Matildas stars Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord spent part of Wednesday night working out how to pick apart Japan. It was an informal plan, nutted out while they sat in a treatment room watching their Asian Cup final opponents dismantle South Korea 4-1 in a semi-final fixture.
“Naturally, you look at different ways that you can exploit a team,” Catley said in Sydney on Thursday. “They’re very, very good, and you think about how you can sort of alleviate that. They look a complete team at the moment … they’ve had a great tournament and seemingly cruised through most of the time.
“But I sat there with Caitlin Foord – we were both in treatment, and we were sort of just discussing ways that we thought would be best to set up and where we can take advantage of certain areas. At the end of the day, that’s up to the coaching staff, and we’ll see what game plan they come up with. Then it’s our job to execute it as best we can.”
Both Catley and her Arsenal teammate Foord know many of Japan’s players well from rival Women’s Super League clubs, and know “they’re just full of talent, they’re so intelligent”.
“A complete team” is an accurate description of the Japan outfit Australia will face in Saturday night’s sold-out final at Stadium Australia. Nils Nielsen’s side scored 17 unanswered goals in the group stage, followed by another seven in the quarter-final against the Philippines.
South Korea finally ended Japan’s tournament clean sheet in the semi-finals, though Kang Chae-rim’s effort came as little consolation. Regardless, a total tally of 28 goals is enough to put the fear of the proverbial into any nation tasked with taking them down.
Catley, however, is calm. The vice-captain is almost always calm, but the composure remains even in the face of such a frightening prospect standing between her Matildas generation and the major trophy they have never won.
The Arsenal defender acknowledged that Australia has twice lost to Japan in Asian Cup finals – in 2014 and 2018 – but can reason with those 1-0 results.
“I think you learn something different every time you play against a certain opposition, but obviously in a final, it’s a little bit different,” she said. “From memory, they’ve been 1-0 games, so I think there’s a lot to learn in that it only takes one moment to win it.
“In the past, we’ve been right in the game, and then it’s been a moment of lapse in concentration or a moment of brilliance. So we just really have to be at 100 per cent. Defensively, we have to be a unit, be completely together for 90 minutes or longer. But yeah, honestly, on the day of the final, anything can happen, and it’s about who wants it more.”
The Matildas’ last meeting with Japan was a 4-0 loss in February of last year at the SheBelieves Cup, albeit while the team was treading water under an interim coach. Under Joe Montemurro, the squad has grown into this tournament, peaking with a 2-1 semi-final win over China in Perth on Tuesday night.
And while Catley lauds Japan’s football as “beautiful to watch”, she felt confident in Australia’s capacity to jag a result on the foundations of their own identity.
“It’s definitely not mission impossible,” she said. “We’ve beaten Japan before. We have our own strengths, and I’m sure that they’ll be looking at, and they’ll be worried about. I think as well, the fact that it’s a final, anything can happen.
“I’ve played in so many finals where my team’s been the underdog, and everyone’s not given us a chance or written us off, and we’ve come out and won. We’re a great football side, and we back ourselves, and we’re absolutely ready.”
