In front of a packed Marvel Stadium filled with 50,629 cheering fans, a lone Mary Fowler goal was enough to take down fifth-ranked France.
From kick-off the Matildas were under the pump with France dominating possession and controlling the ball in the opposition half. However, once the Matildas got going it was the Aussies who had the better chances. Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso in particular were constantly knocking on the door looking to score the first goal of the match but their final touch was lacking.
Despite the first half ending all square, Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson and his side were feeling confident as they entered the change rooms.
“That’s exactly what we talked about at halftime. We felt it wasn’t a nil-nil half,” said Gustavsson
“We felt we created enough opportunities in the final third to be up one or two goals. But that final timed pass or run or the final touch wasn’t really there.
“Caitlin had a clear cut chance that could have been a goal, but we kept getting stuck on that final pass.”
Coming out of the sheds for the second half the Matildas again looked to soak up pressure and then abuse their pace advantage to hit the French backline on the counter-attack, but still they were lacking in their final touch.
That was until Gustavsson and his coaching staff made a big call and decided to take off the Matildas’ talismanic striker, Sam Kerr, and the ever important Caitlin Foord, opting to replace them with midfielder Emily van Egmond and Tameka Yallop. Both created the space needed for 20-year-old Mary Fowler to make a well-timed run into the box to score the eventual winner off a deftly placed cut back from Raso.
Hayley Raso spoke to journalists after the game about Fowler’s talent despite her young age.
“I mean, she’s so young. You look at her and the way she plays it’s beyond her years. The way she keeps the ball and the way she moves,” said Raso.
“She’s consistently such a great trainer and you can see that when she comes out she’s full of confidence.
“She’s a really important player for this team and like I said she finishes her chances whenever they come as you saw tonight.”
Fowler’s goal takes her national team total to 10 in only 37 games with most of those opportunities coming from off the bench. Post-game Fowler spoke about how Gustavsson always reminds her that the players that start on the bench are game-changers.
“Tony always stresses that the people on the bench are game changers, and that at the end of the day, it’s the full twenty three that go out there and perform together whether you come on or not,” said Fowler.
“So I think for us on the bench we play the match from the side. So coming in, you just want to finish the game well for the team and do your part.”
Confidence will now be sky high in the Matildas camp one week out from the start of a historic home World Cup where they will be hoping to go deep into the tournament and potentially pull off a win.
The Matildas’ first World Cup game will be against the Republic of Ireland on Thursday the 20th of July
Featured Image Credit: Football Australia
Enjoy this content? Support The Football Sack
Due in part to COVID and lack of current sponsorship we are at risk of not having the funds to continue running The Football Sack. If you enjoy our content and support our work in training talented young writers, please support us with a donation. If every reader contributed just $3, our funding would be covered for over ten years.
| DONATE |
