Australia vs. Denmark
Australia’s Waltzing Matildas are through to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinals for the fourth time in the history of their nation’s program. The co-hosts of the current competition rather easily shook off Denmark 2-0 in a Round-of-16 encounter Monday night in Sydney. The dream of a first-ever World Championship thus remains alive for the country that has never progressed beyond the quarters in this tournament before.
Goals from Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso carried Tony Gustavsson’s side past the point at which their WWC ended four years ago. In a monumentally important development, the Aussies welcomed back their talisman and captain Samantha Kerr for her first minutes of the tournament. The star forward – after sitting out the first three fixtures with injury – logged ten minutes near the end of the match.
Tactical Analysis: Australia
This evening’s affair served as one of those perfect examples of how football fixtures aren’t won on the tactics board at all. Gustavsson’s schematic not only wasn’t ideal, but very nearly back-fired. Gustavsson’s counterpart (covered in greater detail below) unquestionably possessed the better opening hand. The confident improvisational play of the co-hosts, spurred on by their raucous crowd of nearly 75,000 supporters, made all the difference tonight.
The Australian gaffer maintained the exact same personnel as in the previous round, yet shifted the formation from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-2-1-3. The attacking trident of Caitlin Foord, Mary Fowler, and Hayley Raso often kepor strict horizontal positioning. It had a clunky feel to it and led to several early offside whistles. Moreover, the Danes (again, covered in greater detail below) sliced through the cavernous midfield gaps in the early-going. One felt genuinely concerned for the Aussies.
Lineup—Australia—Match Four (4-2-1-3)
Early determination from Raso, Katrina Gorry, and Ellie Carpenter on the right didn’t translate to much in the opening phase. Denmark looked the more likely team to score. The Aussies generated no real chances of their own in the first half-hour. Only a miscue from Danish keeper Lene Christensen saw them get a whiff at goal. As tends to happen in football, however, one moment of clever inspiration can change everything. Fowler’s gorgeous long switch out to Foord in the 29th set the Arsenal attacker through.
Foord naturally deserves credit for her superb touches and astonishingly focused finish through Christensen’s legs. One can perhaps more aptly describe the sequence as one that featured multiple bits of footballing magic. Foord proved unstoppable from the 29th onward. The 28-year-old wreaked havoc again on the left in the 34th, 38th, and 40th. Denmark never regained the momentum. The Europeans beat back the Aussie game for around 13 minutes after the restart. That was truly it.
After that brief spell attrition, Foord kept declassing everyone until she was finally taken off at 90+5. The instances in which Foord ran circles around her markers in the second half are simply too numerous to list. The 2-0 in 71st also owed everything to improvisation. One can even endorse it as the best “team goal” of the tournament thus far. Fowler began by taking some patience and intelligent touches just outside the 18. Emily van Egmond then took three of her own sharp touches deep inside the box before setting up the perfectly positioned Raso. Wonderful stuff.
Sam Kerr’s introduction ten minutes from normal time surely left many curious as to what Australia’s tactics might look like with their superstar on the pitch. The writer honestly did his utmost to divine some sort of plan on the overhead feed. Regrettably, nothing really crystallized. Gustavsson merely subbed his talisman in to get herself warm in whatever fashion she chose. No sense in objecting to that. Let one of the best female footballers ever to grace the pitch do as she will.
Top Performers, Australia
1) Caitlin Foord
We’re all witnessing something truly remarkable here. For all intents and purposes, Foord currently pushes the boundaries of what one can reasonably expect from both an elite athlete and a human being in general. Seriously. How on earth can someone with 360 uninterrupted minutes of tournament football underneath their legs still plow through everyone with such boundless energy? Foord now has a goal to complement her three assists in this competition. She exudes unbridled confidence and skill every time she touches the ball. It’s insane. If only there was some logical explanation as to why Jill Roord and Caitlin Foord are jostling to become masters of this competition. Some sort of “oo” spell has been cast.
2) Mary Fowler
The 20-year-old deserves the credit for both Aussie goals. Anyone wondering how someone so young can operate with the poise and class of a veteran should know that she actually is a veteran by the standards of this nation’s footballing program. Fowler – like many others including Kerr – was earning regular senior team caps at the age of 15. This tournament has even felt strange to female football football enthusiasts as – for whatever reason – the Matilda’s don’t feature some ridiculously young teenage phenom for the first time. In any event, Fowler was incredible again tonight. How does one fit Kerr back into this XI?
3) Katrina Gorry
The best performer of the second group-stage match turned in yet another gem. The 30-year-old midfield diamond just keeps on delivering. Another great night of constant banging ball wins in her direct duels and incredible switches off her booming boot. Nearly two thirds of the wide plays out to Foord came from Gorry. Amazing how she can perfectly telegraph those cross field balls to her colleague. Virtually all aspects of her game demonstrate impeccable form. She can tackle, dribble, and cross as well as anyone else in this competition. Kudos for again performing well in what is now her third different midfield assignment.
4) Ellie Carpenter
The writer mostly wishes to ensure that she gets a mention. Despite remaining a solid force at the right-back position, the 23-year-old – another one of the former phenoms to debut at 15 – hasn’t featured in any of the three Australian pieces written thus far by the author. She’s been stellar, if not particularly spectacular. Carpenter did show some signs of waking up in this match. Five long carries out of the back, 81 recorded touches, and some really sleek unlock-passes. Some of the Foord services also went through her. Here we have a player that steadily improves from match to match and clearly craves some more recognition.
Tactical Analysis: Denmark
To understand the state of Lars Søndergaard’s tournament tactics, one must first backtrack a tad. The Danish trainer’s match-plan in the first two group stage fixtures revolved around first using Pernille Harder as a straight nine, then moving the star attacker back to the ten-slot as part of a late-match re-format that also reorganized the defensive corps into a back-three. In the final group-stage match against Haiti, Søndergaard dispensed with “Plan A” and went straight to “Plan B”.
Lineup—Denmark—Match Three (4-2-3-1)
The two personnel changes from the Round Two defeat to England (Nicoline Sørensen and Amalie Vansgaard for Josephine Hasbo and Stine Ballisager) leant the attack a much more aggressive feel, The Danes established control of the match early. A 2-0 final scoreline didn’t fairly reflect how dominant De rod-hvide were. Two disallowed goals and some fine saves from Haitian keeper Kerly Theus masked how this team (to the surprise of many tournament watchers) really began to gel.
Søndergaard made just one personnel change ahead of his showdown with the co-hosts. Ballisager returned to the XI while Sørensen made way. Another 4-2-3-1 proved easy enough to forecast. One nevertheless wondered how an extra defender on for an attacker would affect the constellation. Once the shape settled on the overhead, one noticed that Janni Thomsen moved up to the wing. That wasn’t the only interesting thing going on tactically, however. The formation displayed plenty of nuance.
Lineup—Denmark—Match Four (4-2-3-1)
Perhaps Søndergaard learned a little something from England head-coach Sarina Wiegmann’s early tournament tactics when he crossed paths with her. A clear midfield split-stagger aimed to quicken-up both approach and counter play. It actually worked rather well during most of the opening 45. The Danes took full advantage of the space accorded them by the Aussie formation and consistently looked dangerous. The co-hosts struggled to get a grip on Harder. The guests created four chances to the hosts none through the opening 20 minutes.
An opening goal for the Europeans seemed only a matter of time. The fact that Foord committed a frustration-fueled striker’s foul on the lone promising Australian charge during the first half-hour suggested that the Matilda’s might succumb to choppy and uneven play. When Fowler’s brilliance helped open the scoring against the run-of-play, everything changed. The Danes huddled during a subsequent hydration break to no avail. It would be them that could no longer execute what they had drawn-up.
Faced with the above-mentioned attrition in the opening quarter-of-an-hour after the restart, Søndergaard made the first substitutions in an effort to shake things up. Signe Bruun and Mille Gelj relieved Rikke Madsen and Rikke Sevecke in the 63rd. The squad showed signs of confusion before they could settle into their new shape. This observer isn’t even entirely sure if there was something specific intended, but will take a guess based on how some of the subsequent attack charges looked from above.
Lineup—Denmark—64th minute (4-1-2-3)
Committed, yet risky. It came as little surprise to watch the Maltidas actually regain dominance while the Danes tried to maneuver themselves about in something of an overly complicated fashion. Three further like-for-like substitutions down the stretch yielded very little. The second Aussie goal broke the backs of the European opponents. A great deal of the duration was played at half speed.
Top Performers, Denmark
1) Simon Boye
One of the standout performers from the last article involving Denmark earns plaudits once again. The captain of the defensive corps never stopped trying, provided some vital damage mitigation at the back, and remained very calm under pressure when passing out. Boye’s passing rate approached 90 percent, as did her duel rates on the ground and in the air. The 31-year-old ended up being quite the busy bee, accruing well over 100 touches on the night.
2) Pernille Harder
The female footballing giant, on balance, probably deserved a goal in this one. She made great use of space in open play and positioned herself well on set-pieces. Alas, none of her five efforts found the back of the net. Harder undoubtedly played her best game of the tournament and gave her best overall major tournament performance since the 2017 Euros. Still, we wait for her to take her country on another deep run in a big competition.