Experienced Matildas will look to take more risks, says Tony Gustavsson
A more-familiar looking Matildas side is prepared to risk conceding goals in today’s second of two friendly matches with Canada if it means nailing down their focus on building up in possession.
Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter and Clare Hunt – who didn’t feature at all in the first game – will line-up in the starting XI today, while Mary Fowler, Kyra Cooney Cross, Alanna Kennedy, Katrina Gorry and Hayley Raso will also start. Sam Kerr and Mackenzie Arnold are injured.
Australia relied heavily on springing counter attacks during their golden FIFA Women’s World Cup run. But before this month’s friendlies, coach Tony Gustavsson said he wanted to develop their build-up play ahead of February’s Olympic qualifiers against Uzbekistan.
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“We’ve … seen that we’ve struggled a little bit to play through lines, which means, come Olympics, we don’t want to be as predictable in our attack and we want to improve playing through,” he said.
“I try to stay away from [calling it a] possession style because we don’t just want to keep the ball for the sake of keeping the ball. We’re a goal-scoring machine that want to score a lot of goals and attack a lot and play vertical. This gives us the tools to be able to do that more often.”
Build-up play proved a difficult task in a 5-0 loss on Saturday as Canada swept aside an experimental starting line-up, with the Matildas conceding three goals by being dispossessed in their own half.
“That mistake is on me. I knew we would push them to the limit,” Gustavsson said. “We tried things in this game to see where we’re at and what that looks like.
“And I think the players committed to it so it’s a credit to them. If someone should be criticised, it should be me, I can take those hits. We struggled to get out of our own half a lot. But we chose not to just push up and go long and play a second-ball game. We chose to go all in in that game and it cost us three goals.”
What is likely to be a far more experienced starting line-up should prove a more tenacious opponent for Canada, who are sending off all-time leading international goal scorer Christine Sinclair in front of an expected crowd of 45,000 people in Vancouver, with the game kicking off at 7pm Tuesday local time (2pm Wednesday AEDT).
But Gustavsson will stick to his guns style-wise. “It’ll be interesting to see if we can take that learning experience and improve, but it might cost some as well,” he said.
The Matildas will also need to cut out supply to in-form Canada striker Nichelle Prince, who scored a brace on Saturday. “Maybe that’s our bogey player - the player that we struggle playing against,” Gustavsson said.
“But that’s what we’ll be exposed to: these fast-paced players that have the ability to break the backline with well-timed runs and good finishing. Normally the best way to stop them is actually to stop the pass that goes to her. Because once she does get that run she’s very difficult to stop.”
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Gustavsson stressed several senior players didn’t play or had limited minutes in the first game in order to manage their workloads amid hectic club schedules. He accepted criticism for throwing young players in the deep end but also stood by his selections.
“They were extremely professional in this last game to go all in and try things,” he said. “It was a credit to the experienced players and my support staff to create a safe space for these young players to be out there and play. Some people probably go, ‘Hey, is this fair to the players to give them this type of experience?’
“They love it. This is what they want. They want to play against top teams. They want to learn. As long as I make sure I create a safe space for them to get this experience, it’s what they need.
“Then I wanted to balance that with the opportunity to have some continuity as well in a lineup. Because this might be the only camp before the Olympics when we can play a top-ranked nation. It’s difficult scheduling now with all the teams being locked in to schedules all the way up.”
Australia play Canada in an international friendly at BC Place in Vancouver at 7pm local Tuesday (2pm AEDT Wednesday)