Ellie Carpenter will have her first crack at her former club when Melbourne City travel to face Canberra United this weekend.
Carpenter, 19, was a key figure in the Canberra defence last season, in a break-out year which saw named in the Matildas World Cup squad and even caught the eye of National Women’s Soccer League side Portland Thorns.
The Matildas fullback says she is “excited” to return to Canberra, where she hopes the team can build on last week’s draw with the Newcastle Jets.
“I’m really excited to head back there and play them they have a quality side this year with the internationals with a new squad that’s full of depth, so I’m really excited to head back there,” she said.
“I had only been at the club for a few days here and there but now I’m there for more lengthy times so its really nice to link with Claire [Emslie] and the other internationals.
“It’s a new environment for me such a professional environment they look after us really well so I think it’s a good start so we can build from it.
“It was nice to have my first game with the club, obviously would’ve loved a win but we’re looking ahead to Sunday.”
City is expected to name its “full strength” squad this weekend with Matildas forward Kyah Simon in the mix to return from injury.
“I think this weekend we’ll be full strength and having this to build on Sunday, we will be very strong,” she said.
“Building that team cohesion as we have not had that much previously, so this week was very important leading into Sunday and build those relationships on the field.
“There’s a lot of us coming from back-to-back seasons so we’re managed very well obviously with the strength and conditioning coaches and our physiotherapists they manage us really well.
“We all have individual programs that we do pre-training and after.”
