honestly atrocious passing from auswnt rn... good thing they’re only playing taipei... they should be 4-0 up by now but poor finishing in the last 18 yards by most players right now means caitlin foord is carrying the attack with her brace
Exclusive Stajcic Column: The Lessons I Learnt From Our Matildas' Courageous Campaign
“We might not have come away with the Tournament of Nations trophy today but I saw resilience and courage from our Matildas side that all of Australia can be proud of. We beat Brazil and Japan and the US scored a late equaliser against us to draw 1-1. We reminded the sport's world No.1 that we're a force to be reckoned with. In the end though, the US were far too good for Brazil in the final game, which we watched from the stands, and claimed top spot on the table. But the bigger prize is in one year, at the Women’s World Cup in France – and there were positives, and negatives from this campaign for us to reflect on as we build towards that ultimate goal.
I was really pleased with our mental toughness: it was a pretty tough tournament for us, because we had a lot of players back-up from playing the last round of National Women’s Soccer League here – there were quite a few players who had to play four games in 10 days as a result.
We had our first training session on a Tuesday before a Thursday game, which was mainly running off the fatigue from the weekend’s club games. The advantage for the US is they’d all been kept from their clubs and gone into camp 10 days earlier, as were Brazil’s players. Our side had to overcome the difficulties of international football, like playing in the day while the US played at night, or having less recovery time between games. Against Japan, in the first half especially, we showed a lot of that fatigue. The players tried to keep the ball today but there was so much residual fatigue it made it harder.”
With all that in mind, it was a courageous campaign, and I was also pleased with our defending – both organised and desperate - and our play on the counter attack.
What didn't we do as well? We didn’t play out from the back as well as we have in the past 12-18 months. Having such little preparation time was a factor in that, but it’s an area we have to improve again to get back to the levels we know we can reach.
That can all be summed up by the performance against the USA.
We weren’t playing the ball out as we might have liked, but as the hosts started to gain momentum, we showed fantastic desperation to react to the circumstances. For the most part, I thought we were well organised, but they also put their bodies on the line. Just compare it to US’ 4-1 win over Brazil; they also dominated the South Americans but against us, they didn’t really have the range of clear cut chances that they did today. Against us, there were a lot of crosses, a couple of shots, but to absorb all that against arguably the best front three in the world is a testament to how far the team has come, especially the back four and keeper. All this, remember, in their backyard, with a big home crowd, and a bit of luck too. The corner before their equalising goal should have been a goal kick!
There were a couple of individual standouts for us too, to go with that team reflection.
Hayley Raso had a good tournament; Ellie Carpenter, I thought today she was unbelievable, with the amount of energy and momentum when everyone fatigued. I thought she turned the game for us (both pictured below)
Larissa Crummer came in for the first time in her life at centre-back, after a long time out, and did well.
I thought our two No.6s were both good: Emily van Egmond, and Elise Kellond-Knight.
We built up a bit of depth as well, so that’s another plus on the player front.
We also got to blood two youngsters – 15-year-old Mary Fowler and 16-year-old Amy Sayer. What a great experience for them to come away with the team, and see some of the best players in the world first hand. They sat on the bench, knowing there was a possibility to be a part of the action. It is a great reward coming through the Future Matildas program, where Gary van Egmond and Leah Blayney have done a great job. This was a first step for the youngsters.
Now, there will be a bit of reflection and analysis before we begin a very busy calendar; we should have some announcements for some more games at home and abroad for later this year, while we also get into the W-League, and begin planning the lead-in to France 2019, which will require looking at plenty of logistics based on where our players are playing and living for their club football across the globe.
That’s plenty to look forward to, but for now, we look back on a very productive tournament.
We know we had some great support from back home. We always want to do as well as we can for ourselves, but we also realise the place this team has now got in the sporting and football landscape back home.
I think everyone in the team is pretty proud of the standing in the mainstream media and public and hopefully that translates into some good crowds in November.
I feel sorry for the uswnt girls, cause Jill just fucks up with the line up so bad. The girls arent having any fun anymore, thats the worst of it. The matildas played great, well deserved win for them. Jill you sucks balls and I hope you're gone before the next world cup.
