The 2010 AFC Women's Asian Cup Finals will be held in Chengdu, China from May 19 to 30.  The tournament also doubles as World Cup qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup in Germany making it an incredibly important ten days for women's football in Australia.

Australia will play traditional women's football heavyweights China, South Korea and Vietnam in Group B of the eight-team qualifying tournament. The Matildas must firstly finish first or second in their group, with the best four nations to play-off in the semi-final stage of the qualifying tournament in China next May.

The top three teams in the tournament will qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

After stunning the world in 2007 to reach the World Cup quarter finals, just qualifying will be a feat this time around in hostile territory. 

Without home games and all the advantages that brings, this will be the girls' biggest test since 2007 - particularly without retired stalwarts Cheryl Salisbury, Di Alagich and Joey Peters.

But recent form has revealed the new-look squad has come together quicker than first thought, says coach Tom Sermanni..

"I've been delighted with how they've gelled together on the field and I've been delighted by the depth of the squad," he told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"The other players have come and we have the foundation of a good squad. Especially when you look at our back four where we've had to make several changes.

"But we're finding many of the players coming through are becoming quite versatile which is a good thing to have where defenders can play midfield and vice versa."

Unbeaten against powerhouse DPR Korea in two games in Brisbane last month (a win and a draw with five goals scored) was a huge confidence lifter and a great feat given the calibre of opposition.

That came on the back of two good wins in New Zealand without conceding a goal.  And with senior quartet Katie Gill, Heather Garriock, Sarah Walsh and Lisa De Vanna all plying their trade in quality overseas competition, it's an exciting mix alongside some cracking talent from the ever-improving W-League.

The home based Matildas finished a training camp on the Gold Coast today. Included in the training squad were exciting youngsters Emily Van Egmond, Elise Kellond-Knight, Teigen Allen and Caitlin Foord while W-League stars Sam Kerr, Leena Khamis and goal machine Michelle Heyman were also in camp at Carrara.  

Failure to qualify for the World Cup will have potentially disastrous implications for the women's football. Much of the funding within the game relies - rightly or wrongly - on results. And there's season three of the W-League later in the year. The boost the fledgling competition would receive if the national team can qualify for another  World Cup will be significant.

Sermanni knows it's crunch time with so much on the line. But the Scotsman is quietly hopeful of success in Chengdu.

He added: "As a coach you never want to get carried away but I feel a lot more comfortable and confident than I was earlier in the year.

"I wasn't sure how we'd gel and how we'd go against quality opposition but how the players have performed in recent months has been very pleasing."