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12 hours ago
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In the 26th minute of the Matildas’ 5-0 win over New Zealand, Australia already leading 2-0, an Amy Sayer shot bounced off the post and out to Ellie Carpenter, who had come forward from her post at right-back to be the most advanced player on the park. As she does. Her resulting shot sailed over the bar but rather than grimace, she jogged back with a big grin splashed across her face. And given how easily the Matildas were doing it, and with how much fun they looked to be having, you could hardly blame her.
After crashing back to earth against England last month, a night that even accounting for the early dismissal of Alanna Kennedy raised alarm bells, this was what the Matildas needed in the first of their two-game series with the Kiwis. Given the disparity in talent between the two and the long record of dominance Australia has in the fixture – the Football Ferns haven’t won since 1994 – victory was always expected. But that it was a comfortable one, categorised by some free-flowing football brimming with attacking intent and a cavalcade of chances that the players could take confidence from, was important.
It wasn’t perfect, of course. But less than 100 days out from the Asian Cup, at the start of the last window before that tournament, this was, especially in the first half, the best the side has played in the short tenure of Joe Montemurro.
If they can actually figure out a way to produce this consistently or against an opponent with the credentials of the Lionesses, as opposed to the Football Ferns, is another matter. But in the short term, this will prevent the kind of narrative doom spiral that the team – and Football Australia – absolutely doesn’t need ahead of the continental showpiece. And short of Japan and maybe North Korea, they can also be pretty confident that they won’t face an England-level competitor at next year’s Asian Cup, meaning that an ability to win games such as this one, and win well, rather than draw as they did against Slovenia, or lose as they did against Panama, is also important.
Albeit, they probably won’t be able to count on opponents at the Asian Cup producing some of the calamitous defending that the Ferns did on Friday evening.
Sayer had all the time in the world to fire in Australia’s first in the 13th minute, allowed to ghost into acres of space on the left to receive a pass from Katrina Gorry after she’d pounced on a failed attempt to clear a long ball. The assist was made to look much simpler than it was by the midfielder’s temperament to wait for an opening, but once it arrived at the feet of the 23-year-old in that much space, there was only going to be one outcome.
And the hits for the Kiwis kept coming when, in the 24th minute, a disastrous attempt to play out from the back saw the Matildas spring a high press. Maya Hahn coughed the ball up to Hayley Raso, who cut inside and, on her opposite foot, fired into an open net as Anna Leat scrambled back.
A series of chances followed, with Caitlin Foord, Raso, Sayer, and Cooney-Cross all circling like sharks smelling blood in the water. Such was the volume that, at one point, maybe some concerns about clinical finishing crept in. But then Carpenter made it 3-0 in the 70th minute, pouncing on another failed clearance and firing into an open net. Then Cooney-Cross spotted Leat off her line and lobbed her from near the halfway line a minute later and made it four. And then Holly McNamara set up for Gorry for the fifth in the 92nd minute, moments before she won a penalty that Steph Catley had saved by Leat. High-five.
Gosford didn’t get Sam Kerr, the skipper an unused substitute on the bench, but five goals later, they probably had just as much fun as the players anyway.
