Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has defended his selection strategy for the FIFA Women’s World Cup despite his team succumbing to exhaustion during their semi-final loss to England on Wednesday night.
Running with the same select group of players for Australia’s five preceding matches, including through extra time and a penalty shootout in the game before against France, there had been fears that the Matildas’ starting XI would be out on their feet against England.
This, unfortunately, rang true as Australia failed to keep up the momentum following Sam Kerr’s wondergoal in the 63rd minute to level the match.
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Facing criticism over his lack of squad rotation, reluctance to turn to his bench and incapacity to respond to match situations playing out in front of him, Gustavsson doubled down on his decision-making.
“We have had a clear strategy and I know there are opinions in this room about that, which I think is fair because I like those types of debates — whether you should rotate players in a tournament, whether you should have continuity in the line-up,” he told media on Friday.
“I think you saw in the [last] Olympics and I think you’ve seen now we have gone with a strategy that we think relationship and continuity in tournaments is key.
“It’s a strategy that we believe in but player availability will be key in that sense — how much do they have in their tank physically [and] who starts. The base and core of it will be what we think is best to win the game.”
With a sticking point being Australia’s lack of squad rotation when compared to England, Gustavsson discussed how line-up consistency had been essential to England’s European Championship triumph.
Despite claims the Lionesses rotated more players than the Matildas in the run to the semis, Gustavsson argued that this was only the case because of England’s 6-1 win over China, which allowed the team to make substitutions.
“Other than that, they have actually done fewer subs than us,” he said.
“They have continuity and they are in a World Cup final.
After missing Australia’s semi-final with illness, central defender Alanna Kennedy has been ruled out of the third-place playoff after exhibiting delayed concussion symptoms from the team’s quarter-final victory over France.
Kennedy was sorely missed in the 3-1 loss as veteran Clare Polkinghorne struggled to match England’s pace.
Asked to provide a timeline for Kennedy’s withdrawal due to illness on Wednesday to the announcement of a delayed concussion on Friday, Gustavsson said he would leave that for Football Australia officials to communicate.
Reflecting on Kennedy’s campaign, Gustavsson described her omission as a “curve ball” and said it was difficult not having the 28-year-old available for selection.
”Alanna is a good example of how hard these players work to be fit and ready for a tournament. She, among a lot of other players, had a very tough club experience coming into this tournament with injury and limited playing time,” he said.
“Alanna had maybe her best tournament ever I would say for the national team. She has been tremendous both defending the box and attacking the box, being a double nine for us — even though I know some of you don’t like that — and also being massive on set plays.”
Asked whether under-used players such as Charli Grant, Clare Wheeler or Alex Chidiac could expect to feature in Saturday’s bronze-medal match, Gustavsson declared he would not run players for the sake of the occasion.
“If [selection] was emotionally [based], those players would play because they deserve to play,” he said.
“But I can’t pick based on emotions. This is a third-placed game, we’re playing for a medal. I’m going to make sure we have a line-up that is the strongest starting line-up we can have but also the strongest finishing line-up.
“So, once again, I’m just going to plan what I think is best for the team in this one game and not look at the bigger picture of that.
“It’s not about giving players experience just for the sake of giving experience. This is a game to win.”
Midfielder Katrina Gorry was also seen sporting a compression bandage on her left leg at the Matildas’ pre-match training session on Friday, however Gustavsson was not concerned.
“Everyone is available, it’s just about minutes
“Mini [Gorry] was offloaded [at training] to make sure she is available. She got a little knock in the game and we’ve done everything we can to individualise the plan.
“Mini is available.”
Gorry has covered the most distance of any player at this World Cup and has made the second-most tackles.
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