Roweth caught up in spiteful end to Young Matildas game

MILLTHORPE’S Karina Roweth and her Young Matildas team-mates had plastic bottles thrown at them by the Chinese crowd in a dramatic and controversial finish to their Asian Football Confederation Women’s Under 19 Championship match against China.

The tournament hosts recorded a 2-1 win over Australia in Wuhan on Monday night to progress to the semi-finals of the Asian Championship amid controversy following a contentious refereeing decision.

The Young Matildas threw everything into scoring an equaliser late in the game and thought they had earned a penalty when Kyah Simon was brought down just before full-time, only for the referee to rule the Chinese foul occurred outside of the penalty box.

Teresa Polias’ free kick attempt narrowly missed before Australia’s Jessica Seaman was red-carded after remonstrating with the referee the decision not to award a penalty.

A Young Matildas player was floored after the final whistle and the squads of both teams and support staff became involved in a melee on the pitch.

The parochial Chinese crowd then threw water bottles at the Australian squad as they headed up the tunnel to their dressing room.

Young Matildas coach Alen Stajcic was stinging in his criticism of what transpired at Wuhan’s Hankou Sports Culture Stadium.

“We’ve prepared for 12 months to have an embarrassing sporting event take place like that in China. That’s not sport,” Stajcic said on www.the-afc.com.

He also lambasted the decision not to award a penalty in the closing stages, which he believes has cost the Young Matildas the chance to play at the FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup in Germany next year, as only the top three Asian nations qualify.

“I think you all saw one was a clear-cut penalty, a metre-and-a-half inside the box,” Stajcic said.

“What can you say? From 2-0 down we got back to 2-1 and should have won the game.

“Referees are human beings but that was a clear-cut penalty at the end, let alone the other two that were also probably penalties.

“But that last one, even from where I was standing, that was a metre-and-a-half inside the box and I think you all know that.

“That one goal’s cost us a World Cup opportunity.”

China’s Lou Jiahui scored in the 11th and 42nd minutes to give the tournament hosts a 2-0 lead at half-time.

Simon scored for Australia midway through the second half to give the Young Matildas hope of producing an equaliser, but they were unable to snatch a much-needed point.

The Young Matildas have one game remaining against Chinese Taipei today and they need a big win, while hoping Japan lose to China, to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals.