CommBank Matildas captain Sam Kerr said that the team was focused on themselves ahead of the all important quarter-final clash against Korea DPR on Friday evening.

She was speaking alongside Head Coach Joe Montemurro at the official pre-match press conference in Perth on Thursday.

“Playing all around the world, we've faced many different opponents,” she explained.

“We just have to be prepared for everything, focus on ourselves, and stay focused in the moment. China PR did it really well, because they focused on themselves.

“We’ve talked about [what to expect] a little bit, because there's few girls in the team that haven't played in the Asian Cup before. It’s probably nice to see [the game between China PR and Korea DPR] the other day, just because we now know what we can expect. Just focusing on ourselves is the main thing.”

Montemurro echoed her thoughts, saying that the technical team watched DPR Korea’s final group stage match closely.

“The game against China gave us a bit of an idea of where they're at and how we're going to prepare for it,” he said.

“Our preparation has been focusing on our strengths and what we do well, and we really believe that if we do our things well, we'll be fine. But it's always a difficult one. In general, preparation for every game has been tight and challenging at times, but the players are in good stead and prepared for the next adventure.”

He elaborated on some of the lessons that the team had learned from the group stage draw against Korea Republic on Sunday.

“We probably did go into a bit of a default situation, going long at the wrong time,” he said.

“Possession-based football is also playing the long pass or the pass beyond lines sometimes. It's more about educating them on when and where to do it, and the right time to do it. It’s more about the timing of when to do it, than just doing it off the cuff or as a reflex.

“We still want to have the ball more. That's how we believe we can control the scenarios and control situations, but then it's about understanding when and where. For me, the Korea Republic game was perfect because we haven't had that sort of challenge before. It was, for us, a perfect precursor leading into this next challenge.”

Montemurro confirmed during the press conference that both Hayley Raso and Steph Catley would be unavailable for the fixture. He said that he had faith in the squad to cover their loss.

“We've looked at just a couple of areas where we believe we can find some weaknesses, but there’s no real adjustments [in play],” he said.

“We've got enough backup in our squad - and we believe in the backup that we've got - to come in and make those replacements.”

Kerr said that she believes the team has been improving every game of the tournament.

“I don't think we've had our top performance, but we're saving that for tomorrow,” she said.

“We’ve been building ourselves up. Every game, we've gotten better, and hopefully that's the case for tomorrow - we can have our best performance of the tournament and go through. It’s a good sign that we haven't peaked too early, and I think the best is yet to come.”

She explained the mentality of the team – they were focused on the challenges they have overcome before, and took belief from those moments.

“We've not really talked about the losses - we've talked about the ones we've won,” she explained.

“The girls have brought up the Canada game [4-0 win] at the last World Cup, where we had to win to go through. It could have ended in tears that night, but the girls went out there and smashed it. The thing that we've tried to focus on is those moments and what we felt like in the big games, where we've gone through – the Brazil game [3-2 win, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019™], and the Canada game. When everything was on the line, it was do or die; that's what we've tried to focus on.

“Obviously, you can think about the heartbreak and stuff, but I don't actually think it's valuable in these moments. You need to think of the positives. The Canada game was a big one for us, the Great Britain game at the Olympics [Tokyo 2020™]. We've tried to just really talk about what made us feel good in those games where we went out and did well, rather than the negatives of previous tournaments.”

AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™

CommBank Matildas v Korea DPR
Date: Friday, 13 March 2026
Venue: Perth Rectangular Stadium, Perth
Time: 6:00pm AWST/9:00pm AEDT
Broadcast: Network 10 and Paramount+
Radio: ABC Sport & ABC Listen
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