CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MATILDAS TRAIN IN CANBERRA

Australia will also play Mexico in June with both games being played behind closed doors in Germany as coach Tom Sermanni fine-tunes plans for their tilt at World Cup glory.

The Matildas, currently ranked 11th in the world, will also play New Zealand twice in Gosford next month with one game open to the public and one a closed door match. Around the Kiwi games, Australia will also train on the Central Coast and there will be a camp in early June on the Gold Coast.

The Australians kick off their World Cup with a tough match against world ranked number three Brazil on June 29 (German time) in Moenchengladbach.

Minnows Equatorial Guinea (July 3 in Bochum) and the ninth-ranked Norway (July 6 in Leverkusen) are also in Australia’s group.

By this week, Sermanni is expected to have cut his outfield squad by six or seven ahead of the final decision on the 21 player squad for Germany in early June.

“My thoughts on the group was ‘crap’ it’s Brazil but in looking at the entire groups and what they’re made up of, we’re definitely not in the group of death,” Matildas skipper Melissa Barbieri told au.fourfourtwo.com.

“But we are in one of the hardest groups at the World Cup.”

Last Thursday we spent a day with the Matildas at their AIS training camp as the squad continues to prepare for the big event in Germany.

See all the studio shots of the Matildas in their new Nike kits and interviews with the stars in the July 2011 issue of FourFourTwo Australia out in early June. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MATILDAS TRAIN IN CANBERRA