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Chelsea's Sam Kerr overtakes Tim Cahill to become all-time record goalscorer for Australia

  /  autty

Australia thrashed Indonesia 18-0 in their opening game of the Women's Asia Cup as Chelsea's Sam Kerr became the country's all-time leading scorer.

Kerr netted five of Australia's 18 goals, taking her international tally to 54 and surpassing Tim Cahill's record of 50.

The forward scored three goals in the first 27 minutes but missed the chance to claim a double hat-trick as her second-half penalty hit the crossbar.

Indonesia are ranked 94th in the world, 83 places below the Matildas, and are making their first appearance at the Asia Cup for 33 years.

Speaking after breaking her country's goalscoring record, Kerr said: 'Timmy's a legend in Australia, so to be even in the same conversation as him, it's an amazing honour.

'I said after the game there's no team I'd rather do it with. It's an honour to wear the jersey for the Matildas.'

Emily van Egmond scored four while Hayley Raso, Ellie Carpenter, Kyah Simon all netted braces. Arsenal forward Caitlin Foord was also on the scoresheet along with Mary Fowler and Aivi Luik.

Australia boss Tony Gustavsson insisted he did not regret naming his strongest team or bringing on experienced substitutes.

'I've been in a similar situation before as a coach going into a tournament when you have a low-ranked team in the opening game and how important it is to treat that team with respect but also show respect to our values and our standards,' Gustavsson said.

'There's different reasons but the number one reason is that we need that cohesion between the players and get off on a good start to send some messages to ourselves and to the other ones how we are treating this tournament.'

Australia will face the Philippines and Thailand in their next two group games.