Matildas humbled by ruthless Dutch

I like what Ante is trying to do and he seems to be a good mix of Ange Postecoglu and Tony Popovic. The problem is the lack of time he has had. The warning signs have been there for a while now but the FFA were asleep at the wheel. Our performance at the Olympics was poor, we played a couple of great matches in a glorified friendly tournament in 2017. 2018 Algarve cup we were terrible and although only glorified friendlies again when combined with a really really poor Asian cup a pattern had emerged. That was when the change should've been made as I felt Stajic had taken them as far as he could. However I still believe we can make the semi finals as our group is reasonably straightforward and a likely quarter final against the Netherlands on neutral territory is a different matter. And that would constitute a success.

A contributing factor to your point about the world catching up in women's football is the full home and away qualifying UEFA nations had. The Netherlands played 12 matches to qualify. Add this to the 6 matches at Euro 2017 and that's 18 competitive matches in 2 years compared to 6 for Australia. When you combine this with a lot of European nations now investing in youth development for the women's game the same way they've done for the men's game it spells trouble for Australia. To be fair to Stajic this was a problem he was well aware of and spoke about often prior to his sacking.

I feel the Matildas needed a tactically astute coach i feel with Milicic who is a talented coach in his own right prefers to take risk on both sides of the ball (noticed how high their offside line was!). With this team its clear we have the attacking talent but defensively we are a bit lose and then the crunch comes to shove in the knockout stages we can't afford to make the same mistakes as in close games one mistake will cost us. To win a world cup you need the right balance on both sides of the ball structurally and tactically in games if you want to give yourself the best chance to win. I feel this current approach with Milicic might prove us costly given the last 2 friendly games but we will see when the world cup begins and we will learn from then onwards.

He was given a leave pass by his club because they had a bye but he promised to be home by Monday!

I watched a bit of the England-NZ game but not all. England seemed to be struggling again, and they did, NZ winning 0-1. A quick look at the NZ press shows some very satisfied Kiwis. Good on them. Under their new (Scottish) coach, they're doing well. Meanwhile controlling Japan, but not overly so.

Late night and busy day so I have only just finished watching the game. It is easy and correct to say that it is only a friendly. However the defence looks a worry. And by that I do not mean just the defenders, I mean the overall defensive plan of the team. A high line makes sense if you have a tight back 4 who are all going to step up together, and who are also very quick in recovery if they get it wrong. AC Milan with Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini and Tassotti were this; the Matildas are not. The other version of the high line is to push up together but then drop back in a co-ordinated way before the ball is hit over the top. The Matildas did not do that either. But the problems were not just the last 4 defenders. I thought that the midfielders and forwards exerted good pressure at times, but when given time the Dutch midfielders [and Bloodworth from centre back]hit very good passes forward. They need to do better so that the defenders are not so exposed. And the lack of organisation for the first goal was appalling. As other posters have stated, on another day the Matildas are likely to have converted some of their chances, and at least there were a few. However the overall quality of crossing was pretty poor, and there were too many poorly chosen and poorly directed passes. I think there is enough quality in the team to get out of the group, but there will need to be a fairly big improvement to progress in the knockout games.

Our defence was slaughtered. The Dutch defence was slaughtered. But, whereas the Dutch attackers, after slaughtering the Aussie defence, took the next step and put the ball in the net 3 times; Aussie attackers, after slaughtering the Dutch Defence had insipid shots, scuffed shots, off-target shots or just a poor final pass. I saw absolutely no greater weakness in the Australian defence compared to the Dutch defence. But, I saw a significant difference in the Australian finishing compared to the Dutch finishing. In the same positions, Australia would have not scored any of the 3 goals the Dutch scored. That's the difference we need to fix if we want to stick around France for the knock-outs.

well you definitely have a valid point but our defence was slaughtered as well. the Matildas have become disjointed im afraid.

Whoever beats this Orange mob will win the W C

but not that many!!

Deja vu all over again. Like watching the men play. Hopefully in the Cup itself Milicic will mix it up a bit and not make our weaknesses so easy to exploit.

Children of migrants such as myself have always appreciated how big the world game is.

I’d have Gielnik in instead of Yallop but she has had great impact as a wide attacking sub. Kerr and Foord are good enough to work around the attention but they do need their front line to up their game to ease the pressure. Raso has been good here but Dutch defence were good enough, even with the tactical ploy of putting the sun in the Dutch keeper’s eyes first half.

Defensively near end of Staj era we were becoming suspect but this morning there are some serious issues. Zonal marking only works if you cover all zones including the ones behind you - that first goal showed this. Also your wing backs can’t bomb forward and not return to cover, or have cover while attacking. Quality ball to attackers needs to be found or a heavily marked Kerr is going to struggle to score all goals. I think it might be a quiet cup for her. Too many turnovers in defensive third: playing out is okay but it falls apart with heavy pressure. A few players may not be in their ideal position as a means to fit form players into the squad. We also look like we are still getting to grips with different playing patterns heading into a World Cup. Dutch are quality and show the narrow margins of top 10 over the last few years. All talk and expectations of Matildas progressing beyond quarter finals just had a reality check and it should just be game by game.

Most Australians just don't appreciate how big the game is and how countries get behind their national football teams. We are poor, really poor, in comparison. But great to see, following this game I switched across to watch the Liverpool match and was surprised when the NRL's Robbie Farrah popped up on camera outside the stadium. The Optus team grabbed him and had a chat, big Liverpool fan and with a bye this weekend he flew to Madrid for the game. Wonder if his coach knew (next game Friday night).

Well done to the Dutch. What a great sendoff for their girls, and to think they're the team we beat for a seeded position in the draw. I don't think our defence, rather our defenders, deserve to be raked over because of the score. Two of the three goals came from set pieces, and the third was a masterpiece from Miedema (doubt any team would have stopped her). Interesting though that Van Egmond was closely involved in two of them, doing exactly what JB alludes to above, and giving the player far too much space. I can't see how she keeps getting a start as she's been lacking for a year or so now, in my opinion anyway. Kerr and Foord were both heavily marked and they have to learn to live with that, it's not as if it's new for them but this morning I think Raso, Carpenter and TButt (Yallop) let us down as much as the strikers, for their missed chances. Our long balls are not as good as they once were either, too many players involved in moving the ball forward quickly on the counter. The Dutch beat us at our own game there, finding lots of space with their long (& accurate) balls. I was surprised there wasn't more movement off the bench but obviously Ante sees this as his strongest side, K Knight aside hopefully (apparently she was injured this morning).

To be fair, the writing has been on the wall for the last year or so. Stajic’s Reign had its problems too

Milicic is a loser and a fantasy island special. The Europeans teams will mark Kerr out of the game, his midfield is a joke starting with Van Egmond. The difference is there were no defenders applying any pressure to the Dutch when they had their chances.

This match is making plenty of news in the Dutch media: Vandaag de #oranjeleeuwinnen met 3-0 zien winnen tegen #Australië. Daarna de voetbaldames uitgezwaaid, volgende week start het WK dames in #Frankrijk. I love the nickname: oranjeleeuwinnen. They are a team to watch.

Nem- There is an old song that covers this latest comment of yours," When will we ever learn?. Tactically there are many ways to win games, but "missed chances" is not normally included in these descriptions, rather it comes under another description "bad play". If one wanted to be really critical of the Matildas one could point out that some very dubious off side calls by the officials probably resulted in Holland only getting one goal for 45 minutes effort while the Matildas should ,or could, have had one. Today our game has entered a phase of tactical development where a team is firstly taught how to defend, and then, after that has been mastered, the attacking function is worked upon. One of the main aims in defending well is to wipe "ball watching" out of the minds of players, and have them "man marking" as a potential block to successful attack. The first Dutch goal was a classic example of this error in our girl's play. Here in Australia we appear to be lagging far behind in both these functions of football. Our men's team struggle with exactly the same problem, we cannot convert possession into penetration fast enough to unsettle organised defences , andthis "proof" has been on show now for some time in the recent past. It has now made a appearance in our women's team, they struggle to score goals despite having one of the world's best strikers in the side, but who struggles to get the service she requires. Our ladies team has come a long way in recent years,but it should be becoming obvious to all interested parties that the "world" is catching up with the top teams and there is little doubt we are now one of the countries being "caught". Cheers jb.