Matildas make room for bigger questions over future after Asian Cup escape | Joey Lynch | OneFootball

In the aftermath of the Matildas’ lightning-in-a-bottle 2023 Women’s World Cup, Football Australia adopted a new tagline, one to capture and retain the newly enraptured believers: ‘Til It’s Done. It was meant to convey momentum, to signify that 2023 didn’t represent the final destination, but just one step on a larger story. And while 2024’s calamitous Paris Olympics campaign meant that the footballing mortality of the group has increasingly hung over them like a growing black cloud, and their failure to top the group in their home Women’s Asian Cup rang more alarm bells, Friday evening’s 2-1 win over North Korea in the quarter-finals of the latter tournament ensured that, somehow, by the skin of their teeth and the mercy of the footballing gods, this group of Matildas aren’t done yet. Even if the balance of play suggests they should be.

Simply put, the North Koreans dominated at Perth Oval. On another night, their 62% possession with 23 shots to four (10 on target to two) would see them score a flood of goals and move on instead. On a different evening, their suffocating press and complete and utter control of the midfield born from neat passing and technical nous would force Mackenzie Arnold and the Matildas’ warrior-like defence to crack under the sheer weight of possession and territory. On an alternative eve, Alanna Kennedy and Sam Kerr wouldn’t smuggle howitzers in their left boots, allowing Yu Son-Gum to deny them and keep the game even. But as it turns out, this day was, instead, the one time in 50 that the Matildas won this game.

And perhaps that’s all that matters; stop complaining, you miserable loser, it’s tournament football, grit is a skill and winning is the only thing that matters. And there’s truth to that. With their victory, Joe Montemurro’s side not only secured their progression through to the final four of the Asian Cup but also guaranteed their place at the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. Rather than look ahead to a play-in game on the Gold Coast or, failing that, a series of inter-confederation playoffs at the end of this year and early next, thoughts can entirely focus on continental glory. After the ignominy of ‘Performance Mode’ going bust and being bundled out in the quarter-finals of the 2022 iteration of the tournament, some level of redemption has been achieved, too.

Further, the increasingly suffocating pressure that had started creeping in after they threw away a 2-1 lead against South Korea and logged a 3-3 draw will now ease. Because winning, no matter how ugly, does cure all ills to an extent. This triumph was delivered without the services of Steph Catley and Hayley Raso; both should ostensibly come into contention for next Tuesday’s semi-final after missing with concussions, strengthening the squad. Whoever awaits them in that fixture – either China or Taiwan – will be an opponent the Matildas have defeated in recent years, and, with their second-placed finish in Group A having shifted to the opposite side of the draw to Japan, they will be comfortable favourites to advance to the final. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Smash-and-Grab.

But there’s a space for nuance, too, especially if it’s in good faith and not the reflexive “the Matildas are overhyped and never good” garbage that, as a successful women’s team, they’ve been forced to deal with. And the questions over this group’s medium-to-long-term future, of when the short-term pain of generational change needs to be confronted for the long-term benefits it can bring, do hover after Friday. If anything, they’ve become even more stark.

This was the third time at this tournament that the Australians fielded an XI with an average age over 29, and, despite being significantly more experienced on the international stage and playing at home, they were second best. With a place in 2027 now secured, where is the improvement going to come in the year ahead? Is it going to come from a group in which the majority of starters are over 30? Or is a tipping point soon to be reached in which players that, perhaps while still adjudged to be more likely to deliver an Asian Cup in 2026, make way for those that need an investment of minutes and continuity so they can be better at next year’s World Cup, the Los Angeles Olympics the year after, and beyond.

A backs-to-the-wall rearguard action to move into the semi-finals, meanwhile, will only add to the legend of the Matildas – and tenacity and resolve are incredibly important skills. However, it again raises the question, one that’s been around for a while, of whether this mental steel has become a crutch, one used to bail them out of games that shouldn’t have reached that point in the first place.

Nonetheless, beyond being the ultimate point of this entire endeavour, winning also provides breathing room, merciful oxygen, for these conversations to take place; the temperance that is inevitably abandoned to stoke controversy and clicks has been salvaged for at least a few days yet. And yes, more importantly, the chance to triumph in a home Asian Cup, the chance to, 2010 winner Kerr aside, finally give a group of players who have had a transformative effect on Australian sport a shot at a trophy, remains in play.

Header image: [Photograph: Gary Day/AP]