The Matildas have won the Cup of Nations. They have beaten Jamaica. They have been victorious in seven consecutive matches and scored 23 goals. It is unclear what it means for their World Cup chances. All of these statements are true.
To what should we compare this 3-0 win? The most recent previous tie between these sides? The last time Sam Kerr played Jamaica she scored four goals at the foot of the French Alps to break all kinds of records and secure Australia’s progression to the knockout stage of the 2019 World Cup. This time, on the outskirts of Newcastle, she did not score and Australia did not advance – the former because Kerr spent much of this match doing selfless things and the latter a mathematical impossibility in a four-team friendly tournament.
Nevertheless, Australia did win. Caitlin Foord did score a banger and Katrina Gorry a wonder, and substitute Alex Chidiac did hit the roof. They did what was asked of them in this logistical dry run for the real thing in late July, and overall looked pretty good doing it. Sometimes they did not look good, like the first half against the Czech Republic and the second against Spain, and world No 44 Jamaica engendered some unwelcome angst. Perhaps April’s away friendly against European champions England may offer more clues.
For now, Tony Gustavsson has what he needs: a morale-boosting trophy and answers to some long-standing questions about depth in defence (Clare Hunt and Charlotte Grant) and midfield make-up (Gorry and Kyra Cooney-Cross), and confirmation that 4-4-2 – at times 4-2-4 – is looking like the team’s most fruitful formation.
“How many hours do we have?” said Gustavsson on what he had learned from the Cup of Nations, before listing a smorgasbord of lessons including game management, finding ways to win and dealing with the stress and travel of back-to-back matches in short succession.
If anything was off about Wednesday night it was Gustavsson’s experimental deployment of Courtney Nevin at right-back in place of Grant and Larissa Crummer on the wing for Hayley Raso, who broke her hand against Spain. Both were corrected after the break, with Nevin shifting to the left and Chidiac brought on for Crummer, and Australia saw out the game with the assistance of goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, who may well have staked her place as the new No 1. That Arnold was named player of the tournament could be a story in itself – a hint to the chinks still being ironed out after a rollercoaster two years featuring often disappointing results.
“The energy and intensity, and high-octane pace of the game wasn’t really there, but what I credit the team for is how they grow into the game,” Gustavsson said. “They didn’t lose they belief or their heads … tournament football is not perfect all the time.”
Cortnee Vine provided Australia’s early forays, stretching the left flank, speculating, searching for Foord, her cutbacks intercepted by a Jamaican side very comfortable on the ball and willing to use it in a positive fashion. Bunny Shaw was not there but Drew Spence was, and the recent Tottenham signing caught a glimpse of goal more than once in the early exchanges. Kayla McKenna, too, was in the figurative danger zone, each attacking prong tied together by Jody Brown, whose through balls were so nice to watch you almost missed Arnold save one with her knees.
When another incursion ended in a collision between Clare Polkinghorne and Steph Catley – who were watching the ball but not each other – it gave the Matildas valuable time to pause, recalibrate for the physicality of the contest and the consistent pressure on Gorry and Cooney-Cross.
That transpired as Gorry’s well-timed challenge. Gorry’s ill-timed challenge. Gorry’s retaliation to Spence’s you-are-going-into-the-book challenge. Perhaps Gorry’s yellow card galvanised her then, because in the subsequent moments she ran onto a short pass some 25m out from Jamaica’s goal and leathered it. Clean as a whistle, it spun and then swerved – Rebecca Spencer, who stands at 167cm, leapt but didn’t stand a chance. The layoff had come courtesy of Foord who, with her back to goal, found a sliver of space to occupy and wait for the moment.
Gustavsson would have been well impressed with all of that, but he did not appear a manager impressed on the whole. The Swede spent much of the first half pacing his technical area, having words with Arnold and then Clare Hunt and eventually sitting, his eyes burning a hole through an iPad perched on a tripod.
He looked up as Cooney-Cross set off charging up the field before picking out Kerr, who was rushing towards the far post but shut down before getting away a clean shot. Her teammate’s final ball had been too late, and also too slow on a pitch which had copped 40mm of rain throughout the day. McKenna forced another save from Arnold – this time one on one – in first-half stoppage-time after a cheap Matildas turnover gifted Jamaica their best chance yet, before Deneisha Blackwood went down after a corner and required her own concussion check.
The second half brought personnel changes and then more goals. Chidiac, who has an impact every time she is on the field, was teed up by Gorry and then evaded two Jamaican defenders before smashing the her shot into the roof of the net. It was Foord, then, who added to her never-ending highlight reel, playing a one-two with Kerr before unleashing a rasping drive which arced away from the despairing Spencer and in off the inside of the post. It was the Arsenal forward’s seventh goal in her past seven international appearances.
