Ambitious Matildas coach Alen Stajcic says the sky is the limit for his exciting young team, targeting a world top three ranking and a World Cup title as well as Olympic success in Rio.
Stajcic and his world No.9 Matildas were saluted by Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney on Monday following their unbeaten run through the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament in Japan.
While they made history by reaching the World Cup quarter-finals last year, Stajcic was quick to declare there was much better to come, pointing to the youthfulness of his squad.
Of the 20 players at the Olympic qualifying event, co-captain Lisa De Vanna was the only one aged over 30, with seven under 23 and another seven no older than 25.
"There's just so much talent within this group," Stajcic said.
"They are still so young, that's the best part.
"The majority of players are still between 20 and 24 years of age so the world is our oyster if we keep improving and working hard and we'll be ranked five or six come the next rankings.
"Our goal is to push ahead by the next World Cup, to be in the top three.
"The sky is the limit for this team.
"When I see players like Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, Alana Kennedys, who are all around the 21 years of age mark and I look at the American team and they average around 29, 30, we've still got seven, eight years of experience under our belts to get, but we're already at such a high level.
"There's a lot of pats on the back this week and we accept all those, but we know we're not the finished product yet.
"We know there's a lot of work to be done to get to the level that we think we're capable of and we're not setting any limits on this team.
"Our goal is to be a world champion one day."
Veteran forward Lisa De Vanna is the only current squad member who was part of the last Olympic side in 2004 in Athens.
"It's an eight-year wound," De Vanna said of the two unsuccessful qualifying campaigns since then.
"To miss out on it twice is a slow wound."
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