Cup of Nations: Matildas give Ante Milicic a winning start

It wasn’t their best performance and they were made to work hard, but Australia did enough in the end to beat New Zealand.

Matildas captain Sam Kerr breaks away from New Zealand defender Rebekah Stott during their Cup of Nations match at Leichhardt Oval. Picture: Getty Images

It wasn’t their best performance and they were made to work hard, but Australia did enough in the end to beat New Zealand 2-0 and give new coach Ante Milicic a winning start to his reign as Matildas coach.

Goals in each half from Emily Gielnik just before half time and substitute Hayley Raso (75th minute) ensured the home side got their Cup of Nations campaign off to a good start in front of a decent midweek crowd of 6805 at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday night.

The result, however, was of little importance in the overall scheme of things with Milicic admitting he was more concerned with how the team coped given the short amount of time he has had to work with them after taking charge late last week.

The former Socceroo, who took over from the sacked Alen Stajcic and had little knowledge of women’s football, had just four days with the players.

And it showed, particularly during a disjointed first half.

While the Matildas went into the break leading 1-0, you could not say they would have been happy with the first 45 minutes as they struggled, at times, to get a grip of the game against a well organised, very disciplined New Zealand side.

They started well, but were probably trying too hard and over playing their hand. Certainly they were sloppy with their passing and their ball movement wasn’t as quick as it should have been.

Milicic seemed to be aware of it from very early in the game and was up from his seat less than a minute into the game. It became a common theme as the half went on with Milicic often waving his hands and urging his team to be quicker with getting the ball forward.

But, as hard as the Matildas tried, they found a resilient Kiwis side intent on shutting down Australia’s danger players Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord.

New Zealand’s tactics were clear as they allowed the Australians to come at them, waiting for a turnover before quickly transitioning in attack.

The Matildas did create a couple of nice chances and should have had a penalty in the 31st minute when Kerr tried her luck from the edge of the box with the ball clearly striking the arm of a defender. However, the Japanese referee waved play on.

Australia should have broken the deadlock on 39 minutes when Foord made a nice run, getting to the byline before cutting the ball back to Emily van Egmond, who had an open net beckoning from about six metres. However, she’s inexplicably skewed the golden chance wide of the right post.

With halftime looming, the crowd, sensing things were not going so well for the home side, had become very quiet.

But, the mood lifted markedly just before the break when Steph Catley made a run down the left flank and crossed a ball that eluded all but Gielnik, who powered home a left footer through a wall of players and inside the left post to give the Matildas the lead.

Australia started the second half strongly with Kerr putting a chance just wide of the post on 48m minuted. But, the Kiwis again stood strong.

And the visitors should have punished them in the 61st minute when Annalie Longo put a ball over the top for Sarah Gregorious to latch on to but her lob over the advancing goalkeeper Lydia Williams just edged wide of the left post with an open goal beckoning.

That was the call for Milicic, with one eye to the next game, to make a raft of changes with Laura Alleway, Lisa De Vanna, Amy Harrison and Teresa Polias coming into the game for Kerr, Alanna Kennedy, Elise Kellond-Knight and van Egmond.

With so many changes, it was understandable the Matildas would lose some cohesion.

Despite making hard work of it, Milicic found positives from the performance though he would not say how much improvement he expects as the tournament goes on.

“They delivered what I was after ... as for expectations, I only worked with them for a few days so it was difficult to know how they would execute my principles,” Milicic said. “They tried to do all I asked of them though I was wary of giving them too much of an overload of information.

“Still, after one performance it is already clear there is a distinct playing style.”

Milicic’s only concern was the fact he thought the side was not quick enough in moving the ball.

“We worked a lot with the ball and particularly in the mid third and we had a clear way where we wanted to go about playing through them,” he added. “At times I felt they could have done it quicker, especially when New Zealand had a back five.”

Kiwi coach Tom Sermanni could not have been happier despite the defeat.

“When you consider where both teams are in terms of preparation, it makes our effort look very good,” Sermanni, a former Matildas coach, said. “The Matildas had players coming off a W-League season, fit and ready and we had a number of players who hadn’t played since October.”

In the early game, a sublime performance from captain Joyun Ji paved the way for South Korea’s 5-0 demolition of Argentina.

The classy midfielder, who plays for Chelsea and has been capped over 100 times for her country, scored twice in a dominating performance.

Australia’s next game is against South Korea on Sunday night at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.