The second matchday at AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 saw four matches being played – Japan vs Myanmar and South Korea vs Vietnam from Group C and Australia vs Indonesia and Philippines vs Thailand from Group B. By the end of the day, all the teams participating in the tournament had played a match each and ended Round 1 of fixtures.
The first match of the day was played between Japan and Myanmar and the two-time defending champions won the match 5-0. Yui Hasegawa scored a brace and Riko Ueki, Hikaru Naomoto and Yui Narumiya scored a goal each.
Then Australia took the stage against Indonesia and dazzled. The gulf of class between the two nations was evident as captain Sam Kerr scored five goals, Emily van-Egmond scored a hat-trick, Ellie Carpenter and Hayley Raso scored a brace each and Caitlin Foord, Mary Fowler, Tameka Yallop, Kyah Simon and Aivi scored a goal each.
Then world No.64 Philippines pulled off a major upset against world No.38 Thailand. They beat the Thai 1-0 with Chandler Blue Macdaniel scoring the winner in the 81st minute.
The last game of the day saw South Korea beat Vietnam 3-0 with Chelsea star Ji So-yun scoring a brace and Tran Thi Phoung Thao scoring an own goal.
Let us take a look at the three major talking points from the day.
SAM KERR BREAKS RECORD, YUI HASEGAWA AND JI SO-YUN SHINE
Sam Kerr became the record goalscorer in Australian football after five-star performance in Australia’s opener. Her 54 goals took her past Tim Cahill as the most profilic goalscorer in the country.
Japan’s Hasegawa and South Korean Ji So-yun stepped up for their teams as expected and controlled their respective games excellently to make their team tick.
Hasegawa was incisive, bold and handled the creative responsibilities up front. Ji, on the other hand, bossed the midfield and was at the heart of almost all of South Korea’s moves.
PHILIPPINES SURPRISE ALL
Coming into the match, Philippines were the lower-ranked team but put up a brilliant performance to catch out Thailand and give the Asian Cup its first upset.
Right from the start of the match, Philippines had the strategy of using the spaces behind the Thai defenders and get to the end of attempted through ball to create chances. From the disallowed goal to the crossbar hit, Philippines time and again hung on with the last line of defence and timed the runs very well against Thailand defenders, whose defensive body positioning did not look right.
However, the goal for Philippines actually came from a goalkeeper error. Macdaniel just took a shot on target from outside the box and Waraporn Boonsing spilt the ball to gift the goal and the win to Philippines.
AUSTRALIA STRIKE 18 TIMES
It was an exhibition to say the least. Australian players ran circles around Indonesia, who did not know what to do and looked like the lightning had struck them.
From the word go, Australia’s intensity was top notch and Indonesia struggled to keep pace with them and intercept. Such was Australia’s dominance that they scored a goal every five minutes.
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