Gustavsson: "We wanted to test a lot of players today."
CommBank Matildas Head Coach Tony Gustavsson addressed the media post-match after Australia’s 2-1 defeat in the ‘B’ International Match against Canada on Sunday morning (AEST).
He began by emphasising the training nature of the game.
“We have planned for a very, very long time with what we want to do in this pre-camp to make sure that we peak mentally and physically on the 25th [of July], in the opening game against Germany,” he said.
“We wanted to prepare to play on heavy legs where it’s difficult to focus, you might not have the power in the runs. We’re always an aggressive team that play with high octane and energy but in an Olympic tournament when there’s such a tight turnaround with games you know you’re going to have to play with fatigue at times, and to learn how to play with fatigue was also part of this game.
“And then finally when it comes to evaluating performance, it’s also evaluating players. We wanted to test a lot of players today and give them minutes because we’re going to need them all come Olympics.”
There were several players who were unavailable for the game, with full focus being on having the squad fit and firing for the Olympic Games.
“We were using precaution here to protect some players,” he outlined.
“You always want to have all of your players fit and in form and flying, and sometimes it’s a challenge when you go into the tournament – some players come from heavy load in the season, some players have been out of season for a long time, some players are coming out of injury, some players are coming into camp with some niggles.
“I’ve also been around long enough to know that all we can focus on is what we can control. In the pre camp in the World Cup for example we had more than six players coming in with niggles or injuries that couldn’t even train with us at the beginning of the camp. Then once the tournament started we got them up and running, be fit and in form and could perform really well. So we’ve been there before.”
He took time to praise the performances of Clare Wheeler – who started the game at left-back before moving into midfield – and Sharn Freier, who scored Australia’s goal.
“I think Clare Wheeler was outstanding, she’s been phenomenal in training the whole camp,” he enthused. “Amazing how she looked energised for 90 minutes, very, very impressive.
“I also think Sharn Freier maybe had a little bit of her breakthrough game for the Matildas. Not just the goal but the way she plays as well and how brave and confident she was, everything from pressing to tackles to taking on 1v1. You can even hear the teammates and even the teammates in the stand cheer for her and how much joy and happiness there was for her performance.”
Gustavsson went into some detail of the tactical takeaways from the game. He explained that while Canada had a lot of shots, most of them were from outside of the box, which was pleasing.
“I do think we conceded too many chances in the set plays… we’ve been training really, really hard over these weeks and haven’t prioritised those tactical details on set plays for example that you normally do when you close into the tournament, so that could be one of the reasons,” he continued.
“And then [the goals were] two individual errors in the goal zone, one from the keeper and one from the back line. That’s one of those things that’s good to get now so that we can clean those out, but I also think that could be connected to a little bit of fatigue. That’s a learning curve for us, learning how to stay focused and avoid making those mistakes that can cost us in the Olympics.”
Flexibility was also key, with deliberate rotation and changing shapes helping to prepare for Paris. Gustavsson cited examples such as looking at how Cortnee Vine and Mary Fowler work up top together, or Clare Wheeler at left-back, as takeaways from the game.
“We used three to four different shapes tonight, both attacking and defending,” he explained. “So we looked at that flexibility and when can we use those different tactics against different opposition, so tactics change and personnel change.
“The one thing we did better today than we have done against Canada before was to deny their speedy forwards to get in behind our back line, because we’ve struggled with that before. Germany’s good at that, Zambia is brilliant at that, and the US have a lot of pace. That’s one thing I’m happy with today, how we denied their fast forwards getting in behind our back line.”