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The Amman International Stadium was the venue for the 2018 Women's Asian Cup Final. Photo: Wikipedia - User Freedom's Falcon. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

The rise of the Australia’s women’s national team has been one of the many pleasures our game has experienced in recent years.

Running the clock back eight years to the dawn of this generation of success ahead of the 2026 final in Sydney against old foes Japan once again, feels a fitting thing to do.

For context the 2018 edition was only an eight-team tournament, with Australia and Japan meeting twice throughout the tournament. There was a 1-1 draw in the group stage, before, similarly to 2026, the two best teams on the continent met in the decider.

The many stars the lit up this current edition on home soil were mainstays of the Matildas even at this time. Ellie Carpenter had already become a force for the Tillies, Sam Kerr always found the net, while the likes of Emily van Egmond and Katrina Gorry also were the very best we had to offer.

We can also say the same for Japan. A youthful Yui Hasegawa was in the squad. Eternal veteran Saki Kumagai started at centre back, whilst current 92 cap star Mina Tanaka also graced the 2018 tournament with her very best.

Continentally exactly where either side sat in the pecking order, as well as who had the higher ceiling globally at the time was completely up in the air.

The Matildas first gained mainstream press off the back of a quarter-finals finish at the 2015 World Cup in Canada. This came to a head in 2017, the year before the 2018 Asian Cup, when a series of friendly wins for the Matildas, as well as winning a USA-back “Tournament of Champions” title that same year elevated the team to a nation-wide high of 4th place in the FIFA rankings.

With this in mind, Australia seemed destined to leapfrog Japan at that Autumn’s tournament in the Arab metropolis of Amman, Jordan.

In reality things were never going to be that easy. The aforementioned 1-1 draw encapsulating that Australia had a lot of work to do, with the plan to go out early in put the Japanese under pressure.

Some 15 minutes in, this plan was looking fairly straight-forward and set to be rewarded. Some close calls early then turned into a panic moment for the Nadeshiko, Kumagai handling a Tameka Butt (now Yallop) strike within the 18 yard box.

The penalty was to be taken by Elise Kellond-Knight, and an otherwise delightful effort in the bottom right hand corner was fisted away by Japanese goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita and the follow up attempts were caught giving Japan a real sense of purpose, with the game poised for drama for it’s remaing 70+ minutes.

With chances flowing both ways, inclusive of a brilliant individual effort by Lisa De Vanna for Australia, and a Hasegawa bomb from outside the box heroically being saved by Mackenzie Arnold the game continued with both teams certain they could come out on top.

This moment arrived from a well worked move on 84 minutes. Hasegawa’s burst of speed breaking through for a two-on-one situation navigated superbly by substitute and then-German based forward Kumi Yokoyama with a stunning strike straight into the top corner for Japan.

This meant the world to the players, having been defeated by Australia at the aforementioned Tournament of Champions in the USA some months back. They were able to cement their legacy and supremacy right when Australia could have ceased and maintained a status as one of the world’s and definitely Asia’s best.

The story only really continued to become more nuanced over the years, 2019 World Cup in France can be considered a missed opportunity for both teams. The 2022 campaign in a COVID-ravaged Asian Cup in India was something quick to forget in both camps.

Lastly in 2023 both missed the promised land in heart-breaking fashion at the World Cup yet again, when really both could have taken the AFC to a long promised World Cup Final at a tournament the confederation co-hosted.

Ultimately, 2026 is different but for the fact Japan’s supremacy is back on top, though 2018 taught us quite valuable. That the tide can change in an instant.

So why not now? Why can’t this Matildas squad right wrongs, and why can’t Australia go on and get the silverware the golden generation has so desperately yearned for all these years?

During the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, The Dubcast, Round Ball Australia’s Women’s Football podcast, will have daily episodes discussing the days games and looking ahead to the next days matches. Listen on Spotify, Apple, or watch on YouTube.

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