Kerr returns as two beautiful goals propel magic Matildas into quarter-finals

One day in the future, when Australian football finally sets up a museum to honour its remarkable stories and house its most precious artefacts, there will be a small theatre room in which that pass is played on a loop, for eternity.

Mary Fowler has shown flashes of brilliance in her five-year Matildas career, but none more brilliant than this. The ball that helped put Australia into the World Cup quarter-finals. The play that took a nation’s breath away.

Caitlin Foord celebrates after scoring the first Australian goal.Credit: Edwina Pickles

It was almost half an hour until the 75,784 fans at Stadium Australia on Monday night saw the team construct a meaningful attack against Denmark. It was both worth the wait, and over before they knew it.

Fowler collected possession in the middle of the Matildas’ defensive half, shrugged off one opponent, jinked onto her left foot, and spotted Caitlin Foord’s hurtling run down the left. Then she unleashed her with a simply perfect pass, weighted with almost surgical precision, putting the Arsenal star into open space.

Foord still had plenty to do, but she did it incredibly well, maintaining her rapid speed while keeping control of the ball, winding up and sliding her angled shot between the legs of Danish goalkeeper Lene Christensen. The roar that followed was perhaps one of the loudest ever at this famous venue, where the beautiful game in Australia wrote yet another gripping chapter.

Fowler, remember, is only 20 years old. Long ago she was anointed as the next Sam Kerr, a label which has never seemed to bother her. To do that, in a game of this magnitude, is extraordinary – and she wasn’t done yet. Foord, by the way, was just as good – a constant thorn in Denmark’s backside, menacing the right edge of their defence with not just her speed, but her smarts and strength.

They’ll need another room in the museum for Australia’s second goal, which came in the 71st minute and sealed this precious 2-0 triumph. It started on the left with Kyra Cooney-Cross. She found an unmarked Fowler on the edge of the box. The crowd beckoned her to shoot, and she twisted this way and that to find the room, but eventually surprised everyone by chipping the ball into the mixer.

It sat perfectly for Emily van Egmond, who was metres from the net, but she was facing away from goal. Back heel? No, just a simple pass for Hayley Raso, who smacked it in from point-blank range. The joint erupted once more.

Oh, yeah – Sam Kerr got on the field, too. Each time she was shown warming up on the big screen, the stewards manning the gates outside would have been forgiven for thinking Australia had scored again. When she replaced Raso with 11 minutes to go, the crowd went berserk.

The expectation was Kerr would only be used if needed. That she came on anyway suggests it was not an unnecessary risk, and more an opportunity to get some work into her legs ahead of Saturday night’s quarter-final at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, against either France or Morocco, who meet on Tuesday. That her involvement could also be relegated to secondary status says it all about the remarkable progression of this team during this tournament.

Importantly, Kerr came through her pre-planned deployment unscathed; her left calf looked perfectly fine when she flashed a late shot over the target, and she harried the Danes when she had to. The flow-on effect her sheer presence had on Denmark’s defence was immediately apparent.

The Matildas faced a different sort of test here. Though they like to play as the underdogs, drawing on their “Never Say Die” mantra, they were favoured to win this round of 16 clash against Denmark, who they beat last year in a breakthrough moment for Tony Gustavsson’s side. It sparked their belief. Now it’s spreading like wildfire.

This was just the second time they have won a World Cup knockout match from seven attempts, and their first since 2015. If they do it three more times, they will be world champions.

While Fowler’s pass, Foord’s finish and the collective genius of the second goal were things of great beauty, this victory was also marked by grit. For long periods, particularly in the first half, Australia soaked up immense pressure from the Danes, who were organised, disciplined and regularly able to find their star player and captain Penille Harder in empty pockets. They finished with more attempts on goal than Australia, but did not have the quality to finish them, and by the dying minutes, it was clear their hope had been completely extinguished.

Gustavsson rolled out the same starting XI that demolished Canada 4-0 in Melbourne last week, but this time they were under the kosh immediately. Denmark probably should have taken the lead inside the first 10 minutes when Rikke Marie Madsen slid into the six-yard box and only just miscued her shot from Janni Thomson’s ball from the right.

Another scary moment came in the 17th minute, as Fowler turned over possession in midfield and the Danes countered through Harder, who drove through the centre of the field but steered her effort straight into Mackenzie Arnold’s arms.

Foord’s goal settled everyone’s nerves. Raso’s soothed them further. Kerr’s substitution topped it all off on a perfect night for the Matildas. One for the history books. Or the museum.

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