With only a week left before opening day for women’s soccer in this year’s Rio Olympics, the Australian Women’s National Soccer Team has been spending its last few days of training in Brazil in order to adapt to the weather and time change. After making a big statement in last year’s World Cup, the Matildas are ready to do it again this summer by chasing gold after missing out on in 2008 and 2012.

Australia's Statistics

Previous Olympics: 2000 (finished seventh, knocked out in group stage), 2004 (finished fifth, knocked out in quarter-finals)

Current 2016 Record: 5-1-2

Olympic Roster

GOALKEEPERS: Lydia Williams, Mackenzie Arnold

DEFENDERS: Clare Polkinghorne, Laura Alleway, Alanna Kennedy, Stephanie Catley, Ellie Carpenter

MIDFIELDERS: Elise Kellond-Knight, Emily van Egmond, Katrina Gorry, Tameka Butt, Caitlin Foord, Chloe Logarzo

FORWARDSLisa De Vanna, Michelle Heyman, Kyah Simon, Samantha Kerr, Larissa Crummer

Youthful roster from Coach Stajcic

This Olympic squad features only one former Olympian in 31-year-old Captain Lisa De Vanna, who was a part of the 2004 Olympic Team at the age of 19. De Vanna is the oldest no doubt, but the average age of the roster is a mere 23, with 16-year-old defender Ellie Carpenter rounding the Matildas out. Everyone besides De Vanna will be competing in their first Olympics, and will be expected to showcase a young and brilliant Matilda side after missing out on the last two Olympic Tournaments.

16-year-old Ellie Carpenter is ready for her first major tournament with Australia. | Getty Images - Koji Watanabe

They may look young, but these women are experienced in high level soccer. Many of them play in the NWSL with the world’s best players, and even young Carpenter plays in Australia’s W-League with the Western Sydney Wanderers. Out of the 18 players named to this roster 16 of these Olympians took part in the 2015 World Cup in Canada last summer, where they placed seventh after losing 1-0 in the quarter-finals to eventual runners-up Japan. Despite being first time Olympians, these “rookies” aren’t new to the international scene by any means.

Tough group ahead

Australia is in Group F which features Canada, Germany and Zimbabwe. It’s a fairly tough group that will certainly test the Matildas in their hopes to make it to the knockout stage. They open the tournament by playing Canada, who are looking to make it to the final after being knocked out in 2012’s dramatic semi-final against the United States. That had been the farthest Canada’s ever made it in the Olympic Tournament, having only qualified for one other Olympics in 2008 where they finished eighth. Canada, much like Australia, has injected lots of youth and new faces into this roster, and have lost their longtime goalkeeper Erin McLeod to an ACL injury. It’ll be interesting to see how they fair this tournament. In preparation for the tournament, Canada has been playing tough opponents, and their biggest accomplishment is winning the Algarve Cup earlier this year. This is one of the bigger matches for Australia, and it only prepares them for their following match.

Captain Lisa De Vanna prepared to lead her young team into Rio. | Getty Images - Masashi Hara

Three days later, Australia will take on big European power Germany. Germany surprisingly didn’t qualify in 2012, but they claimed third place in 2000, 2004 and 2008. This will be Australia’s toughest match in the group considering Germany is currently ranked number two in the world. The Germans have looked very successful this year, having only lost one match in 2016 against the United States back in March. Despite losing important figures such as goalkeeper Nadine Angerer and Cecilia Sasic, Germany has transitioned without them easily, beating their latest opponents Ghana 11-0.

The Matildas round out the group by playing Zimbabwe on August 9. This will be Zimbabwe’s first Olympics in its history for women’s soccer, and its first official international tournament. They’ll be the underdogs of the group, seeing as everyone else is experienced in major tournaments. This should be a fairly easier team for Australia to play, but it’s impossible to count African teams out - they’ll definitely put up a fight.

Overall Prediction

This team can probably make it out of the group. They won’t finish first, but if they can pull off an upset against Canada, Australia will be making it to the knockout stage. The Matildas are young and ready to make a historic run this summer, and with De Vanna leading the way they should be able to make a statement.

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