Tottenham and Australia defender Alanna Kennedy has said the Matildas are embracing the high expectations placed on them after being labelled a golden generation ahead of the 2023 World Cup.
Australia and New Zealand beat competition from Colombia to host the 2023 tournament and hype has been building around the home side which includes the likes of Chelsea's Sam Kerr, Arsenal's Caitlin Foord and Lyon's Ellie Carpenter.
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"I think with our group one of the things I love is we embrace any pressures," Kennedy told ESPN. "I think it's part of the Australian culture that we're so laid back but we also have this underdog mentality where it's a nice balance of the two where we really embrace the expectation we now have on ourselves and we also want to go into games and into tournaments and everything with a clear mind and we do a good job of balancing that.
"Definitely, I would say we've been labelled a golden generation and that's something we want to live up to. I think we'll take it in our stride."
It has been a period of transition for the Matildas with Ante Milicic stepping down as head coach in July to honour his contract with Macarthur FC.
Former USWNT assistant Tony Gustavsson was named the side's head coach by Football Federation Australia in September, 10 weeks after Milicic left the role.
"I've yet to meet him like the rest of the girls," Kennedy said of Gustavsson.
"It's not ideal circumstances but for us I think something we have worked on over the last few years is that when you come into our environment we have set up a strong standard that we want to live up to all the time. So when people come and go, the personnel might change but our standards and culture is still the same.
"We obviously welcome him and his style of coaching and we're really looking forward to embracing the change and getting to work together for the short time we have."