Above: Tony Gustavsson speaking to the press. Image: Football Australia.
By Genevieve Henry (12/7/24).
Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson spoke to the media today, sharing his thoughts of Australia’s hard work and mentality ahead of their Olympic warm-up match against Canada.
“It’s been intense. Very intense.”
In preparation for the heat, the team has been training in Marbella in the south of Spain. “We’ve been training very, very hard, getting some heat acclimation to be ready to play in heat, but also we know how tight the schedule in the Olympics is, so we have to make sure we’re fit and in form.” Gustavsson said, but emphasised the importance of the balance between work and rest. “You don’t want to break them, you want to build them.”
With two of Australia’s defenders in tough spots with injury, Gustavsson shared that it’s still too early to say if captain Steph Catley and young gun Kaitlyn Torpey will be available for their first game in the Olympics against Germany. He was optimistic about Torpey in particular and hoped to get her some minutes in the upcoming matches.
“It’s a great change, considering player welfare…” Gustavsson raved about the impact the new rule regarding alternates could make, especially if Torpey and Catley aren’t ready by the first match.
“Before we even knew the rule change, we had already made the decision. Steph is with us. Everything we do is to make her available for the 25th. Even if there wasn’t a rule change, I would have kept her.” Gustavsson said, “It’s Steph Catley. It’s our captain.”
Gustavsson spoke about the selection of Canada as their pre-Olympics opponent, highlighting the similarities “in terms of player profile, physicality, aggressiveness, speed in behind the back line” between the side and the USA and Germany in particular.
“Over the past year, we haven’t played as many games against top oppositions as we did leading into the World Cup.”
Coming off of a break, many players will have a harder time getting into tournament mode. “(A lot of the team) haven’t played a game in a long time, it’s against the Olympic champions, and we’re a little bit heavy-legged, so it will be a challenge, but that replicates what it will be like further (into) the tournament.”
“We’re gonna see a lot of rotation, a lot of subs in tomorrow’s game,” Gustavsson shared, after mentioning that the team will be tired going into the match. The teams agreed to use unlimited subs, so Gustavsson and Canada coach Bev Priestman can give their players a rest after full-on training camps.
“It’s all about preparing for the Olympics.” He said, “We need to approach it as though it is the Olympics. Otherwise, we don’t train the mental part of the game.”
Gustavsson talked about the balance of focusing on their first match, versus the rest of the group stage, saying, “All three group stage (matches) are important.” One of the hardest groups, the Tillies will have to contend with 2016 Olympic champs Germany, powerhouse USA, and dark horse Zambia.
“We present all three group stage opponents, so they have an idea of what its gonna look like, so when you’re on the training park and you do different drills, you can always reference ‘okay, this will be good against that opponent…But now getting closer to it, it’s more focus on Germany, because it’s all about the opening game, mindset wise.”
“You need to get out of the group. Once you get out of that group, anything can happen.”
“It’s very important that multiple players get playing time as well, ” he said, bringing up his ‘finishing eleven’ belief. “Every single player sitting on that bench is gonna have to be ready; tactically, mentally, and physically.”
“When you mention (Kyra Cooney-Cross and Mary Fowler), I think they (personify) the journey of this team. If you look at that first Olympics, Kyra Cooney-Cross had zero caps in Tokyo, I think Mary had three, and I think both of them are about 50 now. If you look at their journey, I think they represent the journey of this team, where we’re not only competing in major tournaments, we’re building depth in the roster.”
“They go in much more ready to take a bigger responsibility. Both Kyra and Mary can lead by the way they play. If you look at Cooney-Cross, she’s been consistent playing centre mid for us, that’s the heart, the engine of everything we do.”
“Then you look at Mary, who’s been phenomenal at the end of the season for Manchester City. Then for us, she’s also been good, but I want to make her great. It’s my job to make sure we find her more often, and that’s actually been a very, very important topic for us over these past ten days. How can we find Mary more in the game, how can we get her more involved, what players do we need around her…How can I utilise Mary more? When she’s on the ball, she can do things that very few players can do.”
“They should just be Kyra and Mary, because that’s when they are at their best.”
The Matildas have been working especially hard to form cohesion on the pitch, “No matter if it’s these two centre midfielders or those two…that everyone has an understanding of collectively what we wanna do, but individually, we want the players to be themselves.”
“It’s important that all those players get minutes in this game.”
“You know what it’s like in life, you get experiences that can’t be replicated in training. I think that the World Cup on home soil made them even better prepared for this tournament.”
“This is the fourth tournament for me with this team, so this team feels better prepared. A lot of these players have played together for a long time. The tactics we’ve done after the World Cup to have a base structure, as the building block, and work on developing that game style over a year going into this tournament. Hopefully I made them feel (that winning mentality), and I feel something similar. I feel there’s a vibe here, there’s a commitment, there’s a determination, and there’s a belief.”
“The players definitely feel prepared.”
“We know the Olympics is going to be tough. We’re not even ranked top eight, so in terms of ranking maybe we shouldn’t even make it to the quarterfinal, maybe on paper we are not the best team. But the one thing this team knows is that we can beat any team.”
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