To see the Matildas World Cup launch...

 

Organisers are pitching the event with the slogan, ‘The Beautiful Side Of 20Eleven’. 400,000 tickets have already been sold for the tournament, say organisers, with the first game in Berlin set to be a sell-out.

LOC head Steffi Jones, herself a former star player, says the fact that the games are played in high quality stadiums and with a well-oiled public transport system, it’s a World Cup fans can really enjoy. 

“We have beautiful cities – all of the games are also playing in Bundesliga stadiums – including Frankfurt my hometown. And we will show how beautiful they are and what they have to offer,” she told au.fourfourtwo.com at Sydney’s press launch of the tournament. 

“We say we can not only play good football but also we’re good looking. It’s that little extra.”

This women’s World Cup 2011 will use an Adidas ball called “Speedcell” which, according to organisers, is similar to the controversial Jabulani ball from South Africa 2010.

Australian centre back Servet Uzunlar, 21, told au.fourfourtwo.com the fact that overseas travel for Australians is so cheap is a strong incentive for fans to leave the Australian winter and enjoy a World Cup and a European summer in one.

“It’s Europe so after you see us play – and hopefully win – you can go off and travel through the continent. Europe in the summer, for sure, it’s a great thing,” she said.

Australia's Asian Cup champions are one of the dark horses for the tournament that kicks off on June 26. Coach Tom Sermanni’s team are grouped with Brazil, Norway and Equitorial Guinea.

Uzunlar, who plays for Sydney FC and lined up for the sky blues on Saturday at WIN stadium against Perth Glory, came into national team reckoning last year but like the team, stepped up to another level last May in China to win against DPR Korea in the final.  

With the retirements of key defenders such as Cheryl Salisbury and Di Alagich, an opportunity arose in the centre of defence and Uzunlar took it with both hands.

And with seven top strikers fighting for around four squad spots, this national team could pip the 2007 version which ended up in the quarter-finals at the 2007 World Cup in China.

“We need results and lately we’ve been getting them. But you can’t just turn up and expect to win. You need to put in the work and if you do, you’ve got talented players left right and centre," Uzunlar, a long-time Ryan Giggs fan, said.

In October, Uzunlar won the PFA Women’s Footballer of the Year award receiving 39 votes from her Matildas’ team mates. At the time she was playing her club football in minus zero temperatures in Denmark and missed the award. 

Matildas skipper Melissa Barbieri accepted the trophy on her behalf at the Football Media Awards, and revealed in her acceptance speech a secret about life inside the Matildas camp.

Uzunlar, she explained, had an alter-ego dubbed “Barry Arnold”– a quintessential Aussie motivational speaker.

“Obviously at camps you train then it gets quite boring," Uzunlar explained. "So this is like an inside joke I started with [fellow Matilda] Lauren Colthorpe a few years ago about this teacher in high school we used to have who’d claimed to have done everything and had played sport at the highest level.

“We thought it’d be funny if someone like that spoke to us. And now we have this character Barry Arnold. It’s definitely an in-house joke and I’m quite surprised Melissa even mentioned it. It’s embarrassing.

“Barry’s almost like a real person and when we came up with the character we decided he’d taken a Bachelor of Arts in Believing And Achieving. So that’s a BA so what’s the perfect Aussie name to go with that? Barry Arnold.”

And Uzunlar promised her teammates the motivational alter ego was on board to help the team go as far as possible in Germany.

She added: “As long as Lauren and I are present in any team Barry Arnold will live.”

To see the Matildas World Cup launch...