by Emma Burke in Adelaide for Impetus (30/5/24)
Above: Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson (left) and attacker Caitlin Foord at today’s media conference in Adelaide. Photo: Emma Burke for Impetus.
Ahead of Friday’s game against China in Adelaide, the first of two games in the ‘Til it’s Done Farewell Series,’ Matildas’ head coach Tony Gustavsson has admitted that he is dreading having to cut his squad down to 18 for the Paris Olympics at the end of the week.
“It’s been a stressful week for me to be honest because it’s the week of selection,” he said, “the worst part of being a head coach is that I have to tell someone at the end of this week that you’re not going to the Olympics.”
The final squad will be made up of 18 players, and an extra four will travel with the team, available as alternates should anything happen to one of the 18. While the players will know if they’ve made the 18 by the end of this week, a public announcement will be made on the 4th of June, after the second Farewell game in Sydney the night before.
“A core group of players [are] locked in for us… I’d say roughly 14 to 15 is there, there’s a question mark on a player availability on like, a Katrina Gorry for example, so when making a selection we have to make it based on where we think she will be on the 25th of July not where she’s at now,” he said.
Based on what Gustavsson has said, there are only three or four tickets to Paris left, but who those will go to is anyone’s guess.
Caitlin Foord reflected on the reality of the situation in the same media conference. “This is the last opportunity to prove yourself and show that [you should be selected] so I would say a lot of the girls are nervous for the game tomorrow,” the Arsenal star said.
Despite the nerves around and in the camp, there’s still nowhere else Foord and her teammates would rather be.
“We play each other week in week out overseas in club [football] but at the end of the day we want to be on the pitch together and the goal ahead is the Olympics. There’s no such thing as a friendly. Every national team game, every time we put on the green and gold it’s definitely not a friendly match,” she said, further stressing the importance of tomorrow night.
The game will be hosted at Adelaide Oval, where a men’s AFL game will be played tonight, bringing up questions about the quality of the pitch at tomorrow’s kick-off which is slated for 7:40pm local time.
Gustavsson had no such qualms about his side in relation to such an issue however. “No matter what is thrown at them whether it’s a pitch or an injury or the weather, they just do it, they get it done, that’s just who these players are so no matter what we face tomorrow we’re going to be ready to play,” he said.
Follow Impetus on social media –
Twitter (X): @impetusfootball TikTok: @impetusfootball
Facebook: @impetuswomensfootball Instagram: @impetusfootball
impetusfootball.org 