Gustavsson: I'm not disappointed with the performance, but with the result
Tony Gustavsson spoke to the media after the CommBank Matildas side fell 3-2 to Nigeria on Thursday night.
He began the press conferencing by stating that while the result was poor, his team's performance was not. He pointed to Australia’s dominant attacking stats, including more possession, more final third entries, and more than double the shots to justify his claim.
“I’m actually not that disappointed about the performance, but I’m disappointed by the result,” he began the press conference.
He admitted that it was difficult to see in the immediate aftermath of the match, but he would not lose sight of the positives because of the final result.
It is a short turn-around before what now becomes a crucial match against Canada on Monday night in Melbourne. Gustavsson emphasised that preparing his side both mentally and physically for a match in only four days will be the most crucial role of his leadership team.
“I think that might be one of the most important questions for me as a leader right now,” he answered, when asked about how the team gets back on track before Canada.
“Physical recovery is one thing, but the mental recovery as well to bounce back [is important]. But the one thing we know with this team, and we saw it the last 10 to 12 minutes of this game, is that never say die attitude when we’re up against the wall.
“They came out and played good. They’re brave and they gave it their all, all the way through, and almost got the tie today.”
The result puts the CommBank Matildas in a precarious position, but Gustavsson emphasises the need to take it one game at a time.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest and most important things we have to do right now is to bounce back and just see the truth right in front of us – it’s a must-win game against the Olympic champions in the last round of the group stage to get out,” he said.
The winning team, Nigeria, are ranked 40th in the world. Gustavsson said that the way they played wasn’t a surprise, but their plan to use pace in transition worked.
“I said yesterday that I knew that they had some really tough attacking threats,” he explained.
“Oshoala on the bench was maybe a surprise. I think they wanted to use the speed against our centre-backs in transition.”
He said that they used this pace in order to punish the CommBank Matildas with the second ball. He went on to explain that all three Super Falcons goals were the result of second-phase play.
On the use of Alanna Kennedy as a forward and the lack of substitutions until late in the game, Gustavsson used the game in April last year against New Zealand in Townsville as an example of a time when a similar ploy helped his side get a late equaliser.
The CommBank Matildas coach was pressed on his decision to not make changes until late in the game.
“As a coach the number one challenge is to try to find the right answer before you know if it’s right or wrong,” he answered.
“I think some of the players on the park were performing really well. We had the momentum in the game and you don’t want to kind of disrupt the momentum.”
He also praised the contribution of Alex Chidiac, who came on in the final moments of regulation time. She had a significant impact, taking a number of shots and setting up a number of others.
Inevitably, Gustavsson was asked about the availability of Sam Kerr for what has now become a game of enormous importance against Canada.
“All I can say now is that I hope so,” he said, when asked if she would start on Monday night.
“I most likely won’t get the confirmation on that until the night before the game.”
He ended the press conference by confirming that Kerr would do everything that she possibly could do to be able to play that game.
“If she’s available we just need to come up with a plan together with the staff and together with Sam to see what’s the best to maximise the potential minutes that she has going into this game,” he said.