mean. So the opening game of the Asian Cup will be Australia versus the Phillip Pains and then Australia will play Iran on the Gold Coast as the second match day. So whoever we get in pop two they will play Australia at stadium Australia in Sydney on the last match day. So yeah. Classic. So I mean the Phillip Pains as the opening game of the Asian Cup is going to be bang. It's going to be such a game. Imagine the game. Yeah. Imagine the amazing such big Phillip Pains population and so we um we know obviously with Olympic qualifying how it went last time. I think Mark Torkado he was pretty sheepish and happy about getting Australia first up because it was I think a pretty naive performance from the Phillip Pains last time around in Olympic qualifying. They they probably should have sat back in discipline and let's be honest they were trying to go to the tower and got completely opened up by I think it was Sam Kerr and Mary Feller in particular. I don't think we'll be seeing that again. Tournament football very different game. It will be seeing a very disappointing meanwhile Uzbekistan they're in group B with Bangalodash which obviously means Taiwan join India in group C. So if either of those groups for your dream groups well enjoy Japan slash North Korea. Dawson prayers. The only one who's just loving loving the guy in the crowd just now who was doing a big main girls with his phone like filming what I assume was the stage like the mum and main girls filming the Christmas show. I got big energy from him. Look I know we're we're not stoked with the we haven't gotten the easiest possible team but we are undefeated in Shalala that continues against the two teams we have been drawn against. So we've played you around once we've beaten them once we've played the Philippines three times we've beaten them three times so that's a positive I guess. What's our full I'm not used to this I'm usually quite pessimistic so just nice to see our final opponent China come up on the screen then. No we haven't drawn them yet I'm just anticipating. I feel like I have some responsibility for this. It's just being like no we want the absolute easiest group which is one of the lowest ranked teams from all the parts and it'll be so fine and then the night was like we're able to do it. Here is the opposite as a trait. Did they have to play that goal back? Well the winner for the winner. I don't know her. Repressive of the living is it's not enough to see to my nightmares. I enjoyed the Vietnam volley just saying just quietly. Don't do that I can just focus on that. I like it in these reels. Today we won't see Vietnam because they won't be in our group. Let's find out mix is literally unfurling the bowl. Come on mix. Here we go. For the nation. No she doesn't have the position drawn. Yeah the position is A2. Oh dear. No no no no. Never done they draw the thing afterwards. You're on pretty short that's just a position. It doesn't matter whether they're second or first. And that's that'll be the last game of the group stage. That's match day three. Oh sorry. Cool. Cool novel. Everyone. Take a deep breath. And then it'll be a challenge. It's a great challenge. Look out. Finally got my head around the draw process as they finished. As we said we would. As we said we would. So do we have to say cry out? I think we do. China. China. The nation is Pakistan. Actually they could still end up with Japan. Well they know what I actually like whichever opponent China gets whether it's going to be Japan or North Korea that is going to be an awesome game. Like that is the game that I will. If it's it if that's in Perth I will buy tick airline tickets. I will buy her tell I will get there because that is going to be the chance. Sam is going to walk across the nullable. And just confirmation there in beta if you if you like me and not until I show how the draw works that's China. See I'm taking my stitches probably getting the little little notebook out to confirm that one. It's not it's being broadcast brothers you can watch it back. No it's generally so we go get the motion here. Dear Dairit today I am at the air see draw. I'm at Sydney Town to China. Let's continue with the draw. Vietnam will be in groups C with India and Taiwan and they will be in position C2 C2 also just love this sort of that they all have to pretend that it that there's a bit of drama when there's one bowl like one ball left in the park. Yeah. They have to swivel the red dots. Oh so yeah to make it y'all we trusted you. We trusted you. That's why you don't worry. We just want to make it sound reliable. Alright so the other thing you can get dropped for doing a bad job. Oh my god. Anyway so we go to Australia where will they land? The Matilda's games are against the Philippines in Perth on match day one against Iran on the Gold Coast match day two and then against South Korea in Sydney match day three. So that is confirmed the path for the tillies out of the group. So we will dissect that very shortly. We will finish the draw and see where Japan and North Korea end up but then we'll get straight into how we're feeling even though I'm pretty sure the emotions are obvious as noted by my literal yell. Sorry about it friends. I really didn't want Korea but unfortunately tournaments are such that you need to play good teams in order to win them. It is one of life's great unfair nonsense thingos. And what's right. We said it all along. Angela you're right. You want to play the toughest possible opponents in the group game because that gets you ready for every challenge you may face in the knockout. Never doubt it or never doubt it or never. Ideally the toughest like of every part. No not one easy game where you can play around and have fun. None of that please. And to make you up. You know what I think it will help. We'll concentrate from the start. I think sometimes the tillies they take a little while to get to it. I don't know I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Technically we didn't get the highest ranked team in every pop though because China is ranked above South Korea. So technically by like North Korea technically. In my team did I know that's in my spirit. Yeah that's different the ranking. It's in my spirit. Spiritually. We're so we're not coming back from this. It's fun. I was trying to think of the meme. What's the meme? We're so back but what's the what's the trough in the we're so back then. I don't remember. It's so over. It's so over. Spiritually it's so over. Technically we're so back. How are the vibes? Somewhere between Britain and France. Like a roller ice cream. North Korea has been drawn into group B. So that's my. China Bangladesh is back as to an in group B. So China North Korea definitely be the match of the moment. Hell yeah. Road trip. Oh yeah. Tampy road trip just to one side. Well no no North Korea. Yeah it is baby. The D. The hell knows why but yeah it is. The D. And what's the name of the song? The D. Was that because North Korea China is in Western Sydney. Sorry. Yes. Let's get on the train. Power matter you will be saying us. Um let's go. I'm so good. Oh my god. Versa her panty. DPR stands for Dan for a parametra road trip. It sure does. And then to round out the Georgia pan has a really beautiful time. defeating defeating I'm preempting it. They were they were in the group with Vietnam Taiwan and India. So good for Japan I guess. Whatever. I guess. Whatever. Yeah they've had the time. Yeah. They've had the easiest group of the entire of the entire group stage. They're going to get to the first knockout round and fumble. They're going to fumble the bag. They're going to do what we did. Right. They're going to fly through to feed all these teams 18 NIL. Think that they're going to sail through the next knockout round. And then they're going to lose one NIL to China. You know, we've seen the prophecy. We've lived the promise. We've lost two. Copped that Japan I guess. Oh my goodness. All right. I think that formally concludes the draw. So to reiterate, we've got group A Australia, South Korea, Iran, Philippines, group B, North Korea, China, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan and group C, Japan, Vietnam, India and Taiwan. So I don't think we need to continue watching the ceremony. Probably there's going to be some chat with coaches. We don't need to do that. We can talk amongst ourselves. So how are we feeling? We've been joking about it literally for like 25 minutes now. But yeah, South Korea, Iran, Philippines. What's the thoughts? What's the vibes? I think, okay, so Joe Montmiro is just getting up to have a little Q&A with Tara. So let's see what he says. I want to see what he has to respond to this draw. I will say the glasses on his head. That's Paisan. That's literally my relative. When I find out where in Italy Joe is from, I will be able to make better jokes about if we're actually related or like from the same village and shit. But right now based on the glasses alone, that's Paisan. I'm so sorry, listeners. Well, Paisan just means we're from the same village. Like we're from the same country. That's a little bit of a daliens laying for you. This evening. Prosher is a privilege. There we go. I feel like that's going to be the joysum. In the same way we had to get a better everyday or whatever was the Tony slogan. Interesting games was stood out to me. I didn't really want to bite on it. I see him with the journals in the room later on. I think that will be more of a conversation. Is it the group of death? How do you handle it? Yeah, just having a little bit of a chat with friend of the pod, Joey Lynch, Offair and the two options that you really have are you going to top the group? And you're probably going to play the matured. You're probably going to play say a tie-worn or a Uzbekistan. And that's for a spot at the World Cup right as well as getting through to the same titles. And finishes runners up. Probably have to play a China or a North Korea, right? Like if you think about how things are expected to go on paper, you know that things never go as they shoot on paper. Probably then you can take to the bank would be Japan topping their group right. But it's all there for Matilda's to do. Okay. If we top the group, we get one of the third place teams, which is obviously ideal. If we come second in the group, we get the group B runner up. So that would be one of we assume China or North Korea. So topping the group has never been more important. I cannot stress enough how much I do not want to play. North Korea especially because they are so mysterious. And we do get a lot of questions about it. Yeah, even like I was chatting in the office today and they were, I had to explain, yeah, so North Korea like didn't play for like several years, but maintained like 9th or 10th position in the FIFA rankings to the boys at work today. So that was fun. But we can get into that properly. I think it'd be good to dig back into the must finish top of the group. Can't slip up, playing tough opponents. I know we've just joked about it, but what do we reckon? Like does it make, does it sort of battle hard? You know, I've just been at the Euros right where we saw Sweden coast through, France coast through their groups. England got smacked by France and their first game and go on and win the whole thing. Like group stage form doesn't mean everything, doesn't mean anything. I mean, yeah, Germany get through the semi-finals after losing heavily to Sweden in the group stage. Like tournament football and strange beast. Can there actually, I know it's like really, really, really in disguise, but can it be that blessing in disguise? Oh god, maybe. But like how often has that happened though? For the Matilda's in the past, you know, like there are so many sort of factors and forces to play with something like this. Like knowing that if we finish runner up, we're going to have to play like one of the best teams of the tournament. Scares me like that. I don't know if we come out of that, you know? Especially not with the Matilda's team that we have seen recently, you know? Like we really need to hope that the next couple of windows and friendly games see all of the big players coming back together again and string together some convincing performances that give us all a little bit of confidence that we can go into this tournament, you know, feeling good about it, feeling confident and on a run of form. But, you know, the South Korea loss might weigh pretty heavily on some of these players. Like it could feel a little bit cursed and, you know, the Matilda's haven't won an Asian trophy in 15 years. And like there's been I think a growing amount of pressure and sort of skepticism and questioning around why it's been so long since they won the trophy. They're meant to be one of the best teams in the world. They seem to have moments here or there in major tournaments where they show that they can compete against the best. But like this is Asia and we really actually should be dominating considering all of these other moments and conversations we've been having about the growth of the team. So yeah, like this tournament at home soil now coming up against these kinds of teams and now knowing sort of our path roughly to the final that we're all hoping slash expecting them to get to. Yeah, like suddenly the next couple of months looks much more stressful than what was already feeling. For me, looking at this group, it emphasises the importance of having creative players who can break down pack defenses. Also another group just reminded me of us in Japan both top our groups. We're going to play them in a semi final if we get that far. So that's cool. But in Shalong we make it to a semi final. Shalong we make it to a semi final. It's funny when you talk to any of the players that were in that team that won the Asian Cup in 2010, like Sarah Walsh, Kaasal, I'm in Kate Gill, they're all like by time I got to the final because they obviously beat Japan to get there. They're like we were just all the pressure off us because we beat Japan and we made it to a World Cup and we already won by that point. And then, you know, obviously the final happened. They won the trophy and that was incredible. But it just shows the stakes of the. Anyway, I digress. I think it shows the importance of having creative players who can break down defenses like deep-lying defenses who are good one-on-one. So hopefully we see it at Kali Johnson continue that little runner for me. So before she got that quad injury, some of those emerging attackers coming through, if Mary Fowler can be fit, could be pivotal in that sense with some of her delivery. I think it just really shows the importance of this because we're not in a situation where it's not old school like we're bigger, we're stronger, we're taller, we're more physical and we will barge our weight of victory. That's just not football anymore, right? And these are going to be tough opponents. I think we're going to need creativity. We're going to need players at their best. And the thing I hope that we've seen is like we've just seen Ellie Carpens and make a move to Chelsea. She's going to be getting challenged not quite weekend week out, but more than she would have, you know, but leon in that sense. I hope we see with some of these players in the moves that they're making and we've seen players like Winnie Heatley go and, you know, go to Italy, we say our extradiac move to Italy. Like players that are either in the mix or at the very least on the fringes, making moves. You hope that these are the ones that pay off and, you know, give us something with some of those really smart and creative players that could be so useful in these games that we're expecting teams to defend deep, right? We're also going to need a really good bench. Like we saw what happened during the World Cup, right, where there was an over reliance on a certain number of players and by the time they got to the point end of the tournament where they needed to have their best performances, they were gas, they were exhausted, they had just played too much competitive football in two shorter space of time and the bench really wasn't utilized the way it was meant to. And I'm thinking about this now through the lens of what we've just seen of the women's euros, right? Like that bench won the euro's title for England. It really did. And like, so we, Australia really needs to consider who these bench players are going to be and the kinds of positions that they need to be filling, because we know roughly, you know, the kinds of players that the materials are very, very reliant on, like Ellie Carpner, like you mentioned, Harry's one of them. But like she probably doesn't have a full tournament's worth of energy in her. She's going to need to be managed in order to be able to apply against a North, like a North Korea or a Japan or a China or whoever it is that we start to meet come the knockouts. So yeah, I'm like crossing all my fingers and toes that these fringe players and these sort of more peripheral bench players who've been making these really deliberate club moves going to be rewarded for that. I hope that they're called into these camps over the next few windows. They're given an opportunity to step in and like really see how they will fit in the puzzle with all of the senior players, hopefully returning as well, because I, yeah, I really feel like bent like the benches of all the bigger nations are going to be quite important come, come March. While I acknowledge like obviously like in this group Korea, that's probably the team that is the most stressful. I do take comfort in the fact that even when we've lost to teams in the past, we've been able to come back and pump them. Namely, I'm thinking of Canada here. So I don't know, that's mainly what I'm thinking about. I don't know if you get, I've really struggled to focus on two things at once that whole time. So I don't have coherent in that very plot. But yeah, I think, I don't know, I think we'll be all right. Yeah, I'm not, I feel like all of the preparation that and the moves that players should be making for this group, they should have been making already, you know, so like hopefully there's not too much change to preparation and planning from, you know, Joe and his teams level through to what the players are actually doing. Because I guess the perspective should be, at least in my opinion, like you go in and we want to win this. So regardless of where the challenges fall, you're planning for it to be difficult the whole time and to not be an easy ride and for there not to be anything kind of taken for granted. So I don't know. That was very American of me. I don't know. Maybe it's just a bit, insipid, but anyway, yeah, it's bad, but it's not, it's not terrible. And I think we should take some heart from our recent record against all these teams. Like the games against Phil Thien's and Aran were both competitive, they were well-cut qualifiers. I know I said off the top there that the Philippines won't want to play the way they did in those qualifiers. So you expect them to sit deeper to be smarter, try and hit them until it is on transition. But like, you know, at South Korea, I know there are different propositions in tournament football, but recent friendlies against them Australia has done well, like played well, got the result and you have to take confidence in that. And if you're Australia, you have to go into these games saying, well, no, we're still the best team in this group. And we've got to play like we're the best team in this group and play with confidence and back ourselves, right? Like, I think that's all you can do and embrace the challenges that will come with it back yourselves into breakdown, Aran as they did in those qualifiers to get those opportunities when they come against the Philippines and not be caught out in transition. I think that's going to be so important. It's striking that balance well. And I feel like that's something that to be fair, they haven't got so caught on when we've seen say a Winnie-Heatley pilot defensive mid or we've seen Claire Wheeler and she needs the most recent window. Add that real sort of sterniness in front of defense. I think this is also where we'll probably see Steph Katley. I know we've already seen that graduation, but her use as a centreback, I think is going to be so important because you expect the Philippines in particular are going to look to use transition. If you've got a Serena Bolden or similar types with a bit of speed, a bit of now, Serena is the most obvious example right, then you need pacey centrebacks. And I think that's going to be true later on as well. Yeah, it's exciting, I think as well, in that sense. You get those just early on and then you're not getting caught out like stun mullets when someone does the sit deep and then try and hit you on the counter approach in the knockout. Yep, and like I'm also just having flashbacks to the South Korea game in 22 where we lost one nil because we had a moment of a lapse of concentration in like the 89th minute. You know, like this is also such a mental game and such a mental tournament and such an exhausting mental process to go through. Like the fact that we're playing South Korea as the last game in our group, we're already going to need to expend so much energy trying to win convincingly in those first two and we come up against the hardest team of the group at the very end of it and you know needing to probably win it in order to top the group. Like that all, that's absolutely the game of the round of the group for me is that final final class you get South Korea with all this history that comes with it and also the kind of monkey on the back for the meteors I think based on what happened last time. So yeah, it's it's scary but I like I love this. I love that you're both just like you know what like yes it's scary but let's just sort of accept that. Like let's go through these stages, it's acceptance and then we can sort of just talk through it, talk through our fear, where is it coming from, try and sort of rationalize it, pull it apart, and then we can actually start to feel a little bit safe. I love that. Thank you so much for taking care of me. That's what we're here for because we love you and also like I think it's a good thing that the South Korea game is the last one. You build into the tournament, you find some form. I think Philippines will be a tricky opener but if you're the meteors you back yourselves to win that one. If you don't then you've got to figure that out further down the track right but back yourselves to win that Iran yes can be tricky but I think that is the game where you can do a level of player management and that's not to say anything bad about Iran it's to say that there is that quality sound that you mentioned that it's going to get used off the bench but I think if if Joe Montmuro is looking at this in terms of how he can manage his squad to go deep it's the combination of those lessons right what you said about not burning out late in the tournament but also not doing what happened the last Olympics where you're preparing a squad to go deep and you miss what's right in front of you and you lose to Germany and then you go out in the group stage right so it's having that combination of they're probably you go hard against the Philippines you think of the island example of the World Cup you get that result the main thing is getting the result Iran you have to back yourselves in that you're getting three points there and it's just a matter of how many goals you go into score right and being disciplined the other way I think you have to look at it even though they're very much at least on paper the the the trickiest of those pop four opponents I think not just on paper I think generally they've got to back themselves in that that's a pop four team and you are going to do the job and then you you build in and you hope that you hit South Korea confident in some form they'll be feeling the same way but it allows us players to build in one thing that does encourage me is seeing Sam Kerr back in training with Chelsea in normal preseason when the pictures came through from their social media social media over the last 24 hours that's exciting I think that's just going to if she's available and she's even starting to find some form that's just going to give a huge boost it takes the pressure of you know you can have players be it a be it a holly McNamara be it a Carly Johnson be it a Hayley Ralzo like all these attacking options that you have as weapons either to start or come off the bench it and you know you don't want to put pressure on Mary Fowler but if she gets back even in a capacity to come off the bench and have an impact then you've got those wealth of options that you can work through and I think like you said Sam the depth in the squad is going to be so important and having a fit squad is going to be even more so. Funny that you mentioned the Olympics sorry Angela I just got to interrupt with one little thing today is the one year anniversary of the Zambia game from the Olympics. Did you need to interrupt? Marissa hates interrupting until we don't want her to because you said the Olympics and then my brain went oh my god it's July the Olympics will last year I wonder if there were any games on so I went to my Instagram and the archive had a picture of Ben Affleck having a stick around I was like oh it was the Zambia. I was literally just working through the South Korea tour Marissa why don't you just listen to one. We don't even have to play that when you're bringing that tour around. Angela please save me. No I just had a I still don't really understand because I wasn't paying attention to how the playing games work who who's playing in those ones. Six teams from the AFC for 2027. Apparently yes so an all eight quarter finalists qualify for the Olympic qualifying tournament that's where the Olympics come into this the all the quarter finalists are in the qualifying tournament for the Olympics so there is that. Oh my god I was thinking about the Olympics but we did get a question so that is also useful. No they'll go to the Intercontinental then they have to find it out. The four winners of the quarter finals make it directly to the World Cup. The four losers from the quarter finals will then play playing matches so there'll be two matches there's 14 two matches playing the two we have them qualified automatically qualify for the World Cup. The other two. The two winners go to the Intercontinental Playoff. Okay I'm just so glad we did that on the pod. Yeah the eight teams really showed our working those eight teams basically are in the qualifiers for the World Cup and for the Olympics. The semi finalists qualify straight away. Your chances of making the World Cup are good. Not 100 but good. Okay because six out of the eight will qualify and the other two get into Intercontinental playoffs. Do we feel at this stage very early vibe check confident about qualifying directly or is it just way too early to do a bit check. I think it's too early because it depends on how we go on the group. I think the general vote is you expect them to qualify directly but if not I would expect them to win Intercontinental not Intercontinental I expect them to win the the round of playoffs because yeah. Very clearly in the top six best teams in Asia like come on if you don't qualify what are you doing you know. Exactly. So I expect them to qualify. Be so careful with your words. I think you're allowed to have expectations like not saying they'll definitely qualify directly if they should but it doesn't mean they will because it would depend on how they go on the groups but like if it takes another round yes like otherwise you got much bigger problems if they're not qualifying for the World Cup. And on that fun note anything else we would like to add to this very chaotic pod. I'm just really I'm so excited to watch North Korea. I am obsessed with North Korea. I don't know how many people listening to this read my deep dive that I did for the ABC about the North Korean Women's National Team. It was one of the most fun stories I have ever had because there is just no information out there and we're talking women's football right it's already really hard to find historical information about women's national teams but when it comes to North Korea it is just like a different level it is different gravy. They haven't been in the Asian Cup since 2010 so we haven't seen them for a really really long time and in that 2010 tournament they lost to us in the final like and that was just an extraordinary moment in and of itself. So many of the stories about North Korea participating in major tournaments are just completely wild you know that like the last Asian Cup that Australia hosted in Adelaide there was a fight between the North Korean team and when I think it was maybe Australia there was a whole ruckus that happened on the field. I've read ReGOT punched it was like a famous thing that happened but because no one gave a shoot about women's soccer back then it didn't really make headlines. Yeah they just keep withdrawing from a whole bunch of things so like they've only played three games this year this whole year they've only played three games so like how can you assess that? I've flogged all the teams that they played obviously like what's going on behind the scenes there into like who are these how are these people training how are they who are they playing against? It is just so fascinating to me so I yeah I'm so excited to watch them. I wonder how the AFC are going to navigate things like media obligations for their players and coaches like all national teams have media obligations that continental major tournaments like this where after a game has played or before like match day minus one the day before the game has played the largely the captain and the head coach have to front up to a media conference to answer questions are they going to do that? Are the AFC going to like make some like special rules for them because they don't want to do it. I bet like largely if you don't participate in those things I think this is fine maybe if you do it repeatedly there's some kind of competition repercussion like you lose points or something I have no idea but like maybe they'll just like cop the fines because they don't want to expose themselves to any public scrutiny. I have not but like this is going to be one of the most interesting stories of the whole tournament North Korea so like I hope that people are listening I was excited as I am to just like see what this team is about because we don't get to glimpse them very often and yet at youth level they are one of the most successful women's national teams in the history of the game like how is this possible? It's just amazing and like current raining under 17s and 20s world champs right like it's insane like they're youth programs and then it'll be fascinating to see how many of those players are coming through to the next level. I think some of it cynical when it comes to like having done quite a few AFC press conferences I think if you want there's a fair bit of wiggle room to go with the very straightforward and this is you can this can be like for example if I've done soccer rules press conference you know that often the player and the coach the first answer will be like we are very excited for the challenge for this first game. Sometimes this is what these official press conferences can be like and people can go along they can try and you know pull whatever information they want out of the players but there's nothing to stop a player being like either I didn't understand the question or be answering however they feel like and to be fair it's not even to stay and see press conferences right like sometimes you go and you can do it a very stock standard ALEG woman press conference and you'll ask a question that you think might get some insight and I'll say you know it's just about playing our role and if we do what we set out to do and follow the game plan things will work out for us and we will win. I'll be fascinated. I mean if I were them that's what I would do I would take the very stock standard approach but as you say say just don't know like and there's as you say the not been in one of these tournaments for such a long time I think everyone's kind of lucky that they've not been drawn in a group like I know the rankings because of them not moving they couldn't be drawn in with Japan but like the fact that they weren't drawn in with South Korea right like because sometimes when those sorts of games have looked like they're going to happen in qualifying that's when North Korea the football federation has said well we're not playing because this reason or whatever and then they pull out of a qualifying thing that you get uneven numbers you hope that this means it's going to be pretty straightforward and they're able to play as normal but yeah I think it's going to be a fascinating story and yeah quite a few of these I remember going to one of the the men's games in 2015 that was in Melbourne as well at Amy Park like yeah it's going to be fascinating and yeah as most sort of set up the top seeing India get their opportunity I hope Bangladesh gets some real good support when they're here yeah same with Iran like I really hope we're not too much support for Iran because we're playing them but you know just enough to have a good time maybe in the other two games against the Philippines going to feel alive and against South Korea obviously but yeah I think it's going to be really exciting to see some of these teams and the support that comes out yeah totally all right I think that is us done for this episode of course there are doors closing while I'm trying to wrap this up that is us done for today thank you so much for tuning in if you made it this far and made it through all the nonsense well done to you in terms of what's coming up for us obviously the people want a big board we will give you a big board now that we know who we're playing that makes a big board all the more exciting so the next time you hear from us it will most likely be a big board so we cannot wait to bring you that otherwise we're on espn.com.au and the espn app you can find us on Spotify, Apple and all of the usual pods bots if you like what we do leave a review and subscribe if you want to cut to us we're at the far post pod on all social media but until next time