Coach Alen Stajcic is currently in Holland observing the 2017 Women’s European Championship.

Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) released its roadmap for women’s football earlier in the year with key recommendations in collaboration with FFA.

The roadmap emphasised increasing Australian female players' wages and club standards to ultimately produce better players for the national team.

While the Matildas coach’s end goal was to get the national team to no.1, he felt they could win the hearts of many non-football people in Australia.

“Football is unique in every respect, the more we see it growing in Australia for young boys and girls is better for me and that’s certainly one of the key objectives of mine and our team as well,” Stajcic told FourFourTwo.

“I’ve been a passionate football fan first and foremost before anything else.

“I still remember watching the Socceroos lose to New Zealand in the 1981 in a World Cup Qualifier and following their tribe and tribulations over a long time.

“Being a player myself and it’s just engagement, it’s basically been our life and everyone who’s followed old soccer to new football and we just want to see the sport flourish and succeed and get as much following as we can.

“We all know it’s a wonderful sport around the world and just sitting on here in Holland and watching have fun attending games is a one-and-only sport.”

In February, former Matilda Kate Gill said the female international side, ranked seventh, was the only Australian team likely to win a World Cup or Olympic gold medal in 50 years.

The Socceroos are 45th in the world and have two crucial World Cup Qualifiers coming up against Japan and Thailand.

The Matildas are about to embark on their 2017 Tournament of Nations, which begins next week in USA, where they play the host nation, Japan and Brazil – all top 10 sides.

Many were disappointed about the Matildas failing to come away with a medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics and while Stajcic liked the pressure, he felt it was a case of apples and oranges when talking about the Socceroos.

“I like the fact people expect a lot of things from us but I really don’t like the comparisons between us and the Socceroos from Australian people,” Stajcic said.

“I really think we should be supporting the Socceroos at every possible point and we should be comparing the Socceroos to other men’s teams and comparing the Matildas to other women’s teams. It’s a pointless exercise comparing.”

Stajcic recently held a camp in Canberra with a total of seven uncapped youngsters in July.

He said he wanted to build the depth in the squad so the nation can be ready for the 2019 World Cup in France and made an example of Steph Catley’s foot fracture injury in the Olympics as a reason to create depth.

The Matildas will be without seniors Kyah Simon and Michelle Heyman in the US while inexperienced youngsters Alex Chidiac, Ellie Carpenter and Princess Ibini-Isei will have some involvement according to the boss.

He said he wanted to be able to choose from a pool of 30 players for the World Cup with an internal healthy rivalry.

He also saw a lot of positives after the Algarve Cup in Portugal earlier this year.

“Our end goal this year is developing a deeper squad, who can play in a variety of roles, testing players out at this level,” he said.

“Chids (Chidiac) played a couple of games at the Algarve Cup before and did really well, a lot of the new players that we played in Algarve actually did really well. Ellie Carpenter and Hayley Raso back in the squad, Emily Gielnik and a couple of others.

“That was the most pleasing part of that tournament, if we can take another six or seven players who are coming through to play at level, we’ll get to that point where there’s 30 genuine contenders for spots.

 “That’s where we really want to get to, they’ll have game time for sure and have a chance to impress.

“On the flip side it’s a good chance for them to gain some experience as well, both young players who’ve got the world at their feet and a lot of future at head of them so good opportunities to test themselves against some of the best in the world.”