Almost three years after successfully hosting a World Cup, the spotlight will be back on Australia, this time for Asia. Beginning Sunday and for the next 20 days, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup will be played in Perth, Sydney and Gold Coast. Twelve teams, 27 matches to decide the Asian champions and who will stay in the fray for the 2027 World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
A last and a first
It could be the last chance for Australia’s golden generation led by Sam Kerr to win something at home. “We really don’t have another World Cup in us,” Katrina Gorry had said after Australia’s 1-3 defeat to England in the semi-final of the 2023 World Cup.
And it could be the first chance for India to show that, having got to the high table on merit, they belong at this level. Anju Tamang’s injury is a big blow and Manisha Kalyan reached Perth on Thursday after her new club in Peru released her only after the international break began. That meant Kalyan missed most of the training in Turkiye and Australia where India arrived first on February 11. But the squad has a good blend of youth and experience. Seven players who were part of the 2022 edition where India were scratched following an outbreak of Covid-19 are in Australia as are six debutants.
“India made history and qualified. It is the kind of thing that can change soccer,” Amelia Valverde, the new head coach, told Hindustan Times last month. Read interview here. Taken together with India making the under-17 and the under-20 Asian women’s finals in 2026, this could indeed mark a significant shift for a country that was once taken off the rankings grid for not playing enough.
Valverde, a Costa Rican with experience of taking her country to the World Cup and among the three women coaches in this competition along with Iran’s Marziyeh Jafari and Katarina Kalbyte of Uzbekistan, also spoke of having “the ingredients for a perfect recipe.”
We can gauge the accuracy of that statement on March 4 when India open against Vietnam who made the quarter-finals in 2022 and then the World Cup. Vietnam have been part of every finals since 1999.
Japan, two-time champions and semi-finalists in 15 of 17 times they have participated in the competition that began as the Asian Cup Ladies Football Tournament in 1975, are up next. Ranked eighth in the world, the former world champions have 16 players based in England. Skipper Yui Hasegawa is with Manchester City where Nils Nielsen, the first foreigner to be named head coach of the national team, has worked and Hinata Miyazawa plays for Manchester United.
Nielsen has said his team are fun to watch but because they are not physically dominating, they can be beaten “if you have the right set-up.”
Our time has come: Basfore
Ranked 67th – only Iran and Bangladesh are lower in FIFA’s list – India will play Chinese Taipei on March 10. If they reach the quarter-finals, they will contend for Brazil and LA.
“From the start of the Asian Cup qualifiers last year, the whole team have had one thought, which is to qualify for the World Cup,” said Sangita Basfore, whose brace against Thailand got India to Australia. “Our time has come, and our first match is on March 4, so all our focus is on that. If we win that, our confidence will grow…Everyone in the team is clear about taking it game by game.” Read full story here.
The top six (semi-finalists and winners of the matches between losing quarter-finalists) qualify for the 2027 World Cup. Teams that lose the play-offs will be in the inter-continental play-offs later this year. The quarter-finalists will also be in contention for berths from Asia to the 2028 Olympics.
The first match is between Australia and Philippines which the former won 4-0 in 2022. Australia were knocked out by South Korea who have qualified for every edition since 1991 but are yet to win this. Including Casey Phair, their first multi-racial player in a World Cup, South Korea’s squad has eight overseas players. In 2022, South Korea lost in the final to China. The nine-time winners and defending champions have appointed former Australia coach Ante Milicic this time.
The last time Australia won it, in 2010, was also the last time North Korea were among the Asian elite. But the three-time champions are the reigning under-17 and under-20 world and Asian champions which shows that the sport is on a strong foundation. The presence of Iran and Bangladesh in the Asian Cup is proof of women’s football surviving tremendous political and social turbulence. That of North Korea is how sustained investment in women’s football can help a country come out of isolation, if only for a few days.
