Hoping to reprise the World Cup vibes, Australia opens Women's Asian Cup on Sunday

BRISBANE, Australia — When the Matildas step onto the pristine surface of Perth Rectangular Stadium on Sunday evening, they will do so beneath the same golden sky that framed their fairy-tale surge through the 2023 Women’s World Cup. This time the stage is the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, and the opponent is the Philippines, but the mission is identical: turn home advantage into history.

Australia has waited 16 years to lift the Asian trophy again, and the nation that sold out 18 consecutive women’s internationals through October 2024 is banking on captain Sam Kerr—playing her fifth Asian Cup on home soil in Perth—to ignite another summer of record crowds and seismic momentum.

“We love the pressure, we love performing here in Australia,” veteran winger Hayley Raso said earlier this week. “The expectations are high and a lot of people want us to do well. We’re probably our harshest critics, and we want ourselves to do well.”

Coach Joe Montemurro has taken a calculated gamble on striker Mary Fowler, who is returning from an April ACL tear and has seen only limited minutes for Manchester City since her comeback. If Fowler can re-discover her rhythm alongside Kerr, Australia believes it can navigate a Group A that also includes South Korea—run-up in 2022—Iran and the Philippines.

The 12-nation tournament, split into three groups, features a murderer’s row of contenders. Reigning champion China, guided by former Matildas boss Ante Milicic, arrives with a squad bolstered by Wuhan Jiangda’s continental champions Wang Shuang, Wu Haiyan and Yao Wei. Japan, Asia’s top-ranked side at No. 8 and the only Asian nation to have captured a Women’s World Cup, has reached the semifinals in 15 straight editions and will rely on veteran Saki Kumagai and a Europe-based core including Ayaka Yamashita and Maika Hamano. North Korea, a three-time champion, lurks in Group B alongside China, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, while 2022 finalist South Korea landed in Australia’s group.

India, forced to withdraw from the 2022 edition after a COVID-19 outbreak, qualified by topping its group with a dramatic 2-1 win in Thailand and will play under new head coach Amelia Valverde in Group C against Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan.

The quarterfinals will be played March 12-14 in Perth and Sydney, with semifinals set for March 16-17 and the final on March 20 at Stadium Australia. Beyond the silverware, eight teams can punch tickets to the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil: the four semifinalists qualify automatically, while the four losing quarterfinalists enter a playoff round that will send two more sides to Brazil and two into FIFA’s intercontinental repechage.

For now, though, the focus is Sunday night in Perth, where Kerr and her teammates hope to uncork the same energy that carried them to a World Cup semifinal and turned the Matildas into household names.

“The new girls want to create their own history,” Milicic said of China’s mission. Across the tunnel, Australia’s old guard wants exactly the same thing—only this time, they want to finish the story on home soil.