{"id":341784,"date":"2023-10-26T03:25:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T03:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=341784"},"modified":"2023-10-26T04:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T04:00:43","slug":"incredible-reaction-to-sam-kerr-homecoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=341784","title":{"rendered":"'Incredible' reaction to Sam Kerr homecoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football West chief executive Jamie Harnwell has described the "incredible" reaction to the Matildas<\/a>' homecoming in Perth, with Sam Kerr<\/a> fever hitting her home city.<\/p>\n

The Matildas have assembled in Perth to kick-start their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympics<\/a> with three qualifying matches.<\/p>\n

More than \ufeff100,000 people are expected to pass through the gates for games against Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan, extending the team's streak of sell-out home matches to 11 following their semi-final run at the FIFA Women's World Cup<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Matildas coach makes demand amid US job speculation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maxwell blasts World Cup's 'dumbest idea'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Bad headaches' lead to NRL star's shock diagnosis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Following days of staggered arrivals, Harnwell said Kerr's entrance saw excitement go into overdrive.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

"It's been a \ufeffbig week, ever since the Matildas started arriving," he told Nine's Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"When Sam Kerr\ufeff arrived and came home, the papers lit up and the media lit up.<\/p>\n

"People are excited. \ufeffWe've got 4000 people coming to our centre on Friday just to get a glimpse of some of the Matildas.<\/p>\n

"It's just incredible the amount of excitement leading into these games."<\/p>\n

Australia will host the three countries as part of the women's Olympic football tournament Paris 2024\ufeff (Asian Qualifiers)<\/a>. Over a week, the Matildas will face each team in a single round-robin format.<\/p>\n

"The [Western Australian] crowds want to come in and get a chance to see the Matildas for the first time in nearly six years," Harnwell said.<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

"The Matildas need to win. \ufeffNo one wants to turn up and see a loss.<\/p>\n

"They'll be very confident \ufeffgoing into these games. They're overwhelming favourites, but first and foremost it's getting the three points and then hopefully they can put on a bit of a show after that."<\/p>\n

The Matildas must top the group to automatically progress to the next round of Olympic qualifying in February, but the matches also doubles an opportunity to begin introducing new players for the next World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n

"The Olympics is their opportunity … they've been fourth\ufeff in the two big tournaments \u2014 the World Cup and before that, the last Olympics," Socceroos legend Craig Foster<\/a> told Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"They\ufeff want to get a medal now. It's time for them and this generation needs to do it.<\/p>\n

"But [head coach Tony] Gustavsson also need to start bringing through this new generation as well."<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

Kerr is still returning to full fitness after suffering a calf injury at training the day before Australia's opening World Cup match<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI don't think she's recovered fully since the World Cup and that calf injury but she's been coming on and doing cameo appearances for [Women's Super League team] Chelsea and still doing amazingly well, even setting up a couple of goals in her last game," he said.<\/p>\n

The\ufeff Matildas will first face IR Iran at 10pm AEDT on Thursday at HBF Park, Perth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football West chief executive Jamie Harnwell has described the "incredible" reaction to the Matildas' homecoming in Perth, with Sam Kerr fever hitting her home city. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341790,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341784\/revisions\/341790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/341786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}