Korea Republic has blown the AFC Women’s Asian Cup open with a stunning X-X victory over Australia to seal top spot in Group A, consigning the hosts to a more treacherous route to the Final if they are to lift the silverware on home soil.
Played in front of a record crowd of 60,279, breaking the tournament record for the second time in a week, Korea once again proved to be Australia’s kryptonite after eliminating the Matildas at the quarter-final stage of the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
It was the 2022 runners-up who opened the scoring inside the opening 15 minutes through Mun Eun-ju, who finished first time from Jeon Yu-gyeong cross into the box.
Matildas’ coach Joe Montemurro cut an angry figure on the sidelines as the Koreans narrowly missed doubling their lead as Shin Sang-woo’s side grew in confidence, controlling the opening stanza before Australia clawed their way back into the game.
Alanna Kennedy bundled the ball home on 35 minutes to restore parity, before Sam Kerr put Australia ahead heading into half-time with a neat first time finish.
But if Australia thought they had seen off the Korean challenge they were sorely mistaken. A handball from Courtney Nevin, awarded after VAR review, gifted Korea an equaliser only minutes into the second half, before Kang Chae-rim sucked the life out of Stadium Australia with a stunning effort that knocked Australia to the canvas.
With Australia needing to win to leapfrog Korea at the top of the group, it was a deficit from which they could not recover.
A second for Kennedy deep into stoppage time gave Australia some brief hope, but it wasn’t to be and they’ll now have to get past both China and DPR Korea if they are to reach the final, with both the quarter-final, and semi-final, should they make it, scheduled for Perth rather than Sydney.
In the night’s other fixture, the Philippines are still alive – but for how long remains to be seen – after a 2-0 win over a resilient Iran side on the Gold Coast.
Sara Eggesvik opened the scoring midway through the first half after Iran had threatened to score their first ever goal at the Women’s Asian Cup.
Chandler McDaniel secured all three points just under ten minutes from time with a goal that could prove crucial for their chances of securing progression to the knockout stages.
As it stands they occupy a position as one of the best third-ranked teams, and now must wait on the outcome of matches involving Vietnam (vs. Japan) and Uzbekistan (vs. Bangladesh) over the next two days to learn their fate.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Shin Sang-woo has Korea flying: Despite a win over Germany in the final game, it’s safe to say Korea Republic’s performances at the Women’s World Cup in 2023 underwhelmed after their heroics in making the Women’s Asian Cup final a year earlier.
But a change of coach since has rejuvenated this side, and their performance against Australia was the just reward for what has so far been an impressive tournament. Conceding three might not suggest as much, but they were defensively resilient, and more importantly, posing a serious threat going forward.
With the confidence from this victory, who knows how far they can go.
Will history repeat?: Rewind to 2015, when Australia hosted the men’s Asian Cup, and the parallels are eerily similar. A failure to defeat Korea Republic in the final group stage fixture sent Australia onto the ‘wrong’ side of the draw, and on a collision course with Japan in the semi-final.
While that never eventuated, they were forced to play the semi-final ‘off-broadway’ in Newcastle, much like the Matildas will need to do likewise in Perth. On that occasion Australia came through to win the tournament on home soil. Can the Matildas repeat the trick?
WHAT THEY SAID
Sam Kerr – Australia captain: “We all know we needed to win tonight, so it felt like a loss. I think there was a few chances today we probably should’ve put away, and would like to put away, but I think three goals is nice to score, but three goals to concede is really disappointing,
Joe Montemurro – Australia coach: “We need to manage games better, we were very patchy tonight and when you play against a quality team, and they can retain the ball, you’re not going to get the result you want.
“We were just careless in certain things, we didn’t get our distances right, probably the ball speed was a bit too slow at times. It’s a pity because (in) the first half especially we sort of adjusted it tactically and it worked, and the second half the whole idea was to manage the game and we got ourselves caught.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Both Australia and Korea Republic now need to wait on the outcoming of fixtures over the coming days before their quarter-final match ups are confirmed.
Australia know they will play either DPR Korea or China, whichever finishes second in Group B, with that match to be played in Perth, while Korea Republic will remain in Sydney to play one of the best third-ranked teams.
