The Matildas’ near misses sting but their Asian Cup final suggests this great team are not done

Australia’s Mary Fowler and Caitlin Foord after the Matildas’ loss to Japan in the Women's Asian Cup final in Sydney. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Two steps to the left. That’s probably all the space Alanna Kennedy needed to poke the ball away from the edge of her own penalty area and back into the field of possibility.

But these are the gaps where football lives, in the inches that open and close like a hand, and by the time the veteran midfielder had spun in surprise, the ball was thwacking the back of the net as Maika Hamano wheeled off into the night.