PERTH — The Matildas are through to a first major tournament final since 2018 and Caitlin Foord summed it up best.
“It’s huge. It’s massive for us. We’ve been fighting so long to get here and I just feel like finally it’s paid off,” she said following Australia‘s 2-1 win over China in the Women’s Asian Cup semifinal.
“We deserve to be there and we deserve to be playing for a trophy because this team, we’ve been so close so many times and just fallen short, normally at this hurdle.
“So we got over it this time and we’ll give our everything to finally win a trophy together.”
It sometimes gets lost in the wash just how close the Matildas have been to returning to the final game in a tournament. There have undoubtedly been disappointing tournaments in the last 10 years for the team. But in the last six there have been so many nearlys.
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A semifinal loss at the Women’s World Cup in 2023. A semifinal loss at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. A trophy you can see while peering inside the window.
But they’re back. And it’s thanks in large part to Foord and Sam Kerr.
The Matildas’ first goal ended off Foord’s boot began all the way back in the centre circle with Katrina Gorry. She played it to Mary Fowler whose centimetre-perfect pass found Ellie Carpenter flying down the right flank.
Carpenter played it forward to Fowler who had continued her run into the box and she cut it back to an oncoming Foord who smashed it past Peng Shimeng into the roof of the net.
The goal was arguably the Matildas’ best of the Joe Montemurro era. The coach himself said “We scored two amazing goals. Obviously, the first one is very much to my liking,” with a smile.
As for the second? “The second one was a bit of a transition moment but Sam was amazing to finish it there,” he said. And Kerr was amazing.
It started with Kaitlyn Torpey‘s desperation to toe poke the ball away from the Chinese player and Kerr’s speed to retrieve it inside her own defensive half. Kerr played it out to Foord who, after a couple of strides and a point forward from her skipper, slipped the ball into her path.
Kerr beat her defender, rounded the goalkeeper, and finished from an acute angle to make it 2-1, cancelling out Zhang Linyan‘s penalty in the 26th minute.
The second goal saw Foord assist Kerr for the fifth time in the captain’s last eight Matildas goals, per Opta. They’ve always had an understanding but a variety of obstacles have meant fans haven’t been able to enjoy the duo as much as they possibly could have.
And when it comes to the Matildas, Caitlin Foord and Sam Kerr are like Kaprekar’s constant. No matter the starting point, what numbers are present, or what is subtracted, the routine always ends up at the same point. Kerr and Foord. Foord and Kerr.
It was no surprise that at the final whistle, with hands stretched in the air, they found each other first to celebrate.
The rest of the match saw the Matildas hold onto the ball more and defend well, minimising China’s chances of finding a second equaliser.
Their midfield was more functional than it’s looked all tournament. Torpey and Mackenzie Arnold were once again strong. Steph Catley returned from her concussion with no issues. Fowler and Carpenter’s right flank was a hive of activity with the duo representing both ends of the spectrum when it comes to getting past defenders: pure running capacity and an ability to dance past them.
But Montemurro still isn’t pleased with how the team is playing, outside of small sections.
“Our objective of getting to the final is complete but we know, deep down in our hearts that we need to be better,” he said.
“We need to be more continuous in terms of the way we play. But we found something again and we got through.”
He cited the “old habits” the team falls back into that he doesn’t like. He wants proactiveness and bravery with the ball.
It’s not a full blown tension yet but there is a juggle that Montemurro and the Matildas must continue for at least one more game.
The distance between the football he craves and the football this team is currently playing, that has them one game away from a trophy they so desperately want, feels like it has grown and shrunk a thousand times over the last 450 minutes.
It’s a moment like this, reading quotes like that, where you remember with sharp clarity that Montemurro has been at the helm for only 13 games. And five of them have come at this tournament.
The gap probably can’t be closed between now and the final on Saturday. But the Matildas are closer to a trophy than they’ve been in seven years. They can try to minimise it when they take on the winner of Japan vs. South Korea.
And perhaps most importantly for this group of players, they can finish the job, and win a trophy together.
