Salisbury to make history tonight
Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury will make history tonight when she competes for the FIFA Women’s World Stars against China at the Wuhan Sport Center Stadium, China.
Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury will make history tonight when she competes for the FIFA Women-s World Stars against China at the Wuhan Sport Center Stadium, China.
Australia-s most capped male or female player will make her second appearance for the team following the last such match held in Paris in 2004 to mark FIFA-s centenary. Striker Julie Murray is the only other Australian to have played for the FIFA Women-s World Stars having done so against the USA in 1999.
“It will be a great occasion with so many of the world-s best players on the pitch,” said Salisbury.
"I think it'll be a very tough encounter but also a high quality match that will definitely be well worth watching.
"More than anything else, I'm expecting a lot of entertainment, although as a defender, I'm obviously not overly keen on seeing too many goals."
Salisbury and Matildas coach Tom Sermanni will remain in Wuhan to attend Sunday-s draw.
The FIFA Women-s World Stars will be co-captained by legendary US midfielder Kristine Lilly and Norway's veteran goalkeeper Bente Nordby.
The match is scheduled to commence at 9.45pm AEST tonight with organisers predicting a crowd in the region of 30,000.
The Matildas, now ranked 14th in the world, qualified for the World Cup courtesy of finishing runners-up at last year-s AFC Women-s Asian Cup in Adelaide after losing the final on penalties against China.
Seeded teams for tomorrow-s draw are hosts China, reigning champions Germany, world number one ranked nation USA and Norway who are ranked third in the world. The other nations to have qualified are Australia, DPR Korea, Japan (Asia), Sweden, Denmark, England (Europe), Nigeria, Ghana (Africa), Canada (North and Central America and the Caribbean), Argentina, Brazil (South America) and New Zealand (Oceania).
The 16-nation tournament will be held in the cities of Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan, September 10-30.
Australia have appeared in three previous FIFA Women-s World Cup tournaments in 1995, 1999 and 2003. The Matildas are currently attempting to qualify for the Beijing Olympics with qualification likely to be decided in early June when the team travels to DPR (North) Korea before the return match in Coffs Harbour on June 10.
For more information on the Matildas click on the following link:- http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/default.aspx?s=aus_matildas
TV: SBS will show extended highlights of the FIFA Women-s World Stars match tomorrow from 4.30pm. SBS will also have LIVE coverage of the Matildas matches against DPR Korea on Sunday 10 June and Chinese Taipei on Sunday 12 August. Both LIVE matches will be shown as “The World Game” weekly Football Feature from 3:00pm.