After two dominant 5-0 wins against Chinese Taipei and India at the 2026 U20 Women's Asian Cup respectively, the CommBank Young Matildas came up against U20 World Cup runners-up Japan in match three, facing their first defeat of the tournament.
Now, they look ahead to their quarterfinal match up against a formidable opponent in Korea DPR, the current World Cup champions.
Managing the disappointment of a young squad and ensuring they bounce back ready for the next challenge, is an important part of the job for Young Matildas head coach, Alex Epakis.
"It's always difficult when you don't have a result go your way. Obviously, the players were down and that's to be expected. We have high expectations of ourselves and don't want to lower that," he said when reflecting on Australia's loss to Japan.
"Our Japan fixture was a tough one. When you play the World Cup runners-up, there are going to be moments where you're not going to be the dominant team, and we wanted to be better in some of those."
With 12 goals scored across three matches, there were still many positives to take away. Epakis says he has been pleased with the way the Young Matildas have been employing a never-say-die attitude,
"There were definitely some spotlight moments that were trending in the way that we wanted," he said.
"Until the end of the match, we were looking to create goal-scoring threats. I don't believe there have been too many instances where you've got opportunities against Japan happening readily, so the fact that we were able to do it from both pressing and also build-up play was a highlight. We just would have loved for more of them.
"Additionally, the ability to absorb pressure from the opposition was there to be seen for large periods, especially in that first half. To then find a way with some individual brilliance from Avaani Prakash to create a goal-scoring chance and put that away under pressure, was a really great moment for the team."
Ahead of the Young Matildas quarterfinal, the senior Matildas sent some words of wisdom in hopes of encouraging the youngsters. After all, it was just weeks ago that they faced their own defeat to a Japanese powerhouse in the final of the 2026 Women's Asian Cup on home soil.
"To watch the video, was a nice little moment, especially the timing. It was a perfect reset," the head coach said.
"The messages from Kaitlyn Torpey and Sam Kerr were really clear. That in tournament football, anything can happen and we've got to pick ourselves back up, and fight. It's the Aussie spirit. It's the Aussie way. It was very well received, and we greatly appreciated that message and that support."
In terms of his assessment of the team's overall performance throughout the tournament, Epakis said he is pleased with his young squad - who are mostly in the lower half of the 17-20 year-old age bracket, with each match providing valuable building blocks for the future.
"I think it's easy to use it (youth) as an excuse, but the reality is, we're in the business of developing players to be ready for major tournaments, so exposing players early is certainly not a disappointment, or a negative, it's very much a positive," he explained.
"We came into the tournament with high aspirations, and we still maintain those. For the most part, we've been a really aggressive, dominant team with the ball and I like the fact that when we play, it's really exciting to watch.
