Matildas ‘make things harder for ourselves’ at Asian Cup. What’s new?

This was not a loss like that 2023 World Cup group stage implosion against Nigeria. Sunday night’s 3-3 draw with South Korea has not even left the Matildas on the brink of an Asian Cup exit – they had secured their place in the knockout stages before kick-off in Sydney.

Still, two wins from their games against the Philippines and Iran were not enough on their own to top Group A – Korea had a superior goal difference entering the final fixture, and Australia needed to win to top the group. The reward for doing that? No more travel, an extra day’s recovery and a straightforward quarter-final against a third-placed team from another group.

And the Matildas looked on track despite Steph Catley’s early exit with a suspected concussion, having fought back from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 at half-time. They had all the momentum.

They came crashing down to Earth after the break, however, when Catley’s left-back replacement, Courtney Nevin, blocked a shot inside Australia’s penalty area with her hand. Four minutes after Kim Shin-Ji beat Mackenzie Arnold from the penalty spot, South Korea scored again and, while Alanna Kennedy’s 98th-minute equaliser changed the result, it did not change the outcome of the group.

It means the Matildas must travel across the country to Perth for a Friday night quarter-final against Group B’s second-placed team – either China or North Korea, who meet on Monday night.

“It was on ourselves, the performance tonight,” Caitlin Foord said. “We made it difficult for ourselves. We gave away easy goals, and we missed big chances – myself included. I put that early chance away, and it’s a different game.

“We just need to be clinical and tighten things up at the back, and we should be good. We can take positives out of it. We came back, and I believe if we had two more minutes, we would’ve got another one. So it’s quite frustrating.

“But I mean, we haven’t lost anything. We just make things harder for ourselves. But I think that’s when we’re at our best. It seems to be the trend. I wish it would change, and we’d take a different route, but we’re used to it, and we’re used to these do-or-die games.”

The trend to which Foord referred is the Matildas’ propensity to put themselves in difficult, high-stakes positions that are entirely avoidable, and then conjure something brilliant to rescue themselves.

It happened at the 2023 home World Cup, when a near-catastrophic second-game loss to Nigeria galvanised Tony Gustavsson’s team, and they delivered a 4-0 win over reigning Olympic champions Canada, with just about every squad member promoting the benefits of “backs against the wall”.

Four years before that, at the 2019 World Cup in France, when Ante Milicic’s side lost their opener to Italy and then went 2-0 down to Brazil only to come back and win 3-2 in what was dubbed the “Miracle of Montpellier”.

“We’re Australian,” Katrina Gorry said. “We’re always fighting, aren’t we? So for us, it doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter who you play in this tournament, it’s going to be a tough game. So we go to Perth, we play China or North Korea, and it’s going to be a tough game. But we like it when we have a tough game – we come out strong. Backs against the wall, but we’re ready to go.”

There’s an argument that this has been a long-embedded theme in Australia’s national teams – women’s and men’s – of all sports. That includes the Socceroos, who have a habit of qualifying for World Cups via the play-offs and then – in the case of Qatar 2022 under Graham Arnold – going on to exceed expectations and making the round of 16. Last June, Tony Popovic broke that mould by guiding the Socceroos to direct qualification for the 2026 finals.

But Matildas coach Joe Montemurro – frustrated though he was at Australia’s inability to finish chances against South Korea– drew a comparison with the Socceroos’ long route to the 2015 men’s Asian Cup trophy at home. Under Ange Postecoglou, Australia finished second in their group after a loss to South Korea before playing them again in the final, which they won 2-1.

“You’re always going to have these ups and downs in tournaments, and it’s probably nice it’s come now,” Montemurro said. “We showed character to finish the game off and still get a result. We just have to be smarter and stick together.

“It’s that little something you need in a tournament. I remember when Australia won the men’s Asian Cup, they lost to Korea in the third game, a group game. We needed more goals, we didn’t get them, and we’re going on another route.”