Matildas coach happy with improved effort despite loss to US

Matildas coach Tom Sermanni was pleased with an improved effort but said there was still much work to be done after the Australia women lost 2-1 to the United States at the SheBelieves Cup in Arizona on Sunday.

Sermanni described the performance in the 4-0 loss to Japan in the opening match of the tournament as un-Australian and a similar humbling looked on the cards when Lynn Biyendolo gave an experimental U.S. side the lead inside a minute.

The dominance of the number one ranked Americans at Glendales State Farm Stadium was again rewarded when Michelle Cooper doubled their lead with a cool finish in the 68th minute.

The Australians kept to their task, however, and substitute striker Michelle Heyman pulled a goal back with a header from Hayley Rasos cross in the 80th minute.

I think effort and attitude were so much better in this game, especially after the start we had, Scot Sermanni told reporters.

Given the performance of the last game and the result, and then losing the goal after probably less than a minute, I think we could easily have just sort of caved in today.

From a perspective of the team digging in and sticking in there, I was really pleased with part of our performance and that effort.

Australia face Colombia in their final match of the invitational tournament on Wednesday.

I think we do need to still keep the ball better and our movement needs to be a bit slicker, rhythm needs to be better, Sermanni said.

I felt that we were basically bullied by the Japanese. So get back to getting closer to teams when were trying to press, and to bring that physical element of the game back.

We want to be dynamic in possession but, at the same time, we