ORANGE-BORN Matildas midfielder Tameka Butt and her Australia side’s preparation for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games took a hit in their final warm-up game on Saturday (AEST), when they went down to hosts Brazil.
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The Matildas sacrificed an early lead to ultimately lose out by two goals, with Katrina Gorry’s 49th minute send-off the catalyst for Brazil’s comeback, 3-1 win at the Estadio Presidente Vargas in Fortaleza.
Butt was used in a supersub role as was Cowra’s Ellie Carpenter, but their respective injections in the 62nd and 88th minutes wasn’t enough to see the Matildas scrape a victory.
Although Brazil enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges Australia looked more than capable, and quite likely, of producing somewhat of an upset win over the powerhouse hosts when Larissa Crummer gave the green and golds a 1-0 lead after 35 minutes.
She latched on to a pinpoint through ball from Michelle Heyman.
The Matildas had a couple of other chances in the opening half, but were unable to bury them.
Australia still looked the stronger side on the other side of half-time, until Gorry received a yellow card in the 49th minute to go along with her first in the 14th, forcing Australia to play the remaining 41 minutes with just 10 players.
Brazil’s extra player proved telling as Debinha and Raquel pushed the Olympic hosts into the lead with goals in the 61st and 73rd minutes, respectively, before Darlene put the result beyond doubt with a 94th minute missile.
Australian coach Alen Stajcic said his side will enter the Olympics much wiser for the 3-1 loss.
"When the game was 11 [versus] 11, it was certainly more in our favour than it was for them," Stajcic said.
"Playing 40 minutes with 10 players against them just made it a little bit tough but they are all things you have to learn to deal with.
"Certainly the Brazilian ref didn't mind the odd 50-50 going their way a little bit but again you have got to deal with these things when you play in a foreign country with a foreign ref."
Stajcic went on to praise his players’ composure amid the string of questionable calls.
"No-one likes to lose," he said.
"You can't control the decisions of the referee sometimes. That made it a little bit of a challenge.”