Australia suffer 3-0 defeat after Alanna Kennedy red card
So rather than criticize, let’s imagine what it would be like if Montemurro took over at the start of a 10-month search for a permanent manager and his Matildas had a full year to learn, build and master themselves before their Asian Cup opener against the Philippines, where they were beaten 3-0 by England.
Such a timeline might have reframed this unfortunate, hindsight defeat at Pride Park as a performance to build on. It may be easier to view the full-time statistics from another perspective, meaning Australia’s 30 per cent possession against the back-to-back European champions, three shots on target to England’s 29 and 108 touches in the opposition half to the Lionesses’ 520, is something that needs to be rectified.
These figures are of course skewed by Kennedy’s early red card and Aggie Beever-Jones’ opening goal immediately afterwards. As Sam Kerr noted: “Last week we didn’t even show what we had or what we were working on. It’s really hard to judge the game because we had a very different plan for the game.”
The match as it stands now was a stark reminder of the gap between the 2023 World Cup semi-finalists in their first meeting since the night of August 16 in Sydney. The story around Sarina Wiegman’s England, reeling from the upset defeat against Brazil, was that the standard needed to be raised to meet the expectations befitting FIFA’s fourth-placed country.
Post-match, the view from England looked like the better start and they then gained a numerical advantage, heavily weighting the contest in their favour, leading to Lucy Bronze doubling the lead and Georgia Stanway netting an injury time penalty. Young star Michelle Agyemang’s gruesome-looking knee injury overshadowed everything.
The Matildas, on the contrary, were hoping to get to the final whistle without conceding a goal in the second half, only for VAR to penalize Katrina Gorry and award a penalty. Kerr (wearing the captain’s armband) played 69 minutes, his longest appearance since his return to football, and enjoyed some positive moments but lacked opportunities. And the Matildas will be dogged by questions about their lack of consistent attack (let alone defence) in their two-game home series against New Zealand next month.
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Overall, there was a picture of an England team that had spent the last two years improving, and an Australian team that remained largely inactive through no fault of their own. The same goes for Montemurro, he does what Gustavsson did not; mixing newer or fringe players with traditional starting players rather than selecting the XI from one or the other.
The Australian is one of the most respected and successful women’s football coaches in the world and could have the Matildas ready to win the Asian Cup yet. So what if there are only four bears? So, who would the Matildas be without the pre-tournament crisis?
