The Qantas Young Matildas have got their FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship campaign off to a flying start with a 3-0 win against New Zealand in their opening match played at St Petersburg's Petrovsky Stadium in Russia.
The Australian goals were scored by Collette McCallum, who grabbed a double, and captain Sally Shipard, with both players also key members of the Qantas Matildas side which qualified for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup during last month's AFC Women's Asian Cup in Adelaide.
Although New Zealand looked dangerous from set-pieces neither team was able to gain the ascendancy in a fairly scrappy first half until McCallum scored in unusual circumstances direct from an inswinging corner five minutes from the interval.
Australia took control as the match wore on with Shipard and Kylie Ledbrook dominating the midfield before McCallum scored in a similar manner to he first goal with ten minutes remaining. This time, McCallum, who scored a dramatic late winner against Japan to ensure qualification back in March, drove in a firm ball from the sideline with the ball rocketing past the New Zealand goalkeeper.
Shipard powered home a far post header to complete the scoring in injury time.
"It is vital that we got off to a good start in the tournament, which we did by claiming all three points, and we will now be looking to maintain the momentum against Brazil in our second match,” said Qantas Young Matildas coach Alistair Edwards.
"We deliberately started cautiously knowing that New Zealand would come out hard, which they did, but we were back playing our normal game from the latter stages of the first half and for the rest of the match."
Australia will now meet Brazil, also in St Petersburg, before moving to Moscow for the final group match against Russia on August 23. The final will be played in Moscow on September 3.