Australia prepare for FINA World Cup Quarter Final

AUSTRALIA VS CANADA

Australia head into the quarter finals of the FINA World Cup tonight where they will face Canada, who finished second in pool B.

After the draw against Spain last night, the Aussies will be hoping to deliver an all important win which will determine whether they progress into the semi final.

The Aussie Stingers were runners up at the 2014 World Cup and firmly have their eyes set on another podium finish.

But the Canadians look strong, with solid wins over South Africa and New Zealand and only one loss to reigning World Champions USA.

They are a bit of an unknown given Australia has not had to face them on too many occasions in recent tournaments.

However the Aussies will be looking at their tactics and form throughout the World Cup preliminary rounds to look at how to shut down their assault.

Road to the quarter finals

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AUSTRALIA’S FINA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP SCHEDULE:
Day 4 Friday, 7 September – AUS vs CAN 1630 (7 September 9:30pm AEST)
Days 5-6, 8-9 September – TBC

Check out the squad bios.

AUSTRALIA VS SPAIN

After one loss and one win for the Aussie Stingers at the FINA World Cup, the team will look to finish out the pool stages strong when they line up against European heavy weights Spain tonight at 9:30pm AEST.

Spain too come into the match with a win over China and loss to Russia and like the Aussie Stingers will want to close out the preliminary rounds with a win.

The bronze medal holders from the 2014 FINA World Cup, Spain come into the World Cup in good form recently finishing in third place at the LEN European Championships in Barcelona.

On the back of the recent training camp and exhibition test matches with Spain in Barcelona, Amy Ridge said the team are aware of what they’ll be up against tonight.

“Spain are a really strong team at the moment, they came second at World Champs last year and recently third at the European Championships.

“They have two really strong centre forwards and sharp outside shooters, it’s something we’re going to have to tackle individually as well as with team tactics.

“We’re going to have to be really good in our defensive communication, particularly pressing into a zone to make sure we’re shutting down both their options in centre forward and outside shooters and putting pressure on them,” said Ridge.

The Aussies build up has been solid and Ridge said they have had to prepare for a different environment in Russia.

“Russia presents its own challenge... it’s a completely different environment for us, even though it’s in summer it’s still minus one at night, she said.

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AUSTRALIA VS RUSSIA

Australia will face home side Russia in the second match of the FINA World Cup tonight.

After a solid win over China on the opening day the Aussie Stingers will look to carry the momentum of the win when they play in front of a big Russian crowd.

Russia also come into game with a win having defeated Spain overnight. They have had good form this year with a bronze medal from the FINA World League Super Final and fifth at the LEN European Championships.

Veteran Aussie Stingers player Bronte Halligan, said Russia will be tough on their home turf.

“It’ll be an interesting one against the home side as they’ll look to use their home crowd advantage. 

“They are very fast and quick and they’ll look to push the counter attack. 

“But we’ll look to hopefully play our own game and slow them down and not get it too much into out heads with their home side advantage.

Fans at home can follow along live on on FINAtv.

AUSTRALIA VS CHINA

The Aussie Stingers are set to take on China tonight when the 2018 FINA World Cup gets underway in Surgut, Russia.

Australia will be well prepared to take on the physical Chinese side after spending a solid training camp with the squad in Canberra ahead of the World Cup tour.

Rio Olympian Zoe Arancini knows first hand what China will bring to the match having trained and played in that country in recent years.

“The strength of the Chinese is that their centre forwards are very strong which forces us to play zone and makes their outside shooters come in and shoot,” she said.

“They’re also fast swimmers, so continually able go up and down the field…. when I was training with them they were always ripping past you, trying to counter attack.

“So we have to be on our game and we’ve got to be ready to take them head on.

“We will have to play a very mobile defence going from a press to a zone back to a press and then forcing them to cover our counter attacks,” said Arancini.

The Aussie Stingers have solid preparation under their belt leading into the World Cup, with a European Tour earlier in the year where they had the opportunity to train and play against Spain, Greece and other international sides.

A week long camp in Canberra with the Chinese as well as time in L.A. playing and training with USA, has offered the Aussie Stingers plenty of game time against international opponents before tapering for the World cup.

“We’re doing a lot of swimming at the moment… we’re looking good and we’re starting to hit our straps.

“We want to come out and win that game (against China), so we’ll have done some research on them to look at how we’re going to shut down their centre forwards and shut down their left hander,” she said.

The FINA World Cup format is unchanged, with two pools for the round robin stage, and a standard play-off chart for the finals.

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AUSSIE STINGERS SQUAD

Lilian Hedges, WA
Keesja Gofers, NSW
Hannah Buckling, NSW
Bronte Halligan, NSW
Isobel Bishop, NSW
Bronwen Knox, Qld
Rowie Webster, Vic
Amy Ridge, NSW
Zoe Arancini, WA
Alice Williams, Qld
Morgan Baxter, NSW
Pascalle Casey, NSW
Gabriella Palm, Qld

Check out the squad bios.