It felt rather appropriate, all things considered, that Tom Sermanni marked his 150th in charge of theMatildasby making Kahli Johnson the 237th player to represent Australia. Because while the 2010 Asian Cup may have provided the 70-year-old with his crowning achievement, his is a more than three-decade legacy built upon the stories and achievements of those who he has given an opportunity.
So many of the pathways that are found in the women’s game in Australia wouldn’t exist without his guidance, and of the current golden generation alone, the likes of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley and Katrina Gorry were all given intentional debuts under his charge.
It became even more fitting when Johnson headed home the 38th-minute goal that kickstarted the Matildas to a 2-0 win over Argentina at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Friday evening, a game lacking in much of the way of fireworks but in which the hosts never looked in danger of falling.
Kaitlyn Torpey put the result beyond doubt in the 69th minute, the winger’s second international goal blessed by the footballing gods when her shanked attempt to send in a cross from the right floated right over the head of Abigaíl Chaves and inside the far post.
But it’s Johnson who people will be talking about after tonight. The 21-year-old took a leap into the unknown during the middle of the A-League Women season, moving from Western United to newly launched Canadian competition the Northern Super League and has kicked on with three goals in six games for the Calgary Wild. Now, having scored a goal every other game in Canada, she’s become a senior international, with a goal under her belt, and the latest in a long line of players whose stories include Sermanni.
The ball to find Johnson was delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Charli Grant, who galloped down the flank before sending in a perfectly weighted cross for her teammate – who replays showed may have strayed just into an offside position – to send across the face of Chaves. Though not all that much older than Johnson, the defender is something of a grizzled young veteran in the current setup given she is still only 23 years old but she is now in her fourth year in the national setup, with 34 appearances in green and gold under her belt.
Probably helped by not needing to do much defending – Argentina would fail to register a shot on target until the 80th minute – the Spurs flanker was one of the Matildas best on the evening. So, too, was Johnson, who flashed intent early on when she won the ball on the left and whipped in crosses in the sixth and seventh minutes and who put a shot just wide in the 49th in search of a brace.
Given the chance to start as the nine once more, clearly being positioned by Sermanni as the heir-apparent for Kerr, Holly McNamara showed off her determined, angry worth as well: sending a volleyed attempt from a Grant cross wide in the first half and fizzing an effort outside the post in the 61st. Clare Wheeler got in on the act, too, firing off a 72nd minute attempt that Chaves did incredibly well to get down and keep out.
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Indeed, with the likes of Kerr, Gorry, Ellie Carpenter and Hayley Raso all absent from this squad and the Arsenal trio of Catley, Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross staying on the bench after their late arrival into camp after winning the Champions League, Friday was an evening for the unheralded and rising members of the squad. It almost had to be, given that Football Australia has indicated a new coach will be coming in next month, rendering these games as something of an audition. But it was also a celebration of an underappreciated legend in Sermanni, delivered in fitting fashion.