It was a history-making 5-0 win that produced one statement and two questions.
The statement is the best bit: the 90 minutes looked fluid and bright, included nice goals and nice build-up, and a very nice-looking scoreline.
The questions, less so: how would such a performance change against a deeper-lying, more compact defence than what New Zealand offered on Friday night?
Also, do we need to start worrying about Sam Kerr’s calf again?
Kyra Cooney-Cross gets her second goal for the Matildas.Credit: Getty Images
Kerr was no guarantee to play any minutes in this first of two friendlies against the Football Ferns, still carefully managing her load as she returns to fitness after almost two years out.
The 20,000 in the stands at Polytec Stadium would have realised they would not see the world-famous striker at all by the time she played no part in the warm-up – a fact confirmed pre-game by coach Joe Montemurro, who revealed she had experienced some calf tightness.
The left calf, of course, came before the right knee. Two and a half years ago, when Kerr was sidelined for much of Australia’s 2023 World Cup campaign, it was the most heavily watched soft-tissue injury in the country. After the tournament, she revealed a second calf injury – on her right side – was sustained during the third-place playoff against Sweden.
Montemurro stressed it was “nothing of that nature”, just a “grumbly calf” that started giving her trouble while still in England with her club Chelsea.
“It hasn’t settled properly,” he said. “She’s trained, so there’s no problems. We got some load into her today. She did really, really well today. She was a lot, lot better. We just felt, just give it a little bit more time. That’s all.
“She came from Chelsea with a bit of a, it wasn’t even a strain, it was something very, very minimal … [when you] come back from long-term injuries they sort of pop up every once in a while. But we just decided with Sam and the medical staff and the technical staff to just give her a little bit more time, get her ready for Tuesday.”
Sam Kerr on the pitch before the match in Gosford.Credit: Getty Images
That rematch in Adelaide will be the last game between now and Australia’s Asian Cup opener against the Philippines in March, which brings us back to the players who were actually on the pitch in Gosford.
Because for a penultimate pre-tournament hit-out, a surface-level analysis says things are all looking pretty positive under Montemurro despite operating on a (very) limited time frame.
There were, of course, the goals. To the lively Amy Sayer and even livelier Hayley Raso during the first half, and then Ellie Carpenter and Kyra Cooney-Cross (with a banger) in quick succession after the break, along with a stoppage-time Katrina Gorry tap-in for good measure.
That Steph Catley’s penalty was saved by Leat at the death probably marked the high point for the visiting goalkeeper, who endured an incomparable amount of pressure compared to Mackenzie Arnold down the other end.
Around the goals was a general fluidity, freedom of movement and lightness of foot that felt fresh and welcome after a dour couple of years for this team, including a group-stage exit from the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The less comfortable bit was some of the body language coming from Montemurro in the dugout, the Australian reacting semi-regularly to what were clearly sources of irritation with elements of the output.
Michelle Heyman and Ellie Carpenter celebrate after Carpenter’s goal.Credit: Getty Images
“They hurt us a bit with their wing backs very, very high,” Montemurro said. “And a couple of times we got exposed, I think twice in the first half and three times in the second half. And it was just frustrating because we worked a lot on that defensive sort of scenario.
“But all in all, look, we wanted to go out and control the game. We wanted to make sure that we dictated when we decided to go forward and rotate, to prepare opportunities to go forward. And we found some space by being patient and dominating and rotating with the ball.”
Historically, the Matildas have a habit of thriving in these dress rehearsals before major tournaments only to struggle in attack against hard-to-break-down opponents.
“I was happy that New Zealand dropped off a little bit more because we think we’re going to get a lot of teams that will create midblock,” Montemurro said.
“So we had to find the solutions and we had to find the solutions with a little bit of patience, but also finding the space at the right time … you saw tonight the dominance of when they did drop off, we were able to play through them.”