The Matildas’ 6-0 win over Taiwan was the end of at least one era. In the 64th minute, Clare Polkinghorne looked up from her position at the back and saw her No 4 displayed on the fourth official’s board. This signalled her substitution for Jessika Nash and, in game 169, marked the last time she would leave the field as a member of the Matildas.
As Polkinghorne moved towards the dugout, she paused to embrace interim boss Tom Sermanni, the coach who had given her an international debut in 2006, and who was again taking charge in her final game as the side’s caretaker. “I just said, can you believe we were both here?” Sarmanni smiled post-game. “I mean, who would have thought, from 18 years ago, and then suddenly it’s back to that stage again.”
Though mirroring their efforts from Melbourne earlier in the week by racing to an early two-goal lead, the Matildas this time didn’t open the door for Taiwan to land any kind of sucker punch in response. The visitors, in fact, wouldn’t produce a shot on target all evening and found themselves staring down a 3-0 deficit before the halftime break, one that became four goals, then five, and ultimately six as the second half wore on.
This comfortable margin was the sort of result that had been expected from Australia, even an understrength one, against an unheralded foe like Taiwan – albeit for all the talk of youth, six players were aged 30 or over in Sermanni’s starting XI, meaning it wasn’t an inexperienced one.
Backing up her strong performance at AAMI Park, Tameka Yallop played a hand in all three of her side’s first-half goals. In the sixth minute, she played a pass to Emily van Egmond that saw the midfielder loop a ball into the box and onto the head of Leah Davidson, who got underneath the arriving delivery and headed in a maiden international goal.
In the 11th minute, the Brisbane Roar midfielder intercepted an attempted clearance by Taiwan keeper Wang Yu-ting before splitting defender Chen Ying-hui and Pu Hsin-hui and putting an effort into the bottom corner. Six minutes before the end of the half, she found herself in space in the left – that side of the park proving a happy hunting ground across the opening 45 minutes, mostly thanks to Yallop – and swung in a cross that was met by Emily Gielnik, who scored her first goal since the bronze medal game of the Tokyo Olympics.
“Today we were able to control the ball a lot more and find little pockets of space, looking to create a fair bit and trying to face forward,” said Yallop.
At that point, the result was beyond doubt, giving the second half the air of a procession as Sermanni increasingly emptied his bench; teenage keeper Chloe Lincoln replaced Mackenzie Arnold in the 65th minute to make her international debut, only to then touch the ball twice while not needing to make a save.
In the 56th minute, Remy Seimsen took the ball off Wu Kai-Ching, skipped past Chen Ying-Hiu and cut the ball back for Michelle Heyman to fire into the roof of the net. Then, 73 minutes in, a van Egmond free kick was met with a soaring header by Tash Prior, who made it two goals in two games – giving her more senior international goals than her one senior club goal. Speaking of two goals in two games, Sharn Freir capped off the evening by charging onto a ball in behind from Winonah Heatley and firing between Wang’s legs.
After four games across two weeks, what has been a jam-packed international window, where nearly 40 players have come and gone in Matildas camp, has come to an end.
The Matildas will next be in action when they face Japan, Colombia, and the United States at the SheBelieves Cup next February. That should be the first set of games a new coach has with the side, beginning the process of implementing their vision. Players like Heatley, Frier, and Prior will likely be challenging for minutes and greater roles at that point. A new coach and rising players looking to start eras of their own.
“If I’m sitting down and reassessing at the end of the year, and if I’m looking towards the SheBelieves Cup, there’s much more competition for those 23 spots in the squad than I think there was a few months ago,” said Sermanni.
