![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC03171-819x1024.webp.webp\")
Joe Montemurro. Photo: Charlotte Neal \/ The Women\u2019s Game<\/p>\nEver since Joe Montemurro has been Matildas boss he has spoken about his philosophy, the style of play he wants to embed in the Australian national side, and the sense of control he likes to instil in his team.<\/p>\n
He also likes to win.<\/p>\n
In the Women\u2019s Asian Cup quarter finals, the Australian national team boss showed a flexibility to his approach that meant the Matildas prevailed by adapting to the circumstances in front of them \u2013 even if it was contradictory to the style that is \u201cin my DNA\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be frank and honest here,\u201d he said after the Matildas edged North Korea 2-1 in Perth to make the Women\u2019s Asian Cup semis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning football games like that, it usually happens in tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning to his captain, Sam Kerr, in the press conference, he referenced one of his key wins in European football with Juventus, against her Chelsea side, that has made him one of the most credentialed manager in world football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done it a few times like that in Champions League. I think there was a game against Chelsea, we got a draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a draw. They had 450 million shots and we had one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that they were a great side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the best team in the tournament. They really are. They\u2019re great side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have their reasons for the way they play and it\u2019s very difficult and it\u2019s very unpredictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we just had to be methodical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we won the game, I think, were the little bits in between as we were losing the ball or as we were winning the ball to keep our shape and keep our organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t create much. We had to resist a lot. But again, it\u2019s the way you beat these teams. You have to manage the game in a certain way and fortunate enough for us we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a resilient performance, but will that be enough to go all the way?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn tournaments, you have to just take the game for what it is,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we knew that they would have a lot of the ball. We knew that they, in areas they could hurt us and then the next game will be different.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I want to play a possession based game? Do I want to keep the ball? Do I want to have opportunities? It\u2019s who I am. It\u2019s my DNA. But part of my remit is to win football matches. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, and sometimes you have to have that flexibility and the players know that it\u2019s part of adapting to the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we want to be better with the ball? Obviously, yeah. There\u2019s no doubt about that. But in tournament football, unfortunately, you\u2019ve got to sometimes play the scenario and find a way and allow the world class players like Sam and the others to do what they need to do. And they took the moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this level, it\u2019s all about moments. It\u2019s all about taking those moments. That\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next match could pit Montemurro against a close friend and former Matildas boss Ante Milicic, if China beat Chinese Taipei in their quarter final.<\/p>\n
Joe Montemurro. Photo: Charlotte Neal \/ The Women\u2019s Game<\/p>\n
\u201cAnte and his coaching staff, Ivan (Jokic), we\u2019re very good friends and we\u2019re looking forward to hopefully meeting each other in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see. They\u2019ve got a tricky game too. It\u2019s not an easy game against Chinese Taipei.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsian football, yeah, it\u2019s my first taste and it\u2019s definitely interesting because it\u2019s very stop start. There isn\u2019t continuity of European football where teams retain the ball and keep the ball and control the tempo.
\u201cThe tempo is very high, but it\u2019s very sporadic. So you have to be very, very careful to not switch off in those dead moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have any time to relax \u2013 which is something we had to adapt to. You saw it tonight. North Korea were relentless. They kept going at that same pace for 90 minutes. don\u2019t know how they do it, but they do it. We had to manage even the dead times with a bit of caution. It was interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since Joe Montemurro has been Matildas boss he has spoken about his philosophy, the style of play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,28526,44965,85],"class_list":["post-538570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-joe-montemurro","tag-sam-kerr","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}