Joe Montemurro hopes focus is on football for Iran’s women at Asian Cup

Joe Montemurro said he wants the focus before his Australia women’s team’s Asian Cup match against Iran on Thursday to be on football, as the continental sporting showpiece wrestles with the escalating Middle East conflict.

The host nation defeated the Philippines 1-0 in Sunday’s tournament opener in Perth. Iran and South Korea – the other teams Group A – meet on Monday, before the Matildas play the Iranians on Thursday.

After the Matildas’ opening match, Montemurro was asked about the role of football at times such as this. The coach said it was a “great question”, but added he did not want to speak about things that are “not in my remit … politics and so on”.

Instead, he described football as “an amazing family” and the Asian Cup as an opportunity to showcase its athletes and people. “We’re supporting the [Iran] team and supporting whatever comes, but we want to make sure that the focus is on football and giving moments and special situations to people,” he said. “So we hope that we have a good game against Iran and we showcase how beautiful this game is.”

Earlier, an Asian Football Confederation official shut down a question to Iran’s coach, Marziyeh Jafari, about the events of the past day, requesting that journalists focus on the game itself.

Iran played its first Women’s Asian Cup in 2022, and became the final team to qualify for the 2026 edition by upsetting Jordan 2-1 in Amman last year.

Australia is expected to easily defeat the Lionesses on Thursday, despite a goalkeeper injury crisis that meant Chloe Lincoln, the fourth choiced, started against the Philippines.

A Women’s Asian Cup record crowd of 44,379 enjoyed the 1-0 victory even if they had expected more goals against a team the Matildas had beaten 8-0 in 2023.

“Can we do better? Yeah, absolutely, but we’re getting there,” Montemurro said. “The more we grow into the tournament, the more we control these moments, the more we’ll benefit.”

Sam Kerr scored the only goal, the captain’s first for Australia in 851 days after a long recovery from a knee injury. She said: “I just wanted to get that first goal out of the way, it kind of felt like getting the monkey off my back – my first goal for the national team again – because I hadn’t scored in a while.”

She celebrated with her teammates after the goal, rather than perform her trademark backflip, but she said the acrobatics may come again in coming weeks. “The backflip’s still on the cards, everyone keeps asking me that.”

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