Newcastle has become a home away from home for the Matildas and around 15,000 spectators are expected at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night to show their support as Australia play Vietnam for Olympic qualification.
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A Football Federation Australia spokesperson told the Newcastle Herald yesterday that ticket sales were over 14,000 and tracking towards 15,000.
The venue has become a favourite for Australia's women's football team since 16,829 vocal spectators turned out there in September 2017 to watch the Matildas beat Brazil 3-2 in a thrilling friendly.
In November 2018 when they beat Chile 5-0 in Newcastle a crowd of 12,649 attended the match.
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Matildas vice-captain Steph Catley said the team had an affinity with Newcastle and were keen to take the first step towards sealing Olympic qualification in the city on Friday night.
"I honestly love coming here," Catley said. "I'm a biased Melbourne girl but this is probably one of my favourite places to play other than Melbourne.
"I feel like we always get a good crowd here and they're so invested. They're all wearing Matildas shirts and there's young boys, young girls, such a variety in the crowd. And they're all so interested in everything that we're doing, even when we're walking around the city, they want to have a chat and say good luck.
"It's a very warm home vibe for us to come to, so we're very excited to play and the surface is incredible and we love playing at this stadium."
Kick-off is at 6.30pm.
