‘We need to believe’: Matildas embrace underdogs tag for last shot at home glory in Women’s Asian Cup | OneFootball

The end is nigh, and Ellie Carpenter – even though she is not 26 for another month – knows it.

The Matildas fullback revealed the significance of the Women’s Asian Cup final in a brutally frank pre-match press conference that underscored time is running out for most of the team led by captain Sam Kerr.

“When can I say – even I – will have another final in Australia in a major tournament?” she says. “Never, probably, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us and most of the girls’ careers.”

The Matildas haven’t lifted the trophy since 2010, and lost to Saturday’s opponents Japan 1-0 in two of the past three Asian Cup finals. Kerr is 32, the same age as Steph Catley. Alanna Kennedy is 31, as are Hayley Raso and Caitlin Foord. Even the oldest veterans were yet to join the set up when Australia last hosted the Women’s Asian Cup in 2006.

They were teased by the prospect of winning silverware in front of home fans in 2023, after the Matildas came close at the World Cup, and Carpenter knows that – after Saturday – the chance won’t come again. “I said [to] the team before the semi-final [against China] that this will be probably the last semi-final we’ll play on home soil in a major tournament.”

Words don’t win football matches, however, and as impassioned and well-timed as her rallying cry may have been, Carpenter’s message was not completely effective. China overcame conceding an early goal and challenged the home side with physical, desperate play. The Matildas’ first half performance “wasn’t good enough”, Carpenter says.

Yet the Australians rallied in the second half to win 2-1. The fullback is wary the Matildas cannot fluff their lines again when the whistle blows against superior opposition in the decider. “The first 15 minutes of the game, for me, is going to be the most important to set the tone,” she says. “We need to believe.”

Coach Joe Montemurro, who took on the Matildas job just nine months ago, echoes his fullback’s assessment. “If we can manage that pressure and those emotions, I think we’ll set a good time for ourselves in the first 15 minutes and then we go from there.”

The last time the Matildas – ranked No 15 in the world – met the world’s No 6 side, Japan won 4-0, in February last year. That performance was described as “un-Australian” by interim coach Tom Sermanni, amid a period of underwhelming form that dropped the Matildas to their lowest world ranking in 20 years.

The Japanese camp is deeply familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the Australians. Coach Nils Nielsen was previously technical director at Manchester City, and knows Alanna Kennedy and Mary Fowler well. Katoomba-born Leah Blayney, one of his assistants, knows them better. The former Matilda joined Nielsen’s staff at the start of last year, having run the Future Matildas program, managed the under-20s, and acted as an assistant for Sermanni.

Nielsen described her as a “fantastic person” and a “great” coach, one of several Australians he has worked with in football. “They always bring enthusiasm for what they do, no matter which role they have, and of course the knowledge about the game,” Nielsen says.

“I’m not talking about the knowledge about Australians, because I find that a bit odd to discuss. Yeah, of course, she coached some of the Australian players. So what? It’s a different plan, it’s a different game, it’s a different tournament, so that doesn’t matter, but she’s fantastic.”

In a similar vein, Montemurro admits he hasn’t watched that 4-0 defeat from 13 months ago, instead focusing on Japan’s more recent games. He argues his own side has made significant progress during his time in charge. “We’re better prepared because we’ve found a level of adaptability, we’ve found a level of understanding that when things aren’t going the way we planned we can change and we can find a way,” he says. “That’s a sign of a team that believes, a team that is obviously growing in their own belief with themselves.”

It would have been easy for Montemurro’s team to embrace the tag of underdogs given the impressive form of Japan, who won their semi-final 4-1 over South Korea, the team with which the Matildas drew 3-3 during the group stage. Yet Montemurro says the final had no favourite.

Instead, the theme in the Matildas camp in recent months has been a patient building of belief. “Obviously, we’ve had some struggles, that draw against [South] Korea felt like a loss for us,” Carpenter says, adding the elimination matches against North Korea and China in Perth have steeled the side, rather than the alternate path in Sydney which would meant a likely semi-final against Japan.

“Obviously we didn’t go down the route we wanted to originally, but in the end it’s come to be the better route for us, I think we needed that,” she says. “I think we needed to see that fight again within the team.”

Unless Kerr and co are embarrassed by Japan on Saturday in a match in Sydney expected to draw in excess of 70,000 fans, the tournament has at least helped repair the Matildas’ reputation after two unsettling years. Carpenter is accurate, and this is their last shot at glory in front of home fans. But Saturday also has them looking up for the first time since the 2023 World Cup, wondering again how high they might climb, and what future will be theirs.

Montemurro is realistic about the task, praising Japan’s ability to find tactical “solutions”. But he maintains the Matildas are not without “some ideas” of their own. “As much as a great team they are,” the coach says, eyes wide with his customary half smile. “They do have a couple of weaknesses.”

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