By Marco Monteverde
Despite sitting 41 places lower than Australia in the world rankings, Panama beat a Matildas team missing a host of stars 鈥 including Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Caitlin Foord, Ellie Carpenter, Clare Hunt, Kyra Cooney-Cross, Charlotte Grant and injured pair Mary Fowler and Sam Kerr 鈥 1-0 in Bunbury on Saturday.
More young talent is set to get an opportunity in game two of the series at HBF Park, with Alex Chidiac, Kaitlyn Torpey and Emily Gielnik having since departed camp, and free agent Micah, who was forced off in the defeat after a crunching second-half blow left her dazed, ruled out.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to take any risks,鈥 Matildas coach Joe Montemurro said.
鈥淪he (Micah) will be fine. It鈥檚 just a little bit of whiplash, (but) we just don鈥檛 want to take any risks. There鈥檚 no need to.鈥
Montemurro is happy to further experiment with players and combinations in just his fourth game in charge as he bids to build Australia鈥檚 depth ahead of next year鈥檚 AFC Women鈥檚 Asian Cup.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been great to be able to do it at this level because we can gauge exactly where we鈥檙e at,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 really looked at (Saturday鈥檚 result) as a loss. I鈥檝e looked at it as more information for us to go forward.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to lift the way, lift the style, lift the football, and we want to do it without negative results, but it鈥檚 probably one where 鈥 when you make a lot of changes there鈥檚 going to be a little bit of instability, but I still have belief in the process and still have belief in the way going forward.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a bank of information that will help us go forward.鈥
Montemurro suggested the learning experience that the next generation of Matildas were being exposed to was priceless.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like everything 鈥 you don鈥檛 lose, you learn,鈥 he said.
鈥淵ou learn from these situations. It鈥檚 a perfect opportunity to learn, because it鈥檚 not a do-or-die game. It鈥檚 not a game that we are going to lose points on, or lose our status in a competition situation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a game where it was always prescribed that we were going to make a lot of changes.
鈥淭he good thing about it is players, individually, who were given an opportunity, can look at themselves and learn and understand.
鈥淲e focused on the take-outs of (Saturday鈥檚) game because there were some good passages.
鈥淚t just wasn鈥檛 continuous enough, and it probably wasn鈥檛, at times, football-intelligent enough.
鈥淯nderstanding international football, understanding when a team does break up the game and tries to stop rhythms and so on 鈥 we have to be better mentally and even as a coaching staff, we have to be prepared for these opportunities.
鈥淔or me, the perfect way of learning these levels of international football is through an experience we had the other day.鈥