The Australian girl’s football team is in contention for a gold medal after narrowly beating Japan on the second day of competition at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

In an intense and fast-paced match on Thursday night Australia managed to keep Japan scoreless winning the game 1-0.

Captain of the Australian team Kyah Simon scored the only goal in the 68th minute from a bending free kick just outside the penalty box.

It came on the back of two yellow cards awarded to Simon and Takako Sugiyama from Japan. Despite countless shots at goal from both sides, superb defence and goalkeeping knocked back the chance for either team to take the lead early on.

The Japanese girls were confident ahead of the game, having spent the afternoon training in the 30-plus degree heat. A few of the players said they were excited and not nervous to play Australia, one girl enthusiastically saying “we’ll win!”.

Australian coach Michael Mulvey gave the girls full credit for the victory after a noticeable improvement from Wednesday’s performance against Korea.

“It’s great for the girls, they battled hard yesterday in their first international. They were a little bit underdone, but today, to see them improve the way that they have is really pleasing for me and I think it’s going to give them a great boost of confidence now,” he said.

Despite their early nerves, the Australian coach has confidence in his players ahead of their match against China on Saturday and Asian qualifiers in six weeks time.

“I’ve got belief in the players. They’ve got ability, what we need to come to terms with is that they’re going into a very strong field. These other teams, China, Japan and South Korea have systemic programs for juniors and youth coming through the system and they’re working daily on tactics and proving their game as a unit,” coach Mulvey said.

Korea continued their winning streak beating China 1-0 in the last match of the night. Hyunyoung Lee scored Korea’s only goal in the 38th minute, flying past four players before managing to shoot and score from just outside the penalty box.

The second half was a lot more intense with two players being sent off for foul play. Jiahui Lou from China received her second yellow card for diving, while Korean Eunji Choi was awarded a red card for a dangerous tackle just minutes from full-time.

China missed the chance to equalize in the 77th minute after a rushed penalty shot cleared the top cross bar.

Korea currently leads the table having won both of their matches. Japan and Australia are equal in second place, while China remains scoreless.

Roje Adaimy
AYOF