The trend to which Foord referred is the Matildas’ propensity to put themselves in difficult, high-stakes positions that are entirely avoidable, and then conjure something brilliant to rescue themselves.
It happened at the 2023 home World Cup, when a near-catastrophic second-game loss to Nigeria galvanised Tony Gustavsson’s team, and they delivered a 4-0 win over reigning Olympic champions Canada, with just about every squad member promoting the benefits of “backs against the wall”.
Mary Fowler, Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord process the 3-3 draw.Credit: Getty Images
Four years before that, at the 2019 World Cup in France, when Ante Milicic’s side lost their opener to Italy and then went 2-0 down to Brazil only to come back and win 3-2 in what was dubbed the “Miracle of Montpellier”.
“We’re Australian,” Katrina Gorry said. “We’re always fighting, aren’t we? So for us, it doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter who you play in this tournament, it’s going to be a tough game. So we go to Perth, we play China or North Korea, and it’s going to be a tough game. But we like it when we have a tough game – we come out strong. Backs against the wall, but we’re ready to go.”
There’s an argument that this has been a long-embedded theme in Australia’s national teams – women’s and men’s – of all sports. That includes the Socceroos, who have a habit of qualifying for World Cups via the play-offs and then – in the case of Qatar 2022 under Graham Arnold – going on to exceed expectations and making the round of 16. Last June, Tony Popovic broke that mould by guiding the Socceroos to direct qualification for the 2026 finals.
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But Matildas coach Joe Montemurro – frustrated though he was at Australia’s inability to finish chances against South Korea– drew a comparison with the Socceroos’ long route to the 2015 men’s Asian Cup trophy at home. Under Ange Postecoglou, Australia finished second in their group after a loss to South Korea before playing them again in the final, which they won 2-1.
“You’re always going to have these ups and downs in tournaments, and it’s probably nice it’s come now,” Montemurro said. “We showed character to finish the game off and still get a result. We just have to be smarter and stick together.
“It’s that little something you need in a tournament. I remember when Australia won the men’s Asian Cup, they lost to Korea in the third game, a group game. We needed more goals, we didn’t get them, and we’re going on another route.”
