Women’s World Cup 2023 team guides part five: Australia
Never before has there been more pre-tournament excitement surrounding an Australian national football team. A World Cup on home soil, a squad boasting a golden generation of players and an encouraging run of sustained good form have piqued interest and heightened anticipation in a country where football usually struggles for relevance.
Led by their talismanic captain, Sam Kerr, the team have sent expectations soaring, but it hasn’t always been so with Tony Gustavsson at the helm. Defensive frailties blighted the coach’s early tenure and, despite a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, a disastrous exit at the quarter-final stage of the 2022 Asian Cup raised questions about the Swede’s ability to mount a credible World Cup challenge.
Gustavsson has sought to move beyond a “just give it to Kerr” mentality and tried to avoid an overreliance on his star striker by giving game time to squad players wherever possible – not always to great success. A 7-0 defeat to Spain in June last year proved something of a nadir after he sent out an inexperienced team to the slaughter in Huelva. But the benefits of that policy may finally be coming to fruition, and the Matildas have since compiled a run of eight wins out of their last nine, including victories over top-10 teams Sweden, Spain and England – not always with a full-strength side.
“Sometimes you’re not as bad as people say you are when you lose, but you’re not as good as people say you are when you win, either,” Gustavsson said after fielding a side heavily weakened by injury in the 2-0 win over England in April. “We know on any given day, we might not have the best team, but we can beat the best teams.” And with mixed results giving way to a solid run of form, the suggestion is that Australia may just be timing their run to perfection.
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