It felt rather appropriate, all things considered, that Tom Sermanni marked his 150th game in charge of the Matildas by making Kahli Johnson the 237th player to represent Australia. As while the 2010 Asian Cup may have provided the 70-year-old with his crowning achievement, his is a more than three-decade legacy built upon the stories and achievements of those who he has given an opportunity. So many of the pathways that are found in the women’s game Down Under wouldn’t exist without his guidance, and of the current Golden Generation alone, the likes of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, and Katrina Gorry were all given intentional debuts under his charge.
And it all became even more fitting when Johnson headed home the 38th minute goal that kickstarted the Matildas to a 2-0 win over Argentina at Marvel on Friday evening, a game lacking in much of the way of fireworks but in which the hosts never looked in danger of falling. Kaitlyn Torpey put the result beyond doubt in the 69th minute, the winger’s second international goal blessed by the footballing gods when her shanked attempt to send in a cross from the right floated right over the head of Abigaíl Chaves and inside the far post.
Johnson, 21, took a leap into the unknown during the middle of the A-League Women season in moving from Western United, while right in the mix for the race for the Golden Boot, to newly launched Canadian competition the Northern Super League and has kicked on with three goals in six games for the Calgary Wild. She’d moved down to Melbourne from Sydney a few years prior to ease herself into living away from home, so when the Wild came knocking with a transfer fee for her services, she felt ready. Now, having scored a goal every other game in Canada, she’s become a senior international, with a goal under her belt to boot, and the latest in a long line of players whose stories cannot be told without Sermanni.
“The favorite part of it is not just so much giving players a debut, but where you see where they’ve been and where they end up going,” the coach reflected. “When you see Steph Catley and Caitlin Ford coming back with a European Championship medal and things like that makes it very special.”
The ball to find Johnson was delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Charli Grant, who galloped down the flank before sending in a perfectly weighted cross for her teammate to send across the face of Chaves. Replays showed that the debutant had strayed just into an onside position for the goal but, with no VAR present (something of a theme in Australian women’s football as of late) it was allowed to stand; part of what Argentine coach Germán Portanova felt was part of a pattern.
“I know that this was a celebration of the Matildas. But we came here to compete, and we came here looking ahead to the Copa America and wanting to do our best,” he said. “But believe me when I say, when it was one against the other, [calls were made] in favor of Australia.
Sermanni, for his part, acknowledged that the goal was likely offside but was perplexed at suggestions the officiating had tilted the game in his side’s favour.
“I think the level of the game was a little bit challenging for the referee, he said. “But I think overall the scheme of play, I don’t think there was any particular decision that was contentious.”
Probably helped by not needing to do much defending — Argentina would fail to register a shot on target until the 80th minute — Grant was one of the Matildas best on the evening. So, too, was Johnson, who flashed intent early on when she won the ball on the left and whipped in crosses in the sixth and seventh minutes and who put a shot just wide in the 49th in search of a brace.
Given the chance to start as the nine once more, clearly being positioned by Sermanni as the heir-apparent for Kerr, Holly McNamara showed off her determined, angry worth: sending a volleyed attempt from a Grant cross wide in the first half and fizzing an effort outside the post in the 61st. Clare Wheeler got in on the act, too, firing off a 72nd minute attempt that Chaves did incredibly well to get down and keep out.
Indeed, with the likes of Kerr, Gorry, Ellie Carpenter, and Hayley Raso all absent from this squad and the Arsenal trio of Catley, Foord, and Kyra Cooney-Cross not risked after their late arrival into camp after winning the Champions League — they’ll play next Monday — Friday was an evening for the unheralded and rising members of the squad. It almost had to be, given that Football Australia has indicated a new coach will be coming in next month, rendering these games as something of an audition. But it was also a celebration of an underappreciated legend in Sermanni, delivered in fitting fashion.
