Key events
The A-League Women paused during the international break but has resumed play this evening, albeit with only three domestic-based players in the squad – Melbourne City’s Holly McNamara, Canberra United’s Michelle Heyman, and Brisbane Roar’s Chloe Lincoln – this won’t be as disruptive as it could have been.
There’s one game of the Dub taking place tonight, the Newcastle Jets hosting Adelaide United and seemingly set to take out all three points.
Looking at the Matildas’ XI one of the biggest early questions they’re going to need to answer is if they can keep up and go physically with the North Koreans.
Kennedy and Van Egmond aren’t exactly the most fleet-of-foot midfielders to be deploying in a game at the best of times, let alone against a side that counter presses as high and aggressively as the North Koreans do.
Add to that Ri’s side are capable of running all day – the did a jog, in formation, this morning ahead of the game – and the Matildas are in for a hell of a physical challenge.
The Geordies clearly don’t have time for the official DPR Korea naming convention that most of the official accounts are rolling with for this tournament.
16 years ago, back before the Matildas experienced their explosion in popularity, they defeated North Korea in the final of the 2010 Asian Cup – the one and only time the side has lifted the trophy.
Plenty of things have changed since then but one thing has remained the same: Sam Kerr part of the squad that day and leading the line tonight.
North Korea XI
For the first time this tournament coach Ri has made a change to his starting XI, with 16 Song Chin-sim coming in at left-back in place of Yu-Yong Hwang.
Keep an eye on Choe Il-Son on the bench – the 19-year-old a member of the side that won both the U17 and U20 World Cup for North Korea.
We know that a handful of the Iranian team has remained in Australia on temporary protection visas, albeit that has been made more complicated too, given one of that cohort has reportedly now requested to return to Iran.
The players that do stay, however, have been inundated with offers of support from across Australian football, with Brisbane Roar first to offer their support.
Offering support, however, and providing meaningful and careful comfort are not always the same thing, however. So how does Australian football do both?
Well, in 2022, Melbourne Victory partnered with Professional Footballers Australia to support the Afghan Women’s Team in Australia after they fled the Taliban, helping them to remain together in the Victorian state leagues.
Legendary A-League Women coach Jeff Hopkins guided the team that season – and one only needed to see how the players interacted with the Welshman to see the trust he built with them – so I asked him today what needs to be remembered when supporting the Iranian players.
In the first place, I think it’s giving them support as young women, rather than footballers. It’s giving them a safe, comfortable place where they can come. That was the main thing that we tried to do with the Afghan women’s team, we gave them somewhere that they could come together, where they could feel safe, feel like they could play and they could and they could practice. And kind of move things on from there. That’s the number one thing. You treat them like young women, and then maybe football is second and and kind of move on from there.
Much of the coverage of the Women’s Asian Cup across the past few days has focused not on any of the competing teams but, instead, on Iran, as their time in Australia came to an end following their elimination.
Shiva Mokri and Moones Mansoubi, two members of Hamava Collective, a volunteer group of Iranian Australian women in Sydney advocating for gender equality, women’s rights and family wellbeing, have penned this, which you should read.
You’re going to have to wait for me to figure out the best way to share North Korea’s XI. They don’t exactly have an official Instagram account for me to grab a graphic from…
Standing across from the Matildas in the red corner are North Korea, playing in their first Asian Cup since 2010 and keen to re-assert themselves as one of Asia’s most dominant sides.
As long as their international exile has been, however, to describe Ri Song-ho’s side as ‘mysterious’ is getting a bit hackneyed at this point, especially given that we’ve had three games to watch them and, for the most part, they’ve played some tidy, high-tempo, aggressively pressing stuff.
Further, the North Koreans come into this tournament as the reigning U17 Asian Cup, U17 World Cup, U20 Asian Cup, and U20 World Cup champions, so we know that not only have they not been resting on their laurels during their time away from the international spotlight, they’ve been producing some pretty handy talent.
Of course… as we saw from whatever the hell that interminable delay following China’s second goal in their 2-1 defeat on the final day of group play, a game which set up their date with the Matildas, they’re also very capable of sillybuggers.
Matildas XI
The Matildas’ XI is in and, as forecast, Torpey comes into the XI to replace the concussed Catley. Emily Van Egmond, meanwhile, starts from the off.
Mackenzie Arnold starts in goal behind a back-four of Carpenter, Clare Hunt, Wini Heatley, and Torpey. Alanna Kennedy, fresh off two goals against South Korea, starts as the holding midfielder, behind Katrina Gorry and Van Emgond, who levels Clare Polkinghorne as the most-capped Matilda in history with appearance 169.
Up top, Caitlin Foord, Sam Kerr, and Fowler lead the line.
If you haven’t heard, the Matildas have already been struck two significant injury blows ahead of tonight’s game in the form of Hayley Raso and Steph Catley, both of whom are out with concussion.
Also missing the South Korea draw with the malady, Raso was replaced in the starting XI by Mary Fowler for that clash and, in all likelihood, that will remain the case for this evening’s contest.
Catley, meanwhile, was subbed off for Courtney Nevin in that game. And while Nevin has long since established herself as a regular back-up in squads, she was responsible for giving away the penalty that saw Kim Shin-ji level proceedings from the spot, and then – perhaps gunshy after giving away the handball for the penalty – afforded Kang Chae-rim far too much space on the go-ahead goal.
The Malmö FF defender is still the most likely starter and, after having a chance to gather herself and get a few arms wrapped around her in camp, will be eager to make amends. However, we can’t discount the possibility of utility Kaitlyn Torpey being thrown onto the left side of the defence – which, combined with Ellie Carpenter on the other flank – would give Australia a very zoomy backline.
Preamble
Joey Lynch
Howdy all, and welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing, live coverage of the Women’s Asian Cup, continuing tonight with minute-by-minute updates on the Matildas quarter-final clash with North Korea.
While they may have been forced to come-from-behind to snatch a 3-3 draw with the nation that did the actual damage in their last hit out, tonight offer’s a chance at redemption for Australia’s women: this the stage in which they were bundled out of the last tournament by South Korea – breaking a run that had seen them reach at least the semi-final in every iteration of the competition since officially joining the AFC.
That unfortunate evening, of course, would have seen the Matildas fail to qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup had they not been hosting and, four years on, a spot in the next Women’s World Cup, this one taking place in Brazil next year, is on the line in addition to a place in the final four.
The loser of tonight’s game doesn’t have their hopes completely dashed, though, as they’ll move on to a playoff on the Gold Coast with another chance at qualification. And even defeat in that game won’t end their dreams – instead sending them to a series of inter-confederation playoffs at the end of this year and the start of next year.
Nonetheless, it’ll be much easier for all involved, at least those of an Australian-bent, if Joe Montemurro’s side get the job done tonight.
Line-ups soon, with kick-off in Perth set for 6pm local/9pm AEDT
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