SCOTLAND'S win over Brazil on Monday night was the last chance for Shelley Kerr to assess her players before naming her World Cup squad.
The Fifa deadline for submitting lists of players is before the final preparation game against Jamaica at Hampden on May 28 and Kerr said: “The squad is likely to be announced in the middle of next month.
“It's going to be one of the hardest things I'm ever going to have to do as a coach, because I know how much it means to every single one of the players to get to the World Cup.”
Kim Little ➡️ Lizzie Arnot ➡️ Kim Little = 🏴⚽️#SWNT #OurGirlsOurGame pic.twitter.com/5LQypdtcs6
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) April 9, 2019
READ MORE: Reaction as Scotland's women footballers beat Brazil
Not all the 23 players who were in Spain for the 1-1 draw against Chile and 1-0 win against Brazil, both at the Pinatar Arena, are guaranteed to be on the flight to France on June 5.
Scotland play England in Nice four nights later, before travelling to Rennes and Paris for the later Group D games against Japan and Argentina.
Arsenal left back Emma Mitchell, a first choice in the qualifiers, wasn't with the squad in Spain, and neither was Fiorentina striker Lana Clelland. Both are strong candidates to be included if fit.
“All the players need to be performing at their clubs, and a lot can happen between now and the squad announcement,” Kerr pointed out.
Although the head coach plays down friendly results, she admitted beating Brazil, who are ranked tenth in the world, was a massive morale booster.
"We've got the fitness, ability and tactical ability to compete and get victories like we did tonight."
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) April 8, 2019
Hear from goalscorer Kim Little after #SWNT's 1-0 victory over Brazil this evening.#OurGirlsOurGame pic.twitter.com/P0Hsr33854
READ MORE: Neil Lennon is planning to be at Celtic next season
“It's huge for us going into the World Cup,” the head coach said. “Before we beat Switzerland in the qualifiers I told the players we had to start beating higher ranked teams when it matters.
“It's another step forward and for me the message is we can cope against the very best teams.”
Kerr also revealed that the players chosen for the World Cup will be given a short breathing space after the Jamaica game at the end of next month.
“They will be allowed to spend some time with their families because I think that's important for them,” Kerr said. “Then they'll come in and we'll train for a couple of days in Scotland before heading out to Nice.”
The head coach will head out to Rennes and Paris on Monday to look at hotels and training facilities. She visited Nice shortly after the World Cup draw.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here