Gustavsson: “There’ll be a lot of emotions" in Sydney
CommBank Matildas Head Coach Tony Gustavsson spoke to media on Sunday about how the squad was feeling heading into match two of the ‘Til It’s Done Farewell Series against China.
He emphasised the emotions that the players would be feeling ahead of two momentous occasions – selection for the 18-player Paris 2024™ squad to be announced on Tuesday morning, and the retirement of legendary goalkeeper Lydia Williams.
“It’s emotions about selections, but also emotions about honouring a legend of the game,” he explained. “There’ll be a lot of emotions for different reasons, but good emotions.”
The coach provided an update on forward Caitlin Foord, who was forced off the pitch with a potential hamstring strain on Friday.
He explained that they were reviewing her fitness during the press conference, and that an announcement would be made regarding her availability for the match in Sydney by Sunday night.
Having had two days to digest the result, Gustavsson said that the team were “disappointed” about the performance, but that Michelle Heyman’s last-second equaliser highlighted the “never say die” attitude within the team.
“We’re going to have a training today to prepare [for the game tomorrow],” he outlined.
“We want to be much more energised, more powerful, more attacking minded, more aggressive than we were in the last game. Hopefully, even though it’s been a short turnaround with travel and a lot of nerves and emotions with selections, I think there’s a team that wants to step out there and show who we truly are, and finish off with a very, very good performance on home soil.”
Gustavsson has been consistent in his messaging about this series being preparation for Paris 2024™ in terms of deciding squad selection, and also an opportunity to build chemistry. He was asked about the challenge of communicating that message to fans, who only see parts of that preparation.
“We’re all a family, including the fans, who are such a big part of this team,” he began, “so the way I’ve tried to do it is when I sit here in front of you, I try to explain what we’re doing as much as possible, so that the fans understand why we’re doing it.”
“There’s always going to be different opinions... What is important is that I talk to the players, respect the players, talk to the fans, respect the fans and try to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing. And there’s nothing right or wrong, but I need to educate the public on the process of why we do what we do.”
“So in that first game in this camp, we had a lot of players with tired legs and fatigue and some niggles from a very long season, and I need to protect them to not get injured because that’s also one of my jobs. And then we had some players that were on the fringe to be selected that I think deserved a last chance to show if they should be on the plane to Paris.
“This game is a bit different – it’s later on in camp and we managed to save some legs, and hopefully some of those who had limited minutes will be more available now.”
He also stressed that the timing of the squad announcement was important to him, as the team would be on home soil, and be able to connect with fans in that way.
“I purposely pushed hard to get the nomination on home soil, when we nominate the team on Tuesday,” he explained, “because I really felt with COVID, 2021 when we announced the team in Sweden on screens, we couldn’t even see families, or fans, and it was very important to me to ensure the players could be with families and friends.”
“But also, for Australia to connect to this awesome spirit in the Matildas, live, here. I could have waited another month to announce it if you look at the deadline, but I really wanted to make sure that we did it in our home soil, because that will create so much energy for us to perform in Paris as well.”
Match Two
CommBank Matildas v China PR
Date: Monday, 3 June 2024
Kick-off: 7:40pm AEST
Venue: Accor Stadium, Sydney, New South Wales
Broadcast: 10, 10 Bold (PER), 10 Play and Paramount+