Australia 3-1 Chinese Taipei
By Emma Burke at AAMI Park for Impetus 5/12/24
Above: Bryleeh Henry celebrates her first goal for Australia. Photo: Football Australia
A trio of debutant goals lead the Matildas to a 3-1 victory over Chinese Taipei at AAMI Park in Melbourne last night.
Defender Tash Prior and forward Sharn Freier scored their first international goals for the Matildas just two minutes apart from each other.
Prior’s goal came delivered to her on a silver platter of a cross from Chloe Logarzo, while Freier found the back of the net with her head after Emily Gielnik’s first time strike came to her off the crossbar.
The joy was short lived for the Matildas as they were forced into an early change with Chloe Logarzo leaving the pitch in tears after a nasty head collision with Chan Pi-Han. Logarzo’s start today was her first in three years after battling through injuries and falling out of preference.
Minutes after the change, Chinese Taipei scored their first goal against Australia since 2007. Chen Jin-Wen made an incredible effort to beat both Charli Grant and Clare Hunt, before slotting the ball into the back of the net past Mackenzie Arnold who was far off her line.
Chinese Taipei’s head coach, Chan Hiu Ming said “I told her before, you owe me a goal, I told her when she scores she has to come celebrate with me.”
The second half of the game saw the Matildas create opportunity after opportunity, with none of them coming to fruition.
It wasn’t until a string of substitutions were made that the Matildas were able to find their third and final goal of the evening.
Bryleeh Henry, in her third appearance for the Matildas, scored a header at the far post, despite nearly losing her footing after having raced down the right side of the pitch to give Tameka Yallop an option in the box.
Following the game, Sermanni spoke to the media saying “[we] made life difficult when we gave away the goal.”
He also noted that the squad had “had one training session with a significantly different group of players,” before the game.
The Matildas will now head to Geelong for a rematch against Chinese Taipei on Saturday at 7:30pm at GMHBA stadium, where they will have one more training session under their belts before their final game of the year.
Australia (3-5-2): Arnold, Logarzo, Van Egmond, Yallop, Gielnik, Grant, Freier, Hunt, Galic, Heyman, Prior Substitutes: Chidiac, Siemsen, Henry, Heatly, Davidson, Nash
Scorers: Prior 11’, Freier 12’, Henry 78’
Chinese Taipei (4-5-1): Wang Yu-Ting, Su Sin-Yun, Hsu Yi-Yun, Pu Hsin-Hui, Chan Pi-Han, Wu Kai-Ching, Chen Jin-Wen, Su Yu-Hsuan, Chen Ying-Hui, Lin Hsin-Hui, Huang Ke-Sin Substitutes: Tseng Yun-Ya, He Jia-Shiuan, Li Yi-Wen, Teng Pei-Lin, Yu Wen-Chieh, Lin Ya-Hsuan, Ting Chia-Ying
Scorers: Chen Jin-Wen 34’
Referee: Haruna Kanematsu
Attendance: 26,795
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