The CommBank Junior Matildas begin their AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup China 2026™ campaign on Saturday when they take on India.
Hear from Kaya Jugovic, Maeve Nicholas and Harper Pell as we take you through everything you need to know for the tournament ahead.
Background
The AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup™ is an annual tournament where 12 teams compete to be the best in the age group in Asia. As well as the tournament itself, the major prize on offer is the four places available at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Morocco 2026™.
Australia has been drawn in Group B, alongside India, Lebanon, and Japan.
The top two teams from the group - as well as the two best third-place finishers - will qualify for the quarter-finals.
"We would like to make the World Cup and get a trophy if we could," Harper Pell, from New South Wales, said this week.
"Obviously, there are a few tricky opponents - such as Japan - but I think we'll put up a pretty good fight."
Australia's history at the tournament
Australia has never qualified for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup™. Our best finishes at a U-17 Asian Cup came in 2009 and 2019, when we finished fourth, but at the time, that was not enough to reach the global finals.
"From the start, we've had this common goal of wanting to make history and become the first U17 Australian women's team to qualify for a World Cup," Kaya Jugovic said.
"Having that goal always in the back of our minds really put a clear purpose towards the group, and what we want to get out of every training session and game during the time we've had together."
The squad
Michael Cooper named the 23-player squad set to compete at the prestigious tournament earlier this month.
"This group represents a strong blend of players who have consistently demonstrated resilience, adaptability, and a real appetite to learn," he said at the time.
All the players cited the camaraderie within the group as important to their success. The bulk of this squad was also part of the team that won the gold medal at the ASEAN U16 Girls Championship 2025.
Several players, such as Willa Pearson, Claire Corbett and Kaya Jugovic, have A-League Women's experience, while others have been gaining minutes at the senior NPL level.
"We all share common goals, and we've had the same sacrifices and the same hardships over time, and we all just really want to do our best for Australia," Maeve Nicholas said.
"We're all really grateful to be here. We all get along really well, and I'm excited to see what we can do together."
Jugovic echoed her teammate.
"Being together with this group for the last year, continuing to build each camp, we just continue to grow, continue to get new messages from the coaches," she said.
"We've been building each camp, and we've all come to this camp to perform and play good football now at the Asian Cup."
Group stage opponents
Australia take on India, Lebanon and Japan in the group stage of the tournament.
India is competing in its second-ever AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup™ as they continue to grow their women's football program. Their previous appearance was in 2005, when they failed to make it out of the group.
For Lebanon, it is their first-ever appearance - the only team in the tournament to be making their debut this year. They qualified for the tournament after finishing unbeaten in their qualification group against Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
By contrast, Japan are four-time champions at this age group, the equal most successful team alongside DPR Korea. They finished runners-up in the 2025 edition and are currently looking to do the clean sweep at all age levels, having won the senior and U-20 Women's Asian Cups this year.
"This is a new tournament, and we're facing new teams, so there will definitely be its challenges," Nicholas said.
AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup 2026
CommBank Junior Matildas v India
Date: Saturday, 2 May 2026
Kick-off: 7.30pm local/9:30pm AEST
Venue: Suzhou Taihu Football Sports Centre
Lebanon v CommBank Junior Matildas
Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2026
Kick-off: 3.30pm local/5:30pm AEST
Venue: Suzhou Taihu Football Sports Centre
Japan v CommBank Junior Matildas
Date: Friday, 8 May 2026
Kick-off: 3.30pm local/5:30pm AEST
Venue: Suzhou Taihu Football Sports Centre
