Sam Kerr was missing, but Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley got the ball rolling for the Matildas
It’s always been about Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord. Still might be. But here’s how Steph Catley’s role is just as crucial.
Take this as an example. The 57th minute of the game against Canada. The night that changed the World Cup.
A raucous Melbourne crowd of foot-stomping, beanie-wearing, jersey-thumping, fist-clenching, banner-waving, full-throated, drum-beating, saxophone-playing, trumpet-blasting blokes and babes in the crowd were already going nuts because Australia led by a couple of goals and no one had ever seen the world so bright. Here’s to the girl bawling with joy and holding a sign that read “Dear Matildas. You Are My Heroes.”
The 57th minute. A defining passage of play. The one-two punch we’ve seen time and again and again and again in the Matildas’ last two stirring wins, when six electrifying goals have been scored to zero conceded, involving two absolutely world-class players who have been in cahoots so long they boast of an almost telepathic level of communication and understanding.
When the Matildas try to break the French defensive resistance in Brisbane on Saturday night, their attack will ignite when they take a leaf from The Rocky Horror Show – when they take a jump to the left.
That’s where Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord are. That’s where Catley feeds Foord like she has a platter and silver spoon. To the 57th minute against Canada. The 56th minute and 51st second, to be precise. Look it up. A thing of beauty. The ball at Catley’s feet. On the left. Deep inside Matildas’ territory. Nothing seemed on. A defender hovered like a bad smell.
Before Catley even laid into the ball, Foord, farther upfield on the left, took off for a pass that hadn’t even been delivered yet. Then it came. Expertly. A long, floating, rainbow arc of a ball, travelling business class for about 50m, swinging like a boomerang.
It couldn’t have fallen more perfectly for Foord if it had a homing device.
Foord was running wild and free. And then a step to the right. Twelve taps of the ball. Dink, dink, dink, inching forwards, goalwards, waiting for striker Mary Fowler to catch up. A poke from Foord to Fowler, who put the ball in the net, and while we marvelled at how there really is something about Mary, that goal was all down to Catley and Foord.
Nothing will be more valuable to the Matildas’ attack against France than their partnership. It stems from years of junior and senior representation for Australia and spending the last three seasons as partners in crime at Premier League club Arsenal. These are very serious footballers. They’ve got it on a string.
Catley threw a water bottle to Foord at training on Wednesday. Foord caught it. They weren’t even looking at each other. “I personally love it when she’s on the left,” Catley said after the Canada game. “We know each other so well, we don’t even have to think. Come the rest of the tournament, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but when Caitlin is on the left, I absolutely love it. We have a fun time out there.”
They unite like the Williams sisters playing doubles. Like Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy batting together since they were 12. Like Shane Warne bowling when Healy’s uncle Ian was behind the stumps. The quickest Foord since Dick Johnson’s said: “It’s natural to both of us. We play a lot of football together. It’s a bit of a comfort zone, so it’s so natural – as soon as we got out there against Canada, we were just excited to share that connection we have and make things happen.”
Why didn’t it happen in the first two games? Because Sam Kerr’s injury meant a late tweak to the starting line-up. Foord moved to Kerr’s central attacking role, playing up the guts and rarely drifting wide. She was hemmed in and didn’t have half her forecast impact. Against Nigeria, when Fowler was unavailable because of concussion, Foord was the sole striker. Again she was isolated and outnumbered. When things became desperate in the 3-2 defeat, she drifted wide and left and we caught glimpses of her combination with Catley. So did Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson.
Fowler returned against Canada. Goals and a win were imperative. Gustavsson pulled off a selection masterstroke. He kept Emily van Egmond as a forward, alongside Fowler, technically choosing Foord as a left-edge midfielder, but she had a licence to roam.
In such a pressure-packed game, she played with freedom – perhaps Janis Joplin is right and that’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
Hayley Raso’s opening goal came from the Catley-Foord combination, but in reverse. Foord had the ball, Catley ran an overlap down the left flank. Foord delivered to the sole of her boot. Catley crossed for Raso and the Matildas were a goal to the good.
Now Gustavsson is spoiled for choice for forwards. If and when Sam Kerr returns to the starting XI, Foord’s interrelation with the Matildas captain is as strong as her bond with Catley. They all played for the Australian Under-17s in the noughties. They’ve been with the Matildas together for more than a decade.
Kerr and Catley are 29. Foord’s 28. They have a deep well of international experience, a combined 342 Matildas caps.
“Obviously, with Sam out of the picture, Caitlin is versatile,” Catley says. “It’s one of her strengths. She can play 9, she can play 10, she can play probably centre-back. I don’t know, she’s everywhere.”
One thing seems clear for Gustavsson. With or without Kerr, The Rocky Horror Show has to continue between Foord and Catley. Gustavsson said with no small amount of relief after the Canada game: “We got the best out of Steph and Caitlin tonight. Caitlin and Steph have a unique relationship and understanding when they play together.
“Mind you, so do Caitlin and Sam when they play up top. Caitlin has been really good as a forward, especially when she pairs up with Sam with those combination plays. We felt we wanted to invest in the left-side combination today. Also because both Mary Fowler and Eve (Van Egmond) have been really good in, if we talk tactical terms, false nines. So we played a little bit different tonight.”
The injury to Kerr and then Fowler’s concussion meant Foord was like Tom Hanks in Cast Away in the opening two games. A bit lost. Teaming her up with Kerr will be like plonking two extravagantly gifted electric guitarists onto the same stage at the same time. Foord’s brilliance may be new to first-time Matildas supporters, of which there are few, but not to her teammates.
Before the World Cup, goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold predicted Foord was ready to break free of relative anonymity and Kerr’s shadow.
Arnold plays for West Ham in England. After facing Chelsea’s Kerr and Arsenal’s Foord this year, she said: “Seeing how far Caitlin Foord has come, I think she’s really starting to come into her own. Sam and her have grown up so much together. It was always, ‘Sam and Cait’, and it still is, to be honest. Cait’s never really stepped down from that, but obviously Sam did get the limelight for a long time. But after the season that Cait’s had, I think it’s really starting to be Sam and Cait again as the most important strikers for us.”
Arnold added: “Cait’s always been an amazing player but the impact that she can have is unreal. This is going to be a really big World Cup for her. And it’s going to help out Sam a lot as well. Take the spotlight off her.”
I think Catley has been quietly heroic at the Cup. The deference she shows to Kerr as captain has been beautiful. When the Matildas’ stand-in skipper scored her penalty against Canada, she sprinted straight to the sideline and jumped into Kerr’s arms. I’ve never seen a player celebrate a goal by seeking out one of the reserves for a hug. When Kerr was waiting to run onto the pitch in Sydney, Catley bolted over and handed the captain’s armband to its rightful owner. My favourite moment of the Cup to date.
And then at full-time after the win over Denmark, when everyone was cock-a-hoop, running around in celebration like a squad of chooks with their heads cut off, Catley, who was the actual captain that night, refused to do the team talk. Kerr wanted Catley to do it, handing back the armband, but Catley refused, insisting Kerr have the honours. On top of all this, Catley has been a rock in defence, notwithstanding rolling her ankle a couple of times.
She’s been cool as an afternoon breeze with her penalties. There’s been a maturity and dependability about the Matildas’ quiet hero. She’s held the fort down the back so the forwards can do their thing. I suspect there really is no ‘i’ in Steph Catley.
“We have to move one,” she said calmly after the loss to Nigeria. They moved on. After Kerr’s comeback provided goosebumps the size of soccer balls, Catley said: “It meant everything. Sam has been there for us in so many big moments at every World Cup she’s played at. She scores and she comes up big for us. The fact we could get to this point, let her heal, let her get to the point where she can come back and do what she does best, is absolutely incredible. She deserves it. The crowd was so excited when she came back but we were, too. We got our captain back.”
And then there’s Foord. Two o’s. O, my goodness. O, what a player. Some athletes make you shift forward in your seat, or plain jump from it, when they’re involved. Foord is one of them. She takes off and finds space and runs so free she might be barefoot and playing tip-and-chase. Something’s about to happen when she’s in full cry. Whether or not she heard it in Sydney, the masses roared at her every touch.
“The whole country is behind us and we do feel it,” she says. We do see it. It’s incredible and we just want to keep building on this momentum and keep our dream alive. We want to keep building and we want to keep coming out better. We’ve set the bar now to what the bare minimum is for our performance. We know we have to keep taking it up another level if we want to go all the way.”
“Dear Matildas, You Are My Heroes.” That sort of sign, and girl, brings pressure. You don’t want to let her down. But the Matildas have turned hometown expectation into positive energy since the night against Canada that changed their World Cup. “I think you only feel pressure when you’re not prepared,” Foord says. “We feel prepared. We feel like we’re ready for any scenario in any match. Tony has done an unbelievable job to get us ready and focused on what’s ahead. I don’t think we really feel the pressure. We’re just enjoying our own performances.”
O, she’s a bold character. O, she’s up for the fight. Foord doesn’t shy away from what the Matildas plan to do at the World Cup. Win it. “That’s why we’re here, right?” she says.
“If we keep playing like this, we can beat anyone.”
If it was always Sam and Cait when they were younger, it might be again, with a dollop of Catley’s composure and craftiness for good measure.
Before her breakout game against Denmark, Foord sat next to Gustavsson in a media conference. It ended with Gustavsson saying a couple of words he should have repeated at full-time. He gave Foord her preferred position and she repaid the favour by playing the lights out. Their media conference went like this.
Question from a European sportswriter: “This is for both of you about Tony. You have a background from Sweden. I would like to ask, have you given this team some Scandinavian values? How’s Tony as a coach? Do you think he’s special because he’s from Scandinavia? Is there something there?”
Foord (grinning): “I have to say nice things. He’s sitting right here.”
Gustavsson (laughing): “The line-up is not in yet.”
Foord: “Aw, I’m joking. The position we’re in now is exactly where we’ve wanted to be. I mean, I always heard good things about Tony before he came in. Obviously now I’m seeing it first-hand. So, yeah, I can’t say a bad thing. I wouldn’t! But I can’t say a bad thing anyway. I’m excited for what he’s brought to the team.”
Gustavsson (glancing sideways): “Thanks, Caitlin.”
