Aug 12, 2023
Have lost my voice my hearing and my mind sitting in the stadium watching the Matildas scrape through the most nerve-wracking penalty shoot out of all time. I feel like I've aged about 50 years
seen from South Korea
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seen from Brazil
seen from China
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Have lost my voice my hearing and my mind sitting in the stadium watching the Matildas scrape through the most nerve-wracking penalty shoot out of all time. I feel like I've aged about 50 years
Play Through Them! #15: Matildas Vs Philippines AFC Asian Cup 2026 Matchday 1
You can read this with video embedded here
The Matildas have started their Asian cup campaign with a 1-0 win against a defensively impressive Philippines side. The Philippines were in damage limitation mode from the start, looking to avoid a scoreline like the 8-0 loss from Olympic qualifying back in ’23. The Philippines were happy to stay in their own half from the kick off and employed time wasting tactics in the first half, despite being down a goal. Their aim was clearly to protect their goal difference, which will likely be what decides which of the third placed teams progress from the group stage. Irritatingly sofascore don’t have proper stats up for the game, but the fact that the Matildas had 85% of the possession, along with Paramount’s claim around 73 minutes that the Matildas had 521 passes, but the Filipinas just 93, shows how defensive the Philippines were.
Commentary during the game focused on some of the loose passing from the Matildas, which I agree was an issue at times, but the Philippines were very well set up, and read the play well, making it very difficult for us to create good opportunities. Here are a couple of moments from the first half where they showed this.
The first clip is a simple moment, but one where we can easily see the Philippines defensive awareness. After the Philippines waste a free kick by giving the ball straight to Lincoln in goals, she quickly throws wide to Gorry and a quick counterattack could be on. Except that there are two Filipinas there blocking a progressive run or forward pass. Not to worry, both Van Egmond and Carpenter are running to position to receive a square pass, where they’ll be able to play towards our two Matildas making straight runs (you can see them approaching the centre circle at the pause). Seeing this happening Long (#5 for the Philippines) is chasing back, and get’s just close enough to the passing lane to Van Egmond that Gorry decides not to risk the pass. The opportunity to counter is now over and the Philippines can settle into their defensive shape. This kind of defensive awareness is what made the game so tough for the Matildas.
video 1 here
One move we went for quite a lot in the first half was to create a cut back cross from the left. The Matildas didn’t score from it in this game, though I would expect that we will get a couple from such moves in this tournament. I think this instance is interesting as it again shows how well the Filipinas were reading the game, and how hard that made it to break them down. Our focus here will be Sawicki, #6 for the Philippines. At the pause we can see Sawicki tracking Van Egmond’s run. Van Egmond’s run here is great, she’s coming from deep and arriving late, if she did get on the end of the cut back from Foord she be receiving it centrally, somewhere between the spot and the edge of the area. A great place for a shot. Sawicki is tuned into this danger. Watch the little leftward shuffle she makes to get herself between Foord and Van Egmond to make the interception. Part of why this works for the Philippines is definitely numbers, but also Sawicki’s defensive awareness made it so hard for us to break them down.
Now watch the video through again and enjoy Foord absolutely skinning her defender.
video 2 here
That’s more time than we usually spend on the opposition, but I think it’s helpful to see that we didn’t beat the Philippines by eight goals this time because they defended well.
A highlight of the second half was Gorry’s ability to find space around the penalty box when the opposition is defending with every player. I’ve chosen a moment when she got a shot away to focus on, but I’ve also clipped together a few other moments from the second half to close us out. Don’t take this as downplaying anyone else’s contributions to these moves (e.g. in the example below Fowler’s movement is just as important as Gorry’s), I just found Gorry repeatedly impressive here.
Right from the start in this clip we see Gorry’s desire to get between the Philippines’ midfield and defensive lines. When Guillou (#21) backs off we see Gorry drop into the space she left, getting her into their midfield line. From the next pause, with Guillou and the rest of the Filipinas focused on the movement of the ball to our left, Gorry begins to identify space behind Guillou, but ahead of their defenders. We’ll see her point to that space, but Hunt plays a less risky pass moving us back out to the left. As we come out to Foord we can see that Fowler has taken up that space behind Guillou, enabling Gorry to just drop off the midfield line, so the Philippines’ midfields don’t drop deep too soon. As we roll on, Fowler’s in a great position for the cut back cross, but can’t quite get on the end of it. Gorry has held position around the D. This sets her up for the next phase. At the pause I’ve rough indicated where she will move.
As Hunt picks up the clearance, Gorry moves back towards her, helping draw the Filipinas out. Fowler has moved central now, meaning it’s Gorry’s turn to attack the space that we identified before behind the Philippines’ midfield. There’s some confusion from the Filipinas as to who should pick up Gorry, but this has been forced by the variety of movement from both Gorry and Fowler, and we get a half decent shot away.
video 3 here
That’s enough from me, here’s a few other moments of good midfield movement and interchanges around the box that involved this quality of movement from Gorry.
video 4 here
It’s been a good start to the tournament for our Matildas. Onward to Thursday and Iran.
A highlight of the second half was Gorry’s ability to find space around the penalty box when the opposition is defending with every player. I’ve chosen a moment when she got a shot away to focus on, but I’ve also clipped together a few other moments from the second half to close us out. Don’t take this as downplaying anyone else’s contributions to these moves (e.g. in the example below Fowler’s movement is just as important as Gorry’s), I just found Gorry repeatedly impressive here.
Right from the start in this clip we see Gorry’s desire to get between the Philippines’ midfield and defensive lines. When Guillou (#21) backs off we see Gorry drop into the space she left, getting her into their midfield line. From the next pause, with Guillou and the rest of the Filipinas focused on the movement of the ball to our left, Gorry begins to identify space behind Guillou, but ahead of their defenders. We’ll see her point to that space, but Hunt plays a less risky pass moving us back out to the left. As we come out to Foord we can see that Fowler has taken up that space behind Guillou, enabling Gorry to just drop off the midfield line, so the Philippines’ midfields don’t drop deep too soon. As we roll on, Fowler’s in a great position for the cut back cross, but can’t quite get on the end of it. Gorry has held position around the D. This sets her up for the next phase. At the pause I’ve rough indicated where she will move.
As Hunt picks up the clearance, Gorry moves back towards her, helping draw the Filipinas out. Fowler has moved central now, meaning it’s Gorry’s turn to attack the space that we identified before behind the Philippines’ midfield. There’s some confusion from the Filipinas as to who should pick up Gorry, but this has been forced by the variety of movement from both Gorry and Fowler, and we get a half decent shot away.
The first clip is a simple moment, but one where we can easily see the Philippines defensive awareness. After the Philippines waste a free kick by giving the ball straight to Lincoln in goals, she quickly throws wide to Gorry and a quick counterattack could be on. Except that there are two Filipinas there blocking a progressive run or forward pass. Not to worry, both Van Egmond and Carpenter are running to position to receive a square pass, where they’ll be able to play towards our two Matildas making straight runs (you can see them approaching the centre circle at the pause). Seeing this happening Long (#5 for the Philippines) is chasing back, and get’s just close enough to the passing lane to Van Egmond that Gorry decides not to risk the pass. The opportunity to counter is now over and the Philippines can settle into their defensive shape. This kind of defensive awareness is what made the game so tough for the Matildas.
Play Through Them! #11 Matildas at home to NZ 28/11/25
You can read this with video embedded here
The Matildas have comfortably annihilated New Zealand in a friendly at Gosford. It’s great to be back to winning ways, but there’s only so much we can learn from a game like that, with New Zealand being especially error prone in buildup. All credit to our Tillies though, who largely took the chances well, and who forced a lot of the errors that lead to goals.
There are a few moments which I found interesting, and I’d like to start with one that others might think is boring, but I want the clip to show the midfielders I work with. Even Harper talked quite a few times on the commentary about the Matildas line breaking qualities, and there are lots of examples we could use. I like this one from the 29th minute from Gorry. Start by watching her scanning, just keeping it simple, count how many times she turns her head to see the players around her. This is how she develops a good sense of the space she’s in.
After the pause she’s going to move in a V roughly where I’ve indicated with the yellow and green line. The first run, the yellow line, is to a good position to receive, but the NZ forward does ok to track this and keep herself between Gorry and the ball. Gorry sees this and makes a second run, back along the green line, this isn’t tracked and Gorry is in space to receive. I know NZ haven’t done well here, but I think this is a helpful demonstration of how useful a second movement is for a midfielder looking to receive and get into progression.
video 1 here
The negative I want to talk about is the missed penalty. Look 20% of penalties are missed, and there wasn’t much at stake here, but good penalty execution can make the difference in tournaments, so it’s helpful to see what went wrong here. The big issue for the penalty was the height at which it reaches the keeper. Between shoulders and knees is most comfortable for making saves. At the first pause I’ve put a box, don’t worry too much about the ends because reachable space doesn’t have nice right angles like that, really we just want to focus on the horizontal lines. The circle is where the save is made. Which is around hip height (also indicated by the green line in the second pause), which is ideal for a keeper. Even just along the ground at that distance from the keeper is making her work harder. Looking at Catley’s body shape on the first pause it looks like she’s aiming top left corner, in which case she’s just mishit the ball and it’s come low and soft. That said; looking at her foot when she makes contact, the side foot around the outside of the ball would make more sense if she were trying to hit it away and curl it back in at the post so maybe she’s just not got the width she was looking for. Not a big deal here, but if it comes down to penalties against Japan at the Asian Cup, we really want to avoid hitting the ball hip height near the keeper.
video 2 here
There were lots of good moments that we could close on. Such as the high block forcing errors and leading to goals, or Carpenter’s bonkers runs. I’ve chosen this moment from Foord, it was one of several where she was absolutely dominant against her direct opponents. This is off a second ball, which the NZ defender Taylor has (accidentally) flicked back towards the middle. Watch how Foord swivels on her right foot to get her body between the ball at Taylor. Textbook ball protection, and a good decision, I think some might have been tempted to try and force the ball forward there rather than protect it. She’s of course then able to get facing forward and play a dangerous straight pass.
I don’t often find these sorts of moments the most informative about the game, but in this game in moments like these we could see the gap in ability between the Matildas and NZ. Foord physically dominates Taylor here, I know she slips as well, but she’s never matching Foord for strength. Tactically as well, Anton doesn’t back up Taylor when she slips meaning Foord is comfortable on the turn and has room to move forward. There were a few moments like this for Foord where the gap in athleticism meant she was able to do things that would be much harder against a better opposition. I think it’s noteworthy that she didn’t have as many moments like this against England in the last window.
Video 3 here
Overall, a fun night, though I think the quality of the opposition means we should be cautious in drawing any lessons from the game. Here’s hoping for some more dominance on Tuesday, I’m pumped I finally have Matildas tickets after missing out on the last match here in Adelaide.
Cheers all.
Play Through Them! #7
Matildas Away vs England 28/10/25
You can read this with video embedded here
It was a tough ol’ morning for the Tillies away to England. I think Kennedy made a bad decision to grab at the England number nine after losing control of the ball, which led to a red card. Given the circumstances, and it only being a friendly, I suspect a lot of fans will want to draw a line under the game and move on. That’s probably best attitude for the players to take, from a fan’s point of view though there are still a few moments from the game that we can use to see what it will take for us to get to the level of England. In all honesty I thought England were marvellous in the first half, and for a few moments frankly dazzling, and a good model for where we want to be.
Here is a moment from after the red card that shows where we can do well in the counter and are potentially dangerous against teams the quality of England. Gorry makes a great interception for us, plays the quick pass to Foord, and we transition into attack. When I first noted this moment down my intent was to praise England’s transition to defence. I still think they did well, if you start the video from 35:45 you’d had difficulty telling that this had come from a quick counter at all, a lot of this is due to how England got back into position. I’ll talk about where we had an opportunity to prevent this below, but note as well from the second pause how well England keep two defenders between Kerr and the ball, this really slows down the play by preventing the forward pass, and helps give the rest of the team time to get back.
Onto where we could have prevented this. If we look at the moment of the first pause in the video, we see that Kerr has split the defence and is well ahead of one of their centre backs. Had Foord played a through ball at this moment we could have been on for a classic Kerr goal. As it turns out the decision wasn’t made quickly enough this time, but the potential for counter attacking goals is still there. Given how things went, I think the Matildas did well to keep possession and then probe England’s, now organised, defence and create a chance.
video 1 here
One place where England were better throughout the game was in passing and control of the ball. Very early on we could see how much better than Wales they are in how they played through our press. Here is one example. Watch the England number 7 here, who is able to find space between two of our players, and plays a nice first time pass out wide.
video 2 here
Compare this to the Matildas trying a similar move later in the game. Now the context of the game is different at this point, it looks to me like our Tillies are feeling pretty downhearted so it’s where errors will creep in. It’s slightly more difficult pass in that there are more opposition players close to the target player. However, it’s slightly easier than the above, because there is less pressure on the player making the pass. Hopefully this mistake was driven by the context of the game, but I did count three times before the red card that a bad touch or pass caused us to lose possession.
video 3 here
To close I think this example of England playing through us down the right is informative. Again, this is before the red card. One thing to note is how crisp England’s passing and control is, but that’s because it’s fun to watch. What’s more interesting I think is how England find space behind Carpenter here. This happened a few times in the first half, that England where able to get possession of the ball behind both our right and left backs and create crossing opportunities.
At the first pause here you can see that there is space behind Carpenter where the England attack can run whilst staying on side, and the large gap from Carpenter to the wide player. Now the space behind Carpenter isn’t used yet, but England’s wide player will soon receive the ball. Run through to the next pause and we see and similar layout, only now our defensive mid isn’t tracking the England player who will get behind Carpenter as tightly, and England have rotated a different player out wide. Play on again and this time England use the space behind Carpenter. They don’t get a cross this time, but it is a dangerous move.
video 4 here
I’d be interested to hear people’s opinions on how to counter this. One issue is that Carpenter doesn’t close the England number 3 hard enough, and so the forward pass is too easy. She looks maybe a bit hesitant here, possibly stuck between protecting the space behind here and closing down ahead of her and so not able to do either. I can see why our defensive mid (sorry I can’t tell who she is) has paused her tracking to protect that space, I’ve highlighted the England player who is looking to probe that area. On the first pause it looks to me like England have a 4v3 advantage in that wide area where they’re going to progress, so I’m wondering if the best option is for one of the centre backs to come over to support Carpenter, given that our centre backs are 2v1 against their striker. If not that the only other option that jumps out to me is our defensive mid going with the player who gets behind Carpenter sooner and risking leaving some room for England to probe – but in that case England are at least being invited into space that’s ahead of the defenders, not behind. What do others think?
Tuesday night football. Go @matildas #newcastlensw #gomatildas #holidayvibes (at McDonald Jones Stadium) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW5KNPTPGYu/?utm_medium=tumblr
Sam Kerr ROCKETS one into the back of the net as the Matildas down China 3-0!! Outstanding😳😲 ... Repost: @thematildas #Matildas #GoMatildas #AUSvCHN