‘Street smart’ Brazilians frustrate Matildas

Captain Steph Catley says the Matildas only have themselves to blame for Brazil’s frustrating delaying tactics in Australia’s 3-1 loss to the South Americans in Brisbane.

Thursday night’s battle at Suncorp Stadium was supposed to be a celebration of retiring defender Clare Polkinghorne’s international career.

However, the result didn’t fit the occasion, with Brazil winning the first game of a two-match series after gaining an early ascendancy with two goals, both scored by attacker Amanda Gutierres, in the first 13 minutes.

Forward Caitlin Foord cut Brazil’s lead in half in the 43rd minute; however, the visitors restored their two-goal advantage early in the second half through substitute Giovana Queiroz.

Catley admitted the Matildas “didn’t get it right” as they become increasingly frustrated with a host of Brazilian players going to ground and receiving medical attention, which led to about 22 minutes of stoppage time being played across both halves.

However, despite believing the game “wasn’t controlled” sufficiently by Korean referee Oh Hyeon-jeong, Catley said the Matildas were at fault for putting themselves in a position to allow Brazil to delay the game on several occasions.

“It is frustrating, but that’s international football sometimes and that’s part of playing against teams like this,” the Arsenal star said.

“They’re very street smart and we let them get two goals early, and that opens the door to those kind of tactics, and that’s on us.

“If we’re in the game and we haven’t let them score, they have to score and they don’t have time to do stuff like that.

“That’s international football and it is frustrating, but you’ve got to try to keep your head as much as you can, and hope that the referees are controlling it, and giving us as much of a chance despite the tactics.”

Matildas interim coach Tom Sermanni was left to lament his side’s poor start.

“Unfortunately early in the game, we weren’t able to nullify what their threats were,” Sermanni said.

“Their pace and their aggression were a little bit better than ours early in the game and we got punished for that.”

Sermanni was also left frustrated by Brazil’s tactics, saying referee Oh allowed the visitors to “bully” her.

“I don’t think the referee necessarily determined the outcome of the game but she certainly determined how the game was played with her lack of control and allowing Brazil to basically bully her,” he said.

“It changed the dynamic of the game and made it a little bit more difficult for us, so that certainly had an impact.”

The teams meet again on the Gold Coast on Sunday night.

“There’ll be some (player) rotation,” Sermanni said.

“We will freshen up the team a bit. We will make some changes.”