On the eve of the latest instalment of their World Cup preparations, Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson highlighted the importance of being able to match the tempo of high quality sides such as Sunday’s Cup of Nations opponents Spain – and those that lie ahead at the showpiece tournament later this year.
Tempo, the Swede said, was the key to success and his team’s number one challenge against an in-form and richly talented, if depleted, Spanish side, who are still ranked seven in the world despite their well-documented internal strife. Initially, he got what he asked for at CommBank Stadium as his side went two up after 16 minutes and were three up by the break, before ending a breathless evening in Sydney’s west 3-2 winners.
Goals from the effervescent Cortnee Vine, veteran Clare Polkinghorne and the returning Caitlin Foord highlighted a remarkable first half played a breakneck speed that put Australia in the driving seat of this encounter. Perhaps inevitably, after the break they were unable to match the intensity of the opening 45 as Spain, who enjoyed more possession and created more chances throughout, were rewarded late on with two fine finishes that made the scoreline more far more respectable that it might otherwise have been for them.
Nevertheless, victory was the Matildas’ sixth straight, with 20 goals scored and just four conceded during that run. With just 151 days to go before the big kick off against Ireland down the road at Stadium Australia, the performance was one of their best since Gustavsson took over in late 2020, and gave the strongest indication yet that his long-term plan might just be coming together at the right time.
Still, despite a “mature” performance, the coach admitted afterwards there is still much work to be done. “The second half not for my liking,” Gustavsson said. “I also want to put some perspective on it. I don’t think the first half was a 3-0 half, I don’t think we were that much better than Spain. It was a more even half than it was, they had a couple of clear chances as well. And I don’t think the second half was as bad as the result shows.”
Vine’s opening goal alone was worthy of the entrance fee. The Sydney FC dynamo, whose direct running caused Spain problems on several occasions, struck after just 11 minutes after Hayley Raso teed her up to curl into the top corner from 25 yards out. The lead was doubled soon after when Polkinghorne – who had also scored on her record 152nd appearance earlier in the week – showed a predatory instinct utterly unbefitting her status as a centre-back, swivelling and turning home from close range five minutes later.
Sam Kerr, who took back the captain’s armband having loaned it to Polkinghorne midweek, thought she had made it 3-0 with a typical bullet header from Kyra Cooney-Cross’s ball only to be flagged for offside – the tightest of calls. But there was no debate moments later when Steph Catley landed a free-kick on head of Foord, who nodded home after being left all on her amid some lackadaisical Spanish marking.
Three-nil at half-time might have not been reflective of the ebb and flow of the game, but the hosts could have had more had Foord and Kerr not dragged nearly identical chances wide of the mark. So too could Spain have got on the scoresheet as Olga Carmona, Jennifer Hermoso and Redondo Ferrer provided moments of danger while MacKenzie Arnold, again named in the starting XI ahead of veteran Lydia Williams, was called into snippets of action.
But there was little Arnold could do to stop the left-footed volley that Carmona cracked past her on 73 minutes to pull one back for Spain, nor the stoppage time effort from Ferrer, another volley of equal brilliance. These were flashes of what this Spain side is capable of, despite having missed more than 15 players since players began their boycott of the national set-up as long as coach Jorge Vilda remains in charge.
Foord had another goal chalked off in the second half but ultimately it had no bearing on the result, which went some way to setting the record straight after the Matildas fell to a humiliating 7-0 defeat the last and only other time these two sides met, in June last year. It also means Australia are now unbeaten since losing to Canada – their upcoming World Cup opponents – in September last year. Jamaica await in the final Cup of Nations outing on Wednesday.
