Women’s Asian Cup: Matildas great Emily van Egmond set to break all-time Australian international caps record

By her own admission, record-breaking Matildas midfielder Emily van Egmond does not enjoy talking about herself.

It is lucky then, that her coach Joe Montemurro is far more effusive in his assessment of van Egmond, who could become the Matildas’ most-capped player in Tuesday night’s Women’s Asian Cup semifinal.

“I said to her the other day, ‘I think you’re one of Australia’s most talented footballers’ and I still believe that,” Montemurro said.

“Her football intelligence, her reading of the game, her technique, she’s one of the best footballers that we’ve produced, and that’s the reason why she’s here and so long in the national team, still an important part of the national team.”

32 year-old van Egmond equalled Clare Polkinghorne’s record of 169 caps in Friday’s quarterfinal against North Korea and will become its lone holder on 170 if she takes to the field against China at Optus Stadium.

van Egmond though, is more preoccupied with how to help her team get the win than thinking about what it would mean to hold the individual record.

“For me, the most important thing tomorrow night is to go out and get the job done. We’ve worked incredibly hard this tournament to get ourselves into the semifinals,” she said.

“My debut was actually against North Korea in 2010 with (coach) Tom Sermanni and a lot of the girls who are here today in the sport have been a part of my career since the start, so it’s really special.

“But for me, what will cap off the night will be getting that win.”

Having debuted at the age of 16 back in 2010, van Egmond is part of a generation of current Matildas players who not only grew up playing together in junior representative teams but continued their association into their senior careers.

When she debuted, van Egmond became the 172nd Matilda; current squad members Sam Kerr and Michelle Heyman made their debuts just before her, and Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Katrina Gorry, Hayley Raso and Mackenzie Arnold all followed soon after.

“Football in Australia has come such a long way, and it’s given a lot of the girls who are currently still on this team a pathway to be in the national team, to be successful, and obviously have a have a pretty prominent career abroad,” van Egmond said.

Given van Egmond’s reluctance to be her own personal hype-woman, it was not surprising Montemurro regarded her humility and willingness to sacrifice for the team as one of her greatest strengths.

But beyond that, Montemurro also paid tribute to her technical and tactical acumen — a partial by-product of her father and esteemed A-League Men’s coach Gary van Egmond.

“There are a few players that I’ve had the the honour of coaching, that I can have a really good technical conversation and to be honest, we have good discussions about football and technique and things like that,” he said.

“That’s unique and I don’t know if she wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and be a coach; I’m trying to tell her not to be a coach.

“Beyond football, what Emily can contribute to us and and what the family has contributed, because her father’s an amazing coach too, is really special.

“It’s about Emily, but it’s also about the contribution the van Egmond family has made to the football.”