A stray Alanna Kennedy arm led to the only goal of the night as Olympic hosts Japan downed the Matildas 1-0 in a pre-Games friendly at Kyoto’s Sanga Stadium.
Only introduced into the match from the bench in the second half, the defender was quickly involved but for all the wrong reasons.
Kennedy found herself in the path of a Yami Hasegawa cross in the 53rd minute and failed to lower her arm before it was struck by the ball.
Mana Iwabuchi stepped up to the spot and made no mistake. The fierce strike beat keeper Lydia Williams at the right post.
It had been a disjointed start from the Matildas. Sam Kerr had some nice touches but the side largely failed to impress in a first half with few opportunities for either team.
Sam Kerr on the ball for the Matildas. (Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
Coach Tony Gustavsson made a raft of changes for the second half, bringing in Williams between the posts for Teagan Micah, while Kennedy, Aivi Luik, Chloe Logarzo, Mary Fowler and Emily Gielnik also came on.
Australia pressed harder chasing the game but nearly found themselves down 2-0 in the 64th minute, when Williams spectacularly saved a Jun Endo thunderbolt.
Kennedy came close to making amends in the 78th minute but the well-drilled tenth-ranked team did enough to keep the Matildas scoreless.
The Matildas have largely struggled under Gustavsson, who oversaw losses to Germany and Denmark as well as a scoreless draw with Sweden when in Europe earlier this year.
Australia face New Zealand on July 21 to open up their Olympics campaign in a group that also features Sweden and the US.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The men have been maxed out and football training for males has a massive amount of money spent on in Australia and the rest of the world. The problem is in Australia in particular all the money has been spent by parents with rich kids and squandered giving them priority over players with more talent. The men are not just paid a bit more they are paid one hundred times more, sponsorship is a higher percentage of income for women than men, and this has not improved the standard of the top mens players. Women on the other hand an increase in their pay would lead to massive improvement because you would have a lot more full time players and more investement in youth.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
In this case I watched the highlights, but I have seen the full Matildas games in major championships against the top teams and what your saying about Sam Kerr is only true before 2017 she was wasteful and missed opportunities. Then she achieved her full potential because she was a late starter and has been good since. If you have been watching Matildas you already should know that Foord is a bad finisher, I dont know if watching would improve maybe if she trained more. Kerrs improvement was in large part to do that she played both the NSWL and W-league season after season giving her continous training and full time Matildas training camps. Its quite clear the opportunities Kerr gets againt big opponents are non existent same as the opportunities she got in the champions league final. She is marked out of games and the rest of the teams get the chances and fail. I dont have a clue how you came to your conclusions if you watched a lot of womens football you would conclude the opposite..
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
Well I was referring to Sams performance overall against top teams not just the highlights of this game. As for Foord she apparently once said in an interview that she never watched Soccer as it was boring to watch. Maybe the likes of her stuff up is why. All that aside I can only hope Gustavsson has finished experimenting with chopping and changing positions and made up his mind.
stu
Guest
Brainstrust.....you noted the ability gap between the top men and women players. This could well add to the reason why the men are paid more than the women, plus the men seem to attract more support, sponsors etc. I understand some believe there should be parity when it comes to the pay packet.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I dont know what your watching from the extended highlights I watched Australia had one good chance created by a Kerr header and Foord failed to finish. Japan had four better chances and stuffed them . By womens standards Kerr is a top class finisher , there is a big gap between the top level men and the top level women. . She only had one slight look of goal a cross running away from goal not towards it that a miracle to put that on goal.
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
Same as the Socceroos - can get there but cant finish off - 11 shots at goal and only 1 on target. Kerr may well be a very capable player at times and positions herself intelligently but misses too many from close range. Scores openly against weaker teams but doesnt get many chances against better performers and when she does mainly miss fires. Fowler showing cause for hope.
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Cant remember the last time the Matildas got a result.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
A better performance from the girls but still too many casual passes giving away possession far too easily. They've got a much better game in them, hopefully they can find it.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
massive massive concerns for the olympics. yes these are all friendly games and teams chop and change each half. But the common denominator in all of them is the matildas cant keep a clean sheet, or score goals what is a realistic spot for them to finish in the group? they wont get points off the US, sweden are a better team and should take 3 points as well which leaves new zealand (that always plays well against australia) as maybe a chance to get a win. theres every chance they finish bottom of this group
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Is Gustavsson, the right man for the Matildas? If he was the mens team coach we would be screaming for his head.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
They looked ok after a bad first 15 or 20 minutes where they sat deep, after that it wasn't too bad. Raso looked particularly good on the right, seemed to be playing something of a wing-back role and performed well. Our best player for my mind. Cooney-Cross looked lost out there and was the main cause for our lack of midfield pressure or outlets in transition. She's very young and it was a friendly but it appears we need a more experienced head in that role. Loved watching Van Egmond, great skills and tough. She has so many expressions that I assume she'd be an awful poker player. Young Mary Fowler is a fire-cracker. She looked superb when she came on and I can see she's going to cause some real issues for opposition for years to come. Full of energy and purpose. In all the game wasn't as bad as made out in the article. We looked dangerous and forced the Japanese keeper into several saves. We left our back three somewhat exposed through the middle, so that will need rectifying, but we looked good out wide. A decent hit-out for both teams.