Michelle Heyman’s Matildas recall highlights Australian football’s striker problem

When information broke in January that Matildas captain Sam Kerr had torn her ACL, retaining her on the sidelines of the game for the higher a part of the subsequent yr, a query that had been simmering within the background of Australian ladies’s soccer for the previous few years abruptly reached boiling-point.

How can the nation’s biggest ever goal-scorer get replaced? Which participant is able to step into the 30-year-old’s golden sneakers? Who’s subsequent within the production-line of Australian strikers?

This query was being requested even when Kerr was match and wholesome. For the reason that 2019 Girls’s World Cup, doubts have been festering that the Matildas had turn into too reliant on the Chelsea ahead, and that the workforce struggled to search out the again of the online with out her.

The 2022 Girls’s Asian Cup quarterfinal in opposition to South Korea was a living proof: Kerr began that sport and had a handful of open-net possibilities which, for some purpose, she failed to complete. The Matildas misplaced 1-0 and exited the competitors on the earliest level of their historical past.

The query was the subtext to Kerr’s calf damage on the eve of the 2023 Girls’s World Cup, too: how on earth would the workforce carry out with out their star participant? Who else do now we have ready within the wings to take over?

Whereas head coach Tony Gustavsson was capable of quickly shuffle the workforce’s construction and rely extra on different gamers like Caitlin Foord, Hayley Raso, Mary Fowler and Emily Van Egmond to step up in her place, Kerr’s memorable aim in opposition to England within the semifinal — the one vibrant spark in an in any other case fatigued efficiency from the remainder of the workforce — left many questioning how a lot additional the Matildas might have gone had she been accessible the entire time.

However there isn’t a day-by-day countdown clock on Kerr’s return now, as there was final July. As we speak, now we have certainty that she will not make a miraculously speedy restoration to be absolutely match for the Olympic qualifying play-off in opposition to Uzbekistan in about two weeks, nor for the Olympic Video games in Paris in simply 5 months’ time. The query has now come into full and pressing focus.

One of many slimmest silver linings to Kerr’s damage, maybe, is that it has given Gustavsson and his employees extra time to pivot; to look additional and deeper for the subsequent finest striker in Australia, and provides them extra time to organize for probably the most scrutinised and pressurised roles for the Matildas.

There have been already a few names swirling round who had been handed alternatives over the previous two years.

Larissa Crummer, at present taking part in in Norway with SK Brann, was one. Remy Siemsen, who’s signed for Leicester Metropolis in England, was one other.

Emily Gielnik, now with Melbourne Victory, had an opportunity again in 2022, whereas Kyah Simon, who’d been controversially chosen for the World Cup and has just lately returned to the sector with the Central Coast Mariners, was vaguely within the dialog, too.

Each Mary Fowler and Amy Sayer have taken turns ghosting into the function from their extra pure positions in attacking midfield, as have wingers like Cortnee Vine and Holly McNamara (injured).

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However none of them fairly labored. None of them have been capable of provide the energy, the pace, the sport consciousness, the mix play, or the goal-scoring instincts of Kerr. Not even shut.

So for the primary worldwide window of 2024, Gustavsson has opted for another person totally: 35-year-old striker Michelle Heyman.

On paper, Heyman’s choice is smart. Contemporary off scoring her historic one hundredth aim within the A-League Girls — the primary participant ever to do it within the historical past of the competitors — the centre-forward at present leads the Golden Boot race with 10 targets in 14 video games.

Her goal-return price all through her Canberra United profession has been related, averaging roughly a aim each two or three video games. She’s the one participant outdoors of Sam Kerr to have gained each the Golden Boot and the Julie Dolan Medal twice.

The Matildas want a goal-scorer, and Heyman is aware of the way to rating targets. Easy, proper?

However what does it say in regards to the state of Australian soccer’s striker pool that Gustavsson has needed to flip to a participant who has been retired from worldwide soccer for the previous 5 years in an effort to fill this hole?

In the identical approach because the Socceroos referred to as up 36-year-old former Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli for his or her current Asian Cup marketing campaign, Heyman’s choice speaks to a power lack of centre-forwards which were developed throughout the early-to-mid-20s age bracket in Australia: gamers who ought to have already been ready to step into the area at present occupied by the late-20s to early-30s “golden technology,” who will seemingly retire throughout the subsequent two World Cup cycles.

This isn’t to say that Heyman would not deserve the call-up, nor that she will not probably be the very best striker-in-waiting whereas Kerr makes her sluggish return to the workforce.

Certainly, to get to the purpose of even being thought of for choice is a testomony to her longevity, her consistency, and her professionalism to proceed pushing her physique in an effort to sustain with the growing tempo and expectations of the fashionable sport.

As Gustavsson himself stated when requested about Heyman on Tuesday: “The best way Michelle has performed, she deserves to be chosen.

“Heyman has performed herself into this workforce [with] the way in which she performs. She’s in great type, she’s scoring for enjoyable.

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“And we additionally really feel, taking part in these sort of qualifiers, once we suppose we will play in opposition to a really well-organised Uzbekistan, it will be troublesome to get in behind, we want an in-and-out quantity 9 within the field that wants half an opportunity to attain. And that is Michelle.”

And he is proper.

Heyman suits a specific profile of striker: a traditional centre-forward who is powerful on the ball, highly effective within the air, makes intelligent runs off of defenders’ shoulders, can play along with her again to aim, combines effectively with wingers and midfielders, and may end possibilities from all types of angles and speeds.

So in opposition to a workforce like Uzbekistan, who is predicted to defend deep and assault Australia in transition, having a centre-forward who can provide these qualities is vital.

However what about longer-term? Is Heyman the reply to Kerr not only for this window, however for the subsequent a number of home windows? If not, who can be? Or will all of it ebb and circulate relying on the kind of sport and sort of opponent the Matildas face?

Will we see a conventional striker like Heyman deployed in a single window, and two inside-wingers combining with two attacking midfielders the subsequent? Is {that a} sustainable strategy, or a approach to supply constant nationwide workforce improvement to whoever does come after Kerr? Or is that this merely a extra subtle strategy to the extra subtle calls for of the fashionable sport?

However extra broadly, the place is the subsequent crop of Australian strikers coming from? Within the A-League Girls, many golf equipment this season (and up to now) have opted for overseas strikers, with simply two golf equipment within the present prime six repeatedly utilizing Australian centre-forwards this season, whereas the youth nationwide groups are solely simply starting to satisfy extra repeatedly for camps and worldwide tournaments, although youth friendlies stay uncommon.

The place, then, will they develop? The place will the subsequent Kerr not simply be discovered, however made?

Gustavsson, for his half, would not wish to look too far into the longer term. Maybe as a result of he is not too certain of what he sees there himself, both.

“We talked a little bit bit in regards to the expertise within the World Cup [of] how we deal with Sam’s absence then, and we have talked about the way to deal with it now,” he stated.

“Who’s changing that spot up in that nine-slash-false-nine function? We’ve checked out totally different choices earlier than, as you already know, with Caitlin, with Mary, with EVE.

“We’ve some 10s coming in with type like [Chloe] Logarzo, now we have a Heyman coming in, now we have a [Yallop] performing, now we have an Amy Sayer that we have checked out in that function.

“It is about a number of choices; it is simply taking a look at how can we maximise that short-term proper now, as a result of proper now it is nearly one window and the qualifiers.

“After which, hopefully, if we do our job within the qualifiers, we will look long-term at how we construct our workforce for the Olympics.”

The Matildas face Uzbekistan within the first Olympic qualifier on February 24 at 8pm AEDT.

Matildas squad vs Uzbekistan

Goalkeepers: Mackenzie Arnold, Teagan Micah, Jada Whyman

Defenders: Ellie Carpenter, Steph Catley, Charlotte Grant, Clare Hunt, Alanna Kennedy, Aivi Luik, Clare Polkinghorne, Kaitlyn Torpey

Midfielders: Kyra Cooney-Cross, Mary Fowler, Katrina Gorry, Chloe Logarzo, Amy Sayer, Emily Van Egmond, Clare Wheeler, Tameka Yallop

Forwards: Caitlin Foord, Michelle Heyman, Hayley Raso, Cortnee Vine