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The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
Matildas usher in new era after key interim role is filled perfectly by Tom Sermanni
One of the key themes of the past week for the Matildas has been a sense of serendipity. On Friday, Tom Sermanni's 150th fixture in charge of the national team was marked by Kahli Johnson's goal in a 2-0 win over Argentina, as the debutante became the latest in the long line of players whose international journey has started with the veteran coach. On Monday, the final game of Sermanni's tenure was played hours after Joe Montemurro was formally unveiled as the team's next full-time coach. Montemurro watched on from the stands of GIO Stadium as he begun preparations for the first games of his reign later this month. After coaching the Matildas across four separate decades, his final hitout in charge came in the same city where his coaching career began back in the 1980s. As one era ended, a player hoping to play a key role in the next demanded the attention of the incoming boss during the second game against Argentina. In her first start for 549 days, Amy Sayer grabbed a first-half brace to help steer the Matildas towards a 4-1 win in Canberra, before Emily van Egmond and hometown hero Michelle Heyman put the result beyond doubt. With Sermanni's third stint in charge of the Matildas now over, focus now turns to what comes next. As the 70-year-old himself reflected, his three stints in charge have intersected with the major eras of this team, and while he is too self-effacing to acknowledge it, that means stories of the Matildas cannot be told without him. He was there when the modern Matildas program was being established in 1993, and when Australian football made its move to Asia, before laying down a marker of what was to come with a continental crown in 2010. During his latest stint in charge, he was offered a chance to experience a team he had been so instrumental in building, after it had ascended to being something more. The 25,125 fans in Canberra – a record for a women's sporting event in the Australian capital – was testament to this. 'Back in the days when you'd essentially get family and friends to come to games, you dreamt of stuff like this' Sermanni told Paramount. 'It's just a dream come true.' It's this history that made his appointment as an interim such a key one. Not just because he deserved an opportunity to bask in the glow that exists around the side, but also because his willingness to do whatever is in the team's best interests – demonstrated across multiple decades – is indisputable. When he walked back in the door last October, he described the atmosphere that greeted him as being akin to 'turning up at a funeral' following a disastrous Paris Olympics. Combining an existing relationship with much of the squad and an unimpeachable record of service with a humble lack of ambition to make this anything permanent, he filled the temporary role perfectly. Yet, the results against the biggest nations weren't there. And the effects of an extended period of limbo as Football Australia's search for a permanent coach continued were clear to everyone during three games in February. While he did his best to bring through new talent and prepare the side for what was to come, as a caretaker there was a limit to his authority. Outside of the retired Clare Polkinghorne, much of the established squad looks set to still be in place come next year's Asian Cup, and it wasn't Sermanni's place to say otherwise. That is Montemurro's responsibility. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion But Sermanni cannot be blamed for the maladroit hunt for a full-time replacement. Back-to-back losses to Brazil and a winless SheBelieves Cup weren't part of the plan, but neither was him being in an interim role for nearly a year. He came in and did his job in getting the team back on its feet, and then the federation turned around and asked him to keep doing it. He would have been well within his rights to put decision-makers on blast, but doing what was best for the Matildas came first. Starting with Daniela Galic and ending with Isabel Gomez, nine players have made their international debuts during his brief tenure, while others such as Sayer, Holly McNamara, and Clare Wheeler have grown in prominence. Fittingly, Sermanni used one of his final appearances as coach of the Matildas to call for improvements to resourcing and staffing in the A-League Women, attempting to spur even more progress for the game, even after his exit. If some of the recent results have damaged Sermanni's standing in the eyes of a new generation of fans who have rallied around the Matildas, they shouldn't. He has played an irreplaceable role since before many of them were born. And now, with the Montemurro era looming, he can kick back.
News.com.au
4 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
Huge surprise as Matildas score by accident against Argentina
Kahli Johnson made her international debut one to remember, scoring the opening goal as the Matildas beat Argentina in Melbourne on Friday night. Australia's 21-year-old Sydneysider was their leading light during a slow-burn first half and duly broke the deadlock with a guided header after 38 minutes at Marvel Stadium. The Calgary attacker, who had been tracking for the A-League golden boot before her January switch to Canada's Northern Super League from Western United, had earmarked the maiden call-up as a learning opportunity. Instead, it was her delivering a lesson in flawless forward play. Interim head coach Tom Sermanni has described Johnson's play style as old-fashioned, and her textbook, guided header to net Charli Grant's pinpoint cross, having peeled off the opposition's defensive line, was a tried and tested route to goal. Less conventional, but worth just as much, was Australia's second 21 minutes from time. Everyone, including Argentina's second-choice goalkeeper Abigaíl Chaves, had lost interest in Kaitlyn Torpey's miscued cross, only for its unexpected trajectory to spiral into the far corner. It was obvious from Torpey's stunned expression that she did not intend for her fortuitous strike to float so perfectly into the net. 'Shock and surprise and delight for Kaitlin Torpey,' Network 10 commentator Teo Pellizzeri said. 'Almost apologetic, but the Matildas lead 2-0.' It's all right on the left Positive beginnings from two-time international Jamilla Rankin and new Matilda Johnson suggest a bright future. The latter delivered dangerously in the sixth minute for Holly McNamara, who swept over, before dispossessing Catalina Roggerone in an advanced area to cross 60 seconds later, only for there to be no teammate arriving. Johnson then displayed some tactical flexibility when picking up dangerous positions centrally, being perfectly placed to strike. Rankin, meanwhile, looked assured at left-back and was part of a solid, albeit rarely tested, rearguard action that earned goalkeeper Teagan Micah a third successive clean sheet. The shotstopper is in the shop window after two years light on consistent game time for Liverpool. UEFA Women's Champions League winners held back Although forecast, Arsenal's Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross being unused substitutes will have pained the younger portions of the 43,002-strong crowd, desperate to see their heroes. Especially as those in attendance had chosen the round ball over Collingwood-Hawthorn's AFL bout across town at the MCG. Tom Sermanni milestone His 150th game in charge of the Matildas could be his penultimate, with Melburnian Joe Montemurro hotly tipped to bid French giants Lyon farewell and take on his first national team gig. Coming next A rematch against Argentina - ranked 33rd in the world and participants at the last two Women's World Cups - takes place in Canberra on Monday night, and the group's less-established names, including Johnson, will be eager to clock more time in Tillies colours as the jostling for selection at next March's home AFC Asian Women's Cup begins to heat up. This opportunity, followed up by two more doubleheaders against Slovenia (38th) and Panama (57th) in Western Australia this winter, holds greater significance given the absence of multiple international heavyweights. Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler, Ellie Carpenter, Katrina Gorry, Hayley Raso, and Mackenzie Arnold, all unavailable for this window, boast 545 caps. Friday's starting XI totalled 438, with Emily Van Egmond and Alanna Kennedy accounting for 293 of these.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Matildas' European conquerors inspires new generation in Argentina win
Argentina's women's football team doesn't have their own Leo Messi, yet. And so a group of mostly up-and-coming Matildas defeated the 33rd-ranked Argentinians with ease in their friendly on Friday in Melbourne. In the 2-0 victory a debut goal to forward Kahli Johnson was the centrepiece of a party celebrating the bright prospects for Australian women's football. Related: Kahli Johnson header is fitting marker for Tom Sermanni in Matildas win Advertisement But departing coach Tom Sermanni has warned the music may not play forever. On top of the concerns he expressed earlier this week on the lack of progress in the A-League Women, on Friday he warned there was now an arms race in women's football and Australia risks losing touch. That a chance of ever winning a World Cup may soon diminish. 'It's actually getting harder because the big countries are investing in women's football,' he said after Friday's game, the 70-year-old once again in a reflective move as he celebrated 150 games in charge of the national team. 'If you go back eight to 10 years, Spain weren't on the radar, England were okay, but they weren't as big as they are now. What's happened is that there's far more investment in the game worldwide. And if South America comes alive, that will make it even tougher.' Argentina have won the men's World Cup three times, and are the current holders. But their women's team has for a long time been ignored and dismissed. As recently as last year, four players abandoned a camp due to poor pay and conditions. Advertisement The team's coach Germán Portanova said women's football is still only nascent in his country. 'Now it's really just beginning,' he said. 'Up until recently, in Argentina, it was practically frowned upon for girls to play soccer. So we as a society are developing, and in women's football as well.' Sermanni revealed he has had both positive and negative responses to his comments on Thursday that Australia has 'grossly underinvested' in the women's game. He added 'hopefully there'll be a positive reaction out of that'. The veteran coach appears to be talking more freely in the knowledge he will no longer be in the job after the second friendly in Canberra on Tuesday. Joe Montemurro is tipped to succeed him, leaving around eight months before the home Asian Cup campaign. 'While I've got a position where I can influence things, then it's important that I do that,' Sermanni said. 'You've got to keep at the cutting edge, you can't afford to stay still, and you can't afford to go backwards, it's as simple as that,' he said. 'And it's important that we do that with everybody on board and everybody pushing in the right direction, and that's A-League people, FFA [Football Australia] people and club people.' Advertisement Fortunately, the Matildas' loyal support provides a strong foundation. Just across town on Friday, Melbourne's two best AFL teams Collingwood and Hawthorn were playing. Common sporting logic suggests holding two major events on the same night in the same city cannibalises each crowd. But the turnout on Friday at Marvel was still 43,020, and many of the empty seats were those of AFL-loving stadium club members who declined to attend. Speak to fans, and it is clear many are free of the strictures of the past. A father, Gerry Donovan, was there with his two teenage daughters Alyssa and Zara. Thanks to Ange Postecoglou, the family supports Tottenham – in men's football at least. But in women's the daughters proudly follow Arsenal, Spurs' traditional London rival. Aged 15, Zara wore a Gunners shirt with Kyra Cooney-Cross's name on the back, and before the game said she would only be 'a little' disappointed if the midfielder didn't play, because she did have a good excuse. 'They have been celebrating all week,' she said. Posts on social media of Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, and Cooney-Cross enjoying the Champions League triumph have been hard to avoid. Few appreciated the European achievement as much as the other Matildas players, who held a surprise welcome party when the trio arrived on Wednesday night. Advertisement Against Argentina, those players – thanks to Johnson's first-half header and a fortunate cross-cum-shot from winger Kaitlyn Torpey – didn't need their European conquerors on the field. Their presence in camp was felt however, so soon after lifting one of football's greatest prizes. 'Seeing them do that, and them coming back in and being a part of the group, it definitely fills you with a lot of confidence,' Johnson said, beaming after her debut goal. 'And to know that's the calibre of player that Australia can produce is pretty cool.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Debutant Kahli Johnson shines in comfortable win for Matildas over Argentina
It felt rather appropriate, all things considered, that Tom Sermanni marked his 150th in charge of the Matildas by making Kahli Johnson the 237th player to represent Australia. Because while the 2010 Asian Cup may have provided the 70-year-old with his crowning achievement, his is a more than three-decade legacy built upon the stories and achievements of those who he has given an opportunity. So many of the pathways that are found in the women's game in Australia wouldn't exist without his guidance, and of the current golden generation alone, the likes of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley and Katrina Gorry were all given intentional debuts under his charge. It became even more fitting when Johnson headed home the 38th-minute goal that kickstarted the Matildas to a 2-0 win over Argentina at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on Friday evening, a game lacking in much of the way of fireworks but in which the hosts never looked in danger of falling. Kaitlyn Torpey put the result beyond doubt in the 69th minute, the winger's second international goal blessed by the footballing gods when her shanked attempt to send in a cross from the right floated right over the head of Abigaíl Chaves and inside the far post. But it's Johnson who people will be talking about after tonight. The 21-year-old took a leap into the unknown during the middle of the A-League Women season, moving from Western United to newly launched Canadian competition the Northern Super League and has kicked on with three goals in six games for the Calgary Wild. Now, having scored a goal every other game in Canada, she's become a senior international, with a goal under her belt, and the latest in a long line of players whose stories include Sermanni. The ball to find Johnson was delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Charli Grant, who galloped down the flank before sending in a perfectly weighted cross for her teammate – who replays showed may have strayed just into an offside position – to send across the face of Chaves. Though not all that much older than Johnson, the defender is something of a grizzled young veteran in the current setup given she is still only 23 years old but she is now in her fourth year in the national setup, with 34 appearances in green and gold under her belt. Probably helped by not needing to do much defending – Argentina would fail to register a shot on target until the 80th minute – the Spurs flanker was one of the Matildas best on the evening. So, too, was Johnson, who flashed intent early on when she won the ball on the left and whipped in crosses in the sixth and seventh minutes and who put a shot just wide in the 49th in search of a brace. Given the chance to start as the nine once more, clearly being positioned by Sermanni as the heir-apparent for Kerr, Holly McNamara showed off her determined, angry worth as well: sending a volleyed attempt from a Grant cross wide in the first half and fizzing an effort outside the post in the 61st. Clare Wheeler got in on the act, too, firing off a 72nd minute attempt that Chaves did incredibly well to get down and keep out. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Indeed, with the likes of Kerr, Gorry, Ellie Carpenter and Hayley Raso all absent from this squad and the Arsenal trio of Catley, Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross staying on the bench after their late arrival into camp after winning the Champions League, Friday was an evening for the unheralded and rising members of the squad. It almost had to be, given that Football Australia has indicated a new coach will be coming in next month, rendering these games as something of an audition. But it was also a celebration of an underappreciated legend in Sermanni, delivered in fitting fashion.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Kahli Johnson header is fitting marker for Tom Sermanni in Matildas win
At Marvel Stadium - it felt rather appropriate, all things considered, that Tom Sermanni marked his 150th in charge of the Matildas by making Kahli Johnson the 237th player to represent Australia. As while the 2010 Asian Cup may have provided the 70-year-old with his crowning achievement, his is a more than three-decade legacy built upon the stories and achievements of those who he has given an opportunity. So many of the pathways that are found in the women's game Down Under wouldn't exist without his guidance, and of the current Golden Generation alone, the likes of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, and Katrina Gorry were all given intentional debuts under his charge. So it all became even more fitting when Johnson headed home the 38th minute goal that kickstarted the Matildas to a 2-0 win over Argentina at Marvel on Friday evening, a game lacking in much of the way of fireworks but in which the hosts never looked in danger of falling. Kaitlyn Torpey put the result beyond doubt in the 69th minute, the winger's second international goal blessed by the footballing gods when her shanked attempt to send in a cross from the right floated right over the head of Abigaíl Chaves and inside the far post. Johnson, 21, took a leap into the unknown during the middle of the A-League Women season in moving from Western United, while right in the mix for the race for the Golden Boot, to newly launched Canadian competition the Northern Super League and has kicked on with three goals in six games for the Calgary Wild. She'd moved down to Melbourne from Sydney a few years prior to ease herself into living away from home and when the Wild came knocking with a transfer fee for her services, she felt ready. Now, having scored a goal every other game in Canada, she's become a senior international, with a goal under her belt to boot, and the latest in a long line of players whose stories cannot be told without Sermanni. The ball to find Johnson was delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Charli Grant, who galloped down the flank before sending in a perfectly weighted cross for her teammate — who replays showed may have strayed just into an offside position — to send across the face of Chaves. Though not all that much older than Johnson, the defender is something of a grizzled young vet in the current setup given she's still only 23-years-old but she's now in her fourth year in the national setup, with 34 appearances in green and gold under her belt. Probably helped by not needing to do much defending — Argentina would fail to register a shot on target until the 80th minute — the Spurs flanker was one of the Matildas best on the evening. So, too, was Johnson, who flashed intent early on when she won the ball on the left and whipped in crosses in the sixth and seventh minutes and who put a shot just wide in the 49th in search of a brace. Given the chance to start as the nine once more, clearly being positioned by Sermanni as the heir-apparent for Kerr, Holly McNamara showed off her determined, angry worth as well: sending a volleyed attempt from a Grant cross wide in the first half and fizzing an effort outside the post in the 61st. Clare Wheeler got in on the act, too, firing off a 72nd minute attempt that Chaves did incredibly well to get down and keep out. Indeed, with the likes of Kerr, Gorry, Ellie Carpenter, and Hayley Raso all absent from this squad and the Arsenal trio of Catley, Foord, and Kyra Cooney-Cross not risked after their late arrival into camp after winning the Champions League, Friday was an evening for the unheralded and rising members of the squad. It almost had to be, given that Football Australia has indicated a new coach will be coming in next month, rendering these games as something of an audition. But it was also a celebration of an underappreciated legend in Sermanni, delivered in fitting fashion.
