Everton’s Hayley Raso says that she has no complaints about replicating her full-back role for the Australian national team.
The 26-year-old featured at right-back for the Westfield Matildas as they were defeated 5-2 by Germany in Wiesbaden this afternoon in their first competitive match in more than a year.
Raso has previously operated in an attacking role for Australia but new head coach Tony Gustavsson opted to play the player on the right side of defence after seeing her occasionally feature in that position for her club.
Despite being a winger by trade, Raso said that she has no complaints over filling in at right-back for Australia and she is simply happy to pull on the famous gold jersey again.
“It wasn’t too much of an unfamiliar role for me,” Raso told Football Australia Media after the final whistle at the BRITA-Arena. “When you are playing against a tough opponent like Germany, it’s always going to be a tough game with a lot of running.
“I am just happy to get on the park and I’m willing to do my job wherever I play.”
After not playing together for 13 months, taking on a side of Germany’s calibre was always going to be extremely difficult for the Westfield Matildas but Raso says that the team will regroup ahead of their next fixture against The Netherlands on Tuesday.
She added “It’s essential that we recover right. We will obviously go back and have a few meetings with Tony (Gustavsson).
“We will analyse our game and we will go back to the drawing board and see how The Netherlands play.
“It is a big opportunity for us to bounce back and show the way we can play and hopefully, we can come out with a win.”
Australia’s international friendly match against The Netherlands is scheduled to take place in Nijmegen on Tuesday evening with a kick-off time of 5.30pm.
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