The AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2010™ was one of the seminal moments in Australian football history.
Australian football was on the rise. In 2006, the Socceroos qualified for their first FIFA World Cup™ in 40 years and had already repeated the feat for 2010. The A-Leagues were still in their infancy but were filled to the brim with optimism and new hope.
The stage was set for the nation’s women’s football team, the Matildas. They were a talented group of youngsters – still unheralded by the public - and were ready to shock the world and win Australia’s first major silverware since joining the AFC in 2005.
It remains one of only two AFC Asian Cups that Australian teams have lifted. The win put Australian women’s football on the map at a time when very few people were invested in the women’s game.
Clare Polkinghorne. Melissa Barbieri. Elise Kellond-Knight. Tameka Yallop. Sam Kerr. These are just some of the names who took part in the tournament and helped Australia to a historic victory.
Fifteen years on, we hear the stories from those who were at the centre of the action – from qualifying for the tournament, to their semi-final victory over Japan, to 18-year-old Kyah Simon’s winning penalty kick.
The Lead-Up
The AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2010™ was held in China from 19 to 30 May 2010. It was the second AFC Women’s Asian Cup that the Matildas took part in, after falling agonisingly short in the final of the 2006 edition.
The 2006 tournament was significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time that an Australian team participated in an Asian Cup - having joined the federation in 2005 - and was hosted in Adelaide, with every game taking place at Hindmarsh Stadium.
“We had a fantastic tournament up until the final, where we got beaten on penalties by China," recalled striker Kate Gill, who played in both the 2006 and 2010 editions of the tournament.
"By all accounts - being our first foray into Asian football - we probably exceeded expectations”
Sixty-six-time Matilda Alicia Ferguson was one of the players who stepped away after 2006, returning in 2010 as a commentator for the ABC. She explained the circumstances around the squad at the time.
“There was a transition period after 2007, when we didn't qualify for the Beijing Olympics,” she said.
“We had a home and away game against DPR Korea [to qualify]. We lost both matches. So, there was definitely a turnover of some of the more experienced players.
“Tommy [Sermanni, then Head Coach], had always been really good at blending experience – the likes of Kate Gill, Heather Garriock, Sarah Walsh, Melissa Barbieri - and then bringing those youngsters through, like Teigen Allen, Kyah Simon, and Sam Kerr. In that Asian Cup, it was the perfect blend and a really good transition.”
Sermanni – who filled the role of Head Coach between 2005 and 2012 before he was appointed Interim Head Coach in 2024 - recalled the build-up to the tournament.
“North Korea came down [pre-tournament] for two games,” he explained.
“We played them at Brisbane City's ground and drew 2-2 in a friendly, and then got a contentious penalty in the second game, which caused the Koreans to walk off!
“The advantage that we had in those days was that we had access to our players - it's a bit different to today. The majority of our players were playing in Australia. There were no FIFA windows, as such. So, we had the ability to have numerous camps, often down at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) or in Coffs Harbour or the Gold Coast.
“We had the ability to bring the squad together. That really helped cement the squad from a team perspective, and gave us much better insight when it came to picking the final squad.”
The Group Stage
Goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri was captain of the team. The then 30 year-old was the oldest player in the squad and carried that leadership responsibility on her shoulders.
Australia took on Vietnam in the first game of the tournament. Barbieri recalled the emotions of that opening match.
“It was really, really nerve-wracking,” she said.
“I feel like there was a lot of pressure on that first match to really perform, and get a win under our belts to set us up for a good tournament. We spent so much time together, and it was just an excitement build-up, where the crescendo was stepping out onto the park.
“We knew that people were watching at home, and that was a huge deal for us. It was the first time we could really put Australia on the map and turn some heads.”
Australia defeated Vietnam 2-0 before turning their attention to Korea Republic, who they defeated 3-1. A 16-year-old Sam Kerr scored her first international goal in that game, and debuted a goal celebration that would become iconic.
“I had always spoken to Kyah Simon about doing a backflip if I scored, because I just knew I had it in my locker,” she laughed.
“I did the backflip and stacked it - obviously I was overexcited! You can see me smiling at the bench. I'm literally laughing at Kyah.
“I was so embarrassed, so happy and just eyeballing Kyah, because I was trying to save myself from embarrassment, and she was crying on the bench – laughing, falling over.
“That moment is still so funny to me, and still one of my favourite goals. Even though I had no idea about how it had gone in, where it had gone off – I didn't really care, to be honest. You can't replicate that first goal feeling.”
The two victories meant that the third game against hosts, China PR, was a dead rubber. Sermanni rested several players as the squad prepared for the all-important semi-final. However, there was one player who was essential to the team that played in the second half – Lisa de Vanna.
De Vanna was a player at the peak of her powers. The then 25-year-old was playing in the United States for the Washington Freedom and was three years removed from being named in the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ All-Star Team in 2007.
Known for her tenacity and strong will, De Vanna was motivated to be at her best for her country and her teammates, but a last-minute decision ended in a huge blow for the Matildas.
“My ideal scenario for that game was to rest her for the semi-final,” Sermanni recalled.
“But we had several discussions, and she said, ‘look - I need to play in this game if you want me to be ready for the semi-finals.’”
“When someone like Lisa says that, you've really got to listen. So, we came to a compromise. I said: ‘Okay, we'll put you on in the last 10 or 15 minutes,’ which we did. Unfortunately, she clashed against the Chinese goalkeeper and broke her ankle.”
The 1-0 defeat against China PR in the dead rubber was secondary to concerns that the players had about their teammate’s welfare, and the loss of a key player to the squad.
“It was really daunting when De Vanna went down. She was really injured,” Barbieri said.
“It was the worst injury that we'd had as a group. We could see the damage, and we were thrown by that. It really took a lot for us to come together.
“It was a credit to Kate Gill that she stood up and said: ‘Don't worry. I will get you to the World Cup, and I will score, and I will do whatever I can to get us to this World Cup.’ What's funny is that she actually did.”
The Semi-Final
Tameka Yallop was an 18-year-old who was making her first steps in international football.
She remembers the team being fully aware of the challenge they were up against – but knowing that if they could get the job done against Japan, they would not only advance to the final, but also qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011™.
“For us, this was like - let's go out and prove a point here. Let's beat Japan,” she recounted.
Taking on Japan was never going to be easy. The game plan was simple – absorb pressure and hit them on the break.
It worked. Despite having what seemed like “10% possession,” as some players joked, a goal to Kate Gill led to a 1-0 victory and a jubilant Australian team.
“I remember being on the bench and seeing the back and forth that was happening in the box,” Yallop recalled.
“Then Kate Gill finished that goal, and we just kind of erupted.”
Gill was one of the few players to be based overseas at that time, playing for LdB FC Malmö in the Damallsvenskan. When she retired in 2015, her 41 goals for the national team were the most in Matildas’ history.
In 2010, though, she was a 25-year-old in the prime of her career, ready to help the team make history.
“We had a free kick, which was close to the halfway line. Servet [Uzunlar] was the player who lobbed the ball in,” she recounted.
“I was standing maybe just a little bit outside the 18-yard box, and flicked the ball on, thinking: okay, someone's going to run on after this.
“It was Walshy [Sarah Walsh] who got herself in among the chaos, and the keeper failed to take control of the ball. Then someone had the biggest air swing in front of me… I was like, this is really weird and lucky.
“The ball sat up, and all I remember thinking was: ‘Do not hit this ball on the up… just get good contact on the ball, wait for it to drop and hit through it.’ And wow, the ball went in.”
Japan were not without their chances. Gill recalled them hitting the post “four or five times” in the latter stages of the game. However, despite Japan’s possession, chances, and quality – keeping in mind that this was the team that would lift the World Cup trophy the following year – the Matildas held on.
It seemed that luck was on Australia’s side. After qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011™ with the win, the team felt destined to go on and win the AFC Asian Cup™ final.
Unfortunately for them, there would be yet another roadblock incoming. It was one that meant they would be relying on a 16-year-old starting striker in the final.
The Final
Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah Walsh came into the tournament under an injury cloud. The Boston Breakers striker had only recently returned from a long-term surgery and her selection was a controversial one.
After missing the first game against Vietnam, she was introduced in the second half against Korea Republic. She assisted the first goal to give the team the lead, a through ball to De Vanna that Walsh considers one of her favourite assists.
She started against China PR, and helped affect Gill’s goal against Japan. All seemed to be going to plan – until disaster struck before the final.
“I heard a crack. I think I was with Heather [Garriock] and Collette [McCallum] in the room, and I was like – I think I’ve hurt my knee,” she remembered.
“It happened in the bathroom. I do remember Tommy saying: ‘what were you doing in the bathroom?’ I was just walking and it cracked. I knew I’d overdone it.”
The injury meant that the team went into the final against DPR Korea, a team that they considered their “bogey team,” with 16-year-old Kerr in a starting attacking role.
“I obviously wanted to start, but I had been so nervous - I didn't want to mess up,” Kerr said.
“The fact that the qualification had been achieved, I felt like there was a little bit less pressure, and I felt like I could just go out there and play and perform.
“I also felt like I had worked my way into the tournament. I didn't feel like this was out of the blue. I knew there'd been a few injuries, but I'd played, in my mind, enough minutes to start the game. I was – naively - ready.”
Her youthful confidence was not misplaced. Kerr’s 19th-minute goal gave Australia the lead and filled the team with confidence.
However, DPR Korea would not be denied. The team was one of the strongest in the world at the time for a reason. Jo Yun-Mi equalised in the 73rd minute, sending the game into extra-time – and then, after the teams still could not be separated, to penalties.
The Shootout
In the words of Sally Shipard, “penalty shootouts are a pretty harsh way to lose a game – but gosh, they’re a great way to win a game.”
Shipard was a 22-year-old from Wagga Wagga whose role as a box-to-box midfielder was essential to Australia’s game plans. She was also tasked with taking the first penalty of the shootout for the Matildas.
“I loved a penalty,” she recalled with a smile.
“I don't know how many I took exactly, but I don't know if I ever missed one… you just cannot doubt yourself, you have been given this role.
“I did my laces, fix my shin pads, fixed my socks and gave it a crack and then scored.”
Korea DPR missed their second penalty. It meant that Kylie Ledbrook was up next, a specialist penalty taker substituted on late in the game for this very moment.
Ledbrook - then 24-years-old - was a midfielder who spent the majority of her career at Sydney FC.
"My heart was going a million miles an hour,” she confessed.
Her penalty went straight down the middle. It was hit hard, high, and with confidence. Australia had the advantage.
Kate Gill and Heather Garriock struck true for Australia. Korea DPR were clinical as well, taking the game to the wire. It meant that the teenage Kyah Simon was given the responsibility of stepping up to take the penalty that would earn Australia their first-ever AFC silverware.
“I just had this overwhelming sense of confidence in that moment like, yeah, I feel like I can score a penalty,” Simon said.
“I don't think I realised if I missed that penalty, or if I scored it, we would win or lose the Asian Cup. That didn't even cross my mind in that moment… [that’s] the purity of coming into the team as a young pup, and at such a young age, we just played with freedom and made decisions off intuition and didn't overthink anything.
“I remember I was walking with slush in my boots, and water in my socks – it felt like I had two litres of water in each boot as I was walking up. The pitch was giving way because it was so muddy and slushy.
“I couldn't have hit it any sweeter. When I saw it ripple the back of the net, and the water spray off the net, I just remember turning around and seeing all the girls sprint towards me. I thought: ‘what can I do here to celebrate?’ I just ended up doing a big belly slide.”
The celebrations of the moment include an iconic dance from Melissa Barbieri that was dubbed “the Bubs Dance.” She joked the reason for the dance was simple – she didn’t want to crush her teammate under the weight of overzealous celebration.
Simon’s recollection suggests that Barbieri’s caution may have been warranted.
“I remember [then-Brisbane Roar defender] Kim Carroll was the one on top of me, holding everyone off from me suffocating underneath!” Simon laughed.
The Legacy
Sarah Walsh – who was the head of Women’s Football, Women’s World Cup Legacy and Inclusion from 2021 to 2024 before transitioning to the role of Chief Operating Officer for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026™ - perhaps put it best.
“It’s only now, having not won it again, do people see how important that moment was," she stated.
Heather Garriock was then a 27-year-old midfielder who was playing for Sydney FC. She recently made history when she became the first female CEO of Football Australia this month, appointed in an interim capacity.
“To have that feeling as a player was such an amazing experience, and something that I've bottled up, and a memory that I'll never forget my whole life,” she said.
Garriock and Walsh will be front and centre in the process of planning for the AFC Asian Cup 2026™. It is a tournament that will hold special meaning to them as the CommBank Matildas hope to lift their first Asian silverware since 2010.
“It [2010] was such a significant win for football in Australia, but also women's football, and I really think that put us on the map,” Garriock said.
“Sam Kerr was part of that 2010 Asian Cup. For her and our whole team, lifting the 2026 Asian Cup would be a dream.”
The victorious AFC Women's Asian Cup 2010 squad:
1. Melissa Barbieri (GK) (c) 2. Karla Reuter 4. Clare Polkinghorne 5. Lauren Colthorpe 6. Servet Uzunlar 7. Heather Garriock 9. Sarah Walsh 10. Kylie Ledbrook 11. Lisa De Vanna 12. Kate Gill 13. Thea Slatyer 14. Collette McCallum 15. Sally Shipard 16. Elise Kellond-Knight 17. Kyah Simon 18. Lydia Williams (GK) 19. Leena Khamis 22. Sam Kerr 23. Kim Carroll 24. Tameka Yallop 25. Casey Dumont (GK) 27. Aivi Luik 31. Teigen Allen
