Australia 2-0 Korea Republic
by Alyce Collett (7/4/25)
Above: The Matildas celebrate their second goal in Newcastle tonight. Photo: Football Australia.
Australia has completed a series clean sweep against Korea Republic, after defeating them 2-0 tonight in Newcastle in a composed performance.
Once the Matildas took control of the game, they really asserted their dominance, and found the goals through Mary Fowler and a second successive own goal from Lim Seon-Joo.
Both sides were up and about early in the clash, with a lot of end-to-end action, and recorded some promising shots on goal. However, it was the visitors who looked the more dangerous of the sides early, with the likes of Mun Eun-Ju, Choo Hyo-Joo, and Kang Chae-Rim getting into really good positions and being able to sneak past the Matildas’ defensive line on a number of occasions.
Eventually, Australia did get settled into the match, and started to get their attacking systems firing. Fowler and Holly McNamara were starting to ask questions of Korea’s defence, but just could not find the space to inflict maximum impact.
The Korean defence was holding up really well and double teaming Matildas’ attackers at times, and just as it was starting to look like there may be no goals in the first half, Fowler was played in with a well-timed pass from Emily van Egmond to wriggle her way past Korea’s defence and slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Both sides started the second half with high energy and intensity, as the on-field play was free-flowing and end to end, much like it was in the first half.
Australia did eventually pick up a second goal, which came just after the hour mark. The goal came after the ball pinballed around in the box after a number of deflections of Caitlin Foord shots, and ultimately, a strike from Torpey was accidentally helped in by Lim Seon-Joo. Things went from bad to worse for the Korean defender, as after the goal, she was stretchered off the field.
As the game reached its final stages, the Matildas really started to put their foot down. They started to dominate possession and time in the forward half, and as a consequence, the shots started to rack up too.
In the first half, the Australia had three shots on goal, with two of them being on target, while in the second half they had 13, five of which were on target. By comparison, Korea Republic had four shots in the first half with one of them on target, and in the second half they ultimately finished with six shots for the half, but only one of them was on target.
Just as the visitors looked like they were again going to go goalless against Australia, they almost picked up a goal through Ko Yoo-Jin, but an offside call meant it did not count.
This was an extremely positive way to round off the April international window. A strong performance, particularly in the second half, and two clean sheets in a row bring confidence flooding back ahead of the next series at home to Argentina at the end of May.
Teams: AUSTRALIA (4-4-2): Micah, Nevin, Wheeler, Catley, van Egmond, Fowler, Yallop, Kennedy, McNamara, Grant, Cooney-Cross. Substitutes: Heatley, Torpey, Davidson, Heyman, Hunt, Foord, Rankin, Prior, Lincoln, James.
Scorer: Fowler 43’, Lim (OG) 63’.
SOUTH KOREA (4-2-3-1): M. Kim, S.J Lim, N Shin, S. Kim, Y. Choi, S.Y Ji, Mun, Y.J Lee, H.R Kim, H.J Choo, Kang. Substitutes: Choi, E. Lee, K. Kim, Jeong, Bae, Ko, D.J Lee, Jung, M. Kim, Y.R Choe, G.M Lee, Phair.
Referee: Asaka Koizumi (JPN).
Attendance: 28,019.
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