If the Matildas’ Cup of Nations campaign kicked off on Thursday with an encounter marked by the sense the team was feeling its way into a new era under a new coach, Sunday’s game against South Korea – the de facto Cup of Nations final – represented the sternest test for the tournament hosts, yet one the Matildas absorbed with aplomb.
This game was the closest replica this week’s matches offered to knock out World Cup football and for the South Koreans, whose World Cup ambitions are to make the knockout stage (no mean feat, given their Group A compatriots include hosts France and former world champions Norway), the result will come as something of a disappointment, especially after their dominant performance against Argentina in Sydney.
In retrospect, there was a certain inevitability with the way the game began, with goals traded from dead balls from each side’s talismans, as the teams felt their way into this pseudo final in stifling Queensland heat.
While Sam Kerr rifled home a fifth minute penalty after being taken out in the box, a similarly composed Ji Soyun bent a gorgeous free-kick over the Australian wall just six minutes later, after Ellie Carpenter clipped Moon Mira on the edge of the Australian penalty area.
Hayley Raso’s return to international football earlier this week was marked with a bit of Raso-mataz (sorry, not sorry) with her goal off the bench against New Zealand. Sunday’s outing emphasised her importance in building Australian attacks as a starter, with her tenacious runs down the right creating space for Kerr to occupy, and to escape the close attentions of the South Korean defence.
The Brisbane local looked dangerous throughout the first half, contributing to her side’s second goal with a roaming run to release Tameka Butt for the shot eventually followed up on and tapped in by record Matildas goalscorer Lisa De Vanna.
De Vanna, whose place on the France-bound plane is less certain than in previous tournaments, after an injury-ravaged and goal-less 2018/19 W-League campaign, put in a good shift down the left, tracking and tussling back. She could have had a second, ten minutes into the second half, but for a fractional moment of hesitation after being played in by a perfectly weighted pass by Kerr. Instead she hit a tame shot straight at Kim Jung Mi.
While the close contest of the first half and occasionally surprising physicality demonstrated the Taegeuk Ladies’ potential to cause an upset in France, they were undermined by individual mistakes – most notably the lack of awareness with the backpass that led to Kerr’s suckerpunch at the end of the first half.
Despite being able to catch the Matildas on the occasional break, South Korea’s chances in the second half were marked more by desperation to drag something back out of the game than the measured fluidity that characterised their first half bearings down on goal.
This characterised much of the remainder of the match as the Matildas camped out almost exclusively in the South Korean half. Despite this territorial dominance only yielding one more goal, and despite cohesion in the final third beginning to wane as the clock ran down – six second half substitutions will do that – Ante Milicic must have been pleased with the manner in which the Matildas asserted their dominance, epitomised by the contrast of the Matildas’ second two goals.
While Kerr’s second of the night, scored just before half time, is a testament to the Matildas’ promise to punish defensive mistakes, pouncing on a poorly received backpass to scoop the ball over Kim, the Matildas’ final flourish points to a growing sense of business as usual under Milicic.
Emily Gielnik, who plied her trade in the Brisbane Roar orange for nine years, lashed home in the 81st minute from a tight angle after drifting into the inside of the penalty area shortly after coming on for Raso.
It was a strike anchored in sense of growing confidence. Despite the turmoil of recent weeks, the Matildas have reminded the world of the threat they will pose in France.
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