Australia currently has three active Women’s National Teams, the Westfield Matildas, the Young Matildas (U-20) and the Australian Under 17 Women's team.
Westfield Matildas
The Australian women's national football team, known as the Westfield Matildas, has a long record of achievement dating back to the team's first international appearance in 1978.
The Westfield Matildas have appeared in the last four FIFA Women's World Cups having only failed to qualify for the inaugural tournament in 1991. Similarly Australia has appeared in the last two women's Olympic football tournaments having appeared as hosts in 2000 after missing out on an appearance in the first ever tournament in 1996.
At the last FIFA Women's World Cup played in China in 2007, the Westfield Matildas, for the first time, secured passge from the first round to the quarter finals, where they lost a nail biting clash against eventual runners-up Brazil. This performance earned the team a lot of respect around the world and especially in Australia.
The Westfield Matildas finished with a placing of 7th at the eight-nation Sydney 2000 Olympic women's football tournament, and improved on that showing by winning through to the quarter finals in the expanded ten-team tournament in Athens in 2004.
The performances of the Australia team has steadily improved in recent years and under experienced coach Tom Sermanni, who assumed the reigns in January 2005, the team has achieved a number of historic results including a win over world number one ranked nation Germany; top ten nation China plus a credible performances against perennial superpower United States.
The Australian team is a solid blend of experience and youth lead by Australia's most capped male or female footballer in defender Cheryl Salisbury. Mainstays of the team include key players such as Jo Peters and Heather Garriock (who have both been capped over 100 times for Australia), while a number of youngsters are coming through, adding more depth to the squad.
Young Matildas
When FIFA decided the time was right for a World Championship for girls, Australia with its large increase in junior girls playing the game was not about to miss the boat.
The first FIFA Under 19 Women’s World Championship was held in Canada and after Australia qualified comfortably through Oceania, went to Canada and made it through to the second round.
At the second installment of the tournament in Thailand two years later, Australia repeated that performance with another second round effort.
Faced with a tougher qualifying campaign for the 2006 edition in Russia after joining the AFC, the Young Matildas, with a fair number of players with senior experience, qualified as the third Asian team, knocking out the fancied Japanese.
The addition of the Under 17 team on the world stage will no doubt further boost Australia’s stocks at the Under 20 level.