Matildas get Olympic qualifying campaign back on track

tribalfootball.com September 5, 2011, 1:05 am

Australian women beat Thailand 5-1 to get their Olympic qualifying campaign back on track in Jinan, China.

The Matildas now face a huge test against world champions Japan on Monday in the third of their five matches. Coach Tom Sermanni praised Michelle Heyman's contribution.

"Michelle has grown in confidence and skill in the last two years," said Sermanni.

"It's great for her to score a couple of real, quality striker's goals."

Sermanni said the team would need to perform better and more consistently against Japan.

"I'm pleased that we scored five goals," said Sermanni.

"Goals could be critical in this tournament. It's not easy to score goals against any Asian team these days.

"I'm also pleased that we finished the game off by halftime so we could make some changes and rest players ahead of the Japan game.

"However, our second-half performance left a lot to be desired. "Thailand put us under a lot more pressure in the second half, and we lost our rhythm."

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