In the end, it wasn’t defensive jitters that felled Australia’s hopes of World Cup glory. While the Matildas had some semblance of luck during the 120 minutes of normal and then extra-time – Norway hit the crossbar and side netting, and a rebound off the inside of an upright rolled out rather than in – it seemed possible that the Matildas might have just enough to see them through to the quarter-finals. Yet this good fortune ultimately could not extend to the cruelty of a penalty shootout.
The stark reality of tournament football will show that the Matildas have failed to better their performance. It also shows that the side fell to European opposition once again. In their last three games against European countries (Norway, Italy, the Netherlands) the Matildas have lost. The short space of time between these defeats perhaps points to an inability at this moment in time to orient to the challenges posed by European football.
This isn’t to say that there were no developments during this tournament, which were evident in the game in Nice, as the Matildas quickly set a high tempo, with Sam Kerr threatening early.
The defence, aided by the return of the clear-visioned and composed Elise Kellond-Knight, looked more assured over the 120 minutes than at any other point in the tournament. If mistakes were made, the backline was able to recover, more than at any other point in the tournament. Compared with their opening game against Italy, the Matildas looked far more at ease in dealing with the advances of Norway’s tricky Guro Reiten and Karina Saevek, responding to the second phase and recovering from slips without conceding. Similarly, the assuredness of Lydia Williams in goal proved pivotal, making several crucial saves to deny Caroline Graham Hansen and her compatriots.
If positives should be sought from the disappointment of this defeat, the display of defensive composure is one. Norway’s goal, after all, was borne of a well-executed pass from Saevek to tee up Isabell Herlovsen, rather than defensive disorganisation.
At the other end of the pitch, however, the Matildas were hampered by a lack of composure in providing service to Kerr. When crosses soared in, they were too often too high even for her prodigious leap. In order to see meaningful time on the ball, Kerr was forced to drop deep throughout the match, as well as to take on defensive duties. Given her four-goal haul against Jamaica, anything other than a concerted effort by Norway to mark Kerr would have been foolish. As the second half wore on she looked more likely to pivot in the guise of provider rather than goalscorer, as the attentions to Kerr created space on the wings for Australia’s wide players. Hayley Raso looked the most likely to benefit from this space, as time after time pockets opened up for her to exploit with incisive dashes into the box from the right, laying off Kerr but unfortunately unable to net.
As the game wore on, however, the Matildas relinquished control of its tempo. Despite frustrating the Norwegians with Kellond-Knight’s equaliser, the whipped ball tantalisingly out of reach of defenders in a packed penalty area, the Matildas couldn’t find a killer blow.
Alanna Kennedy’s red card just before the end of the first period of extra-time meant the Matildas had to see out the remainder of the match angling for the shootout, rather than risk getting caught short on a counter attack. The Matildas were forced into playing to stave off the risk of defeat rather than adhere to their nature of playing to win, finally pinning their hopes on the lottery of penalties.
But as the late evening promise faded into the black of a Mediterranean midnight it proved not to be, as first Kerr and then Emily Gielnik failed to convert their penalties and Reiten, Maren Mjelde and Ingrid Engen emphatically scored theirs. Given the denial of a reasonable penalty shout by VAR towards the close of the first perhaps the means of defeat had been foreshadowed in the game’s early stages.
Questions of how the Matildas failed to better their 2015 performance will be posed in various ways in the following days and weeks. For the 2019 tournament, in truth, they always looked a team on the cusp of exploding into something special, but ultimately proved unable to do so.
