Gustavsson: "one or two spots" closer to Paris 2024 squad after 1-1 draw with China PR

CommBank Matildas midfielder Tameka Yallop and Head Coach Tony Gustavsson spoke to the press after the team drew 1-1 with China PR in game one of the ‘Til It’s Done Farewell Series.

Yallop was up first and began by praising the performance of her opponents.

“It was a challenging game,” she began. “They came out and were very organised, very structured. It was a challenge for us to break them down, which is something we’ll face, and they gave us a lot of respect with the speed we have in behind.”

“It was down to us to try to break them down. We definitely, as you can see, fought hard throughout the whole 90 minutes.”

“I think we are always a possession-based team and we want to play good football and as I said, they were well structured and very disciplined. So for us, it was trying to play through, around, over, and mix up our game and look at how we can break down different opponents.”

The 32-year-old identified that the short turnaround between games – the second game in the series is being played on Monday, in Sydney – is part of the team’s Olympic preparation.

“It’s a good test for us,” she outlined. “You don’t get too much recovery time in tournament mode, and that’s what we need going into the Olympics. If you look at it, we’ve got seven games and we want to be able to perform in all seven of them.”

The match was played in front of 52,912 fans at Adelaide Oval - a sell-out crowd, and five times the 10,340 who last saw the CommBank Matildas play in Adelaide in 2019.

“It’s absolutely amazing to see everyone that comes out,” she exclaimed. “Not just to see them, but to hear them – they’re all so vocal, and getting more and more passionate about football with the round ball.”

“I think that’s excellent for us to see as females and for women’s sport in general, and it was an amazing turnout.”

Head coach Tony Gustavsson began by summarising the game, and the challenges that the squad had faced in the lead-up.

“We had a little bit of a challenge coming into this game in the fact that some players that have played in the A-League [Women] haven’t played football for a very long time going into it – meaning you’re not really in season and in form – and some players are at the end of the season, and coming in fatigued and tired, from travel and from play,” he explained.

“That’s how we felt as coaches and I think in the first half, for some reason we actually looked a bit tired, not as aggressive as we can be. I think China won a lot of 1v1 duels and looked more aggressive than we were.”

“I asked them to try to provoke the press and be slow at the start of the build-up to draw them out, but once we break the first line, change the tempo. I think we really struggled with that in the first half – and also due to China being very well-prepared.”

The second half saw a multitude of changes including in personnel, with an eye-catching quadruple substitution in the 62^nd minute. However, Gustavsson believes that the match began to swing from half-time onwards due to some tactical tweaks.

The starting eleven was a mixture of ‘regular’ first-team players, and other players who have been used as more rotational options. The Head Coach explained that this was due to trying to find answers for the final few spots left open in the Paris 2024™ roster.

“I think we had almost six different starting options than the most common starting lineup in the World Cup,” he continued. “We wanted to evaluate players for selection. And that also influenced the game a little bit, with new relationships on the right side, new relationships on the left, new centre midfield relationship, like a lot of new things.

“I think you could see that as well, that it wasn’t as synced and connected as we normally see in a Matildas team.”

Nonetheless, Gustavsson said that it worked out – with the “14 or 15” spots that he said were nailed down leading into this game expanding by “one or two.”

“I am closer [to squad selection],” he stated. “Without saying any names, I think there were one or two players that locked their spot tonight.”

CommBank Matildas forward Caitlin Foord was forced off the pitch not long after coming on, with what looked like a potential hamstring injury. Gustavsson spoke about the risks that each player had going into this camp after a long European season, and the way that his team had attempted to mitigate those.

He expanded that it was something that he had thought deeply about, particularly in the wake of the A-League All Stars game against Arsenal last week adding to player load.

While he was “concerned” for Foord, he stated that there would be no risks taken with any player during this window as the team’s focus was on preparing for, and being as fit as possible for, Paris 2024™.

“We played it safe, she felt something. We don’t know how serious it is, but she said she felt something,” he explained. “If that would have been a World Cup game or an Olympic game, I think she would have tried to play on, but at this point, there’s no way that we would risk that.”

“Also, it was a chance to see Sharn Freier who has been very, very good at training for us and I actually think she came in and was the spark. I think she did well.”

He also took time to praise the tremendous crowd at Adelaide Oval and also nodded to the work of past players who laid the foundations for this support to occur.

“I’m so happy for these players, and even the alumni – I had the privilege to meet them in the open training session, some of them as well that have paved the way before this,” he recalled. “This team wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for all the people who’ve done that, from way back, and got it to where it is now.”

“For me to just be a very small part of that journey, and then to see where it is now, I am so happy. It’s also very good to see everything from the open training session to when we go to the stadium, to see how many people have role models to look up to now.

“I know for these players that their ‘why’ is a lot about uniting people, inspiring the next generation, and leaving the game better than it was when they entered it. So I’m very happy for them.”