Classy Sweden deny Matildas third-placed finish as Gustavsson keeps status quo

Well, my gripe with Gustavsson and his inability to maximise our player capabilities is this: he made sure we played the best teams pre-tournament to learn, develop and improve. In the last 8 months the Matilda’s defeated: England 2-0 Spain 3-2 Sweden 4-0 So, what did Tony learn, improve and develop from those games because those countries sure as hell learnt a lot about us and jumped us heaps. Let’s accept that the Matilda’s did an amazing job regardless of the coach not because of him.

:laughing: . Like name one. Total b/s Kangas. Everyone wants Wiegman now but here they worship Guus Hiddink who did sfa except organise. He was never a maestro but knew what he needed. The French and Argentinian mens coaches put on a master class of tactics in the Mens World Cup final but you still need the ball in the back of the net, so the winning fans can pat themselves on the back with their mastercoach while the losers are out hunting for Mr Fixit. Noticeably France, Germany, don't buy into that but it requires strong leadership from their national FAs. All Roarers wanted Arnold long gone but his current team is one we should be proud of. They're contesting everything and trying to score goals. We don't have the class in Mens or Womans to dictate the play as Spain did to England and England to Australia. The confidence of the Spanish woman to take on everything was obviously a mindset instilled by the coach eg "You're better players, show the world" because that is what they did. Their short passing was at or above the male game level. I was amazed. It looked like the Poms were to.

Worst crosser of the ball is Carpenter. Seriously flawed in that dept.

World Cups (men and women) are littered with games where a team has resorted to thuggery and cynical methods to get a result. That doesn't mean that the opposition weren't good enough or had inferior players. Your argument is no different to saying that the opposition resorted to rough house tactics because they weren't good enough to play football. The ref's need to protect and the US ref did none of that. Way out of her league.

Excellent post, Sheek. You always come to the football tab with lots of interesting, and good comments to adhere to. As you kind of know where I stand with Tony G, he had the occasional good moment (the Canada game), but his record speaks for itself 6th to 10th ranking on the FIFA ranking scale under his watch. Yes, there are a lot of reasons for that, not necessarily all his fault, but what is most disappointing is what he has implemented in the playing style. We were once a short passing football outfit, playing out from the back, under managers Alen Stajcic and Ante Milicic. Now we are a long ball-playing outfit, with our goal-keep under instructions to go long on the goal kicks, where the opponent's CB receives the ball only for them to launch another raid. We now play a 4-4-2 system, not that there is anything really wrong with that, you can still play the short passing possession game, with short passes, and triangles. However, clearly, he has instilled the idea in the team, that you have to go long all the time and cross the 50/50 ball into the mixer, an outdated 50s style of football that good football nations just eat up. Anyways Sheek, I hope you enjoy the final tonight and may the best footballing team win. :happy:

TG may have learned something from the way his team succeeded and struggled over the course of tournament. He will have seen with eyes, and he will have read the reviews. It's not impossible for him to have drawn conclusions which will change the way he coaches, and how he uses his benches. Whether he stays or goes to the US, I hope he has learned and implements that knowledge.

Waz, I don't think it's a question of the Matildas going missing with physicality. I think they paid the price of under-estimating Nigeria. By the time they realised the danger, the game had got away from them. They were also trying to learn to play without Kerr & had also lost Fowler for that game. Against England & Sweden, they were simply out on their feet. The extra-time against France drained them physically, & the longest-ever penalty shoot-out drained them emotionally. By the semi-final those key players who had played most of every game, 8 of them, were simply stuffed. Kerr was fresh as a daisy, Fowler reasonably fresh, but the bulk of the team were out of gas.

Para, To broadly define the 'Peter Principle', people get promoted until they reach their level/position of failure. Knowing yourself well enough as to how far you can progress, or when you've progressed far enough, is a real art, & takes deep introspection few humans are capable of. This is not a criticism of TG, but while he was an outstanding assistant coach with the USA, being a head coach is perhaps a step too far for him. You have highlighted well, as have others, the short-comings of TG in these past 2 matches. As most astute observers have already pointed out, Sarina Wiegman tactically outsmarted TG in the England game. And his good mate Peter Gerhardsson did the same with Sweden. Of course, TG may yet become a better coach/manager, especially if he learns from his experience with the Matildas. It's instructive that the Socceroos' best performance was under 'Aussie' Guus Hiddinck & repeated by his key student Graham Arnold. Good coaches/managers do make a difference. I recall a pertinent observation for Hiddinck when he first became Socceroos' coach. He said the players must arrive at the national team with the requisite skills & fitness. It wasn't his job to teach players how to play or get them fit. This is so true across all sports. Continuing, he argued his job as coach/manager was to outlay the overall strategy & game to game tactics, which the players must be able to execute. Again, this is so true access all sports. Having watched this world cup closely, obviously management of subs is important in tournament football. It's imperative not only to keep key players fresh as the team progresses deeper, but also keep the subs interested, knowing they will not only be needed, but can also push for a starting position. As an anonymous NFL coach said long ago: "I will get ready, then perhaps my chance will come". When you chance arrives, it's not the time to suddenly wish you had done this or that by way of preparation! In this respect TG seems to have fallen down. By the semi-final, most of his key players were running on empty, & the subs hadn't had enough game time to be truly effective off the bench. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but this seems to be the case. How good are the Matildas really? They beat the world #7 & won a 50/50 against #5. But they found both #4 & #3 too good for them. But there are reasonable excuses as given above. So it's reasonable to suggest they are close to top 5 but perhaps not quite there yet. A wise coach/manager could catapult them further though. It's not beyond wondering that while their collective skill level is a bit below the very best, they do have excellent qualities of speed, courage, quick transition play & team spirit, if Sarina Wiegman, who is arguably now the best coach/manager in women's football, had the Matildas, she could make the difference from 4th to first in 2027. But of course, she's not available.

Have to agree about Carpenter. She used to carry the ball strongly and beat tackles. But seemed to be out of form or outclassed in the last two games.

The player coming into the top of the box for the cross rebound (normally Fowler) often wasn't there.

It is noticeable that England brought a tactic of physical intimidation to the Australian game, apparently previously unseen from the English girls. It had an affect and Sweden did the same throughout. Australia were on fire for a period in the second half against England but got weary when England scored again. Quite often that is the case when you're getting beaten and running out of ideas. We didn't really create a lot against Sweden because the normal creators were getting hussled and getting no room to move. Noticeably we didn't get the lift expected when the bench players came on.

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It's obvious what the Matildas need - more heteros! They need more players with better ball management! That's a joke folks, don't lose your marbles!! :laughing:

As soon as Kerr is on they play cross after cross from deep and long balls. They are really bad at crosses , and there is no one chasing the second ball on the long balls. The bread and butter of the Matildas should be using their speed to get to the byline and play it along the ground .

Yes, Sweden did. Tony G had no idea how to change the game with the players on the field. Foord was worked out very early on the flank, and so was Rasso on the opposite flank, A good manager could have stepped in and told those players to switch flanks occasionally, to add a different dimension to the attack, to unsettle Sweden's defence. If you keep on doing the same thing and expect a different result it never happens. However, the real problem was we were out of legs in the midfield where our engine room had no control of the ball movement. Dispossessed and poor passing.

Of course, we are extremely proud of the Matildas, but we have to analyse where and why we could not get to the final. I know there is a lot of love for Tony G, but we were 6 in the rankings when he arrived and have since slipped to a 10th-ranked team just prior the the WWC. Playing a WWC on home soil, for me, we should have at least made the final with that amazing home town support. The best for all now is: that Tony G, takes that coaching job in the USA.

At the end of the day, as good as we were for most of the tournament, we probably showed that we are a fraction short of top 3 material. No embarrassment in that. Given England now has a very strong Premier League, and the whole squad is playing Premier League, they are not going to drop out of that top 3 any time soon. How can we improve the Matildas going forward? That's easy, get the majority into the Premier League. About both of our last two opponents, they were clearly better on the night, but I'd like to mention a couple of goals they scored: - that first one against England was about as perfect a strike as you will ever seen, and - actually, that 2nd Swedish goal may have been even better, true captain's goal.

Fowler's last two games were relatively poor, but she's young, and during the tournament as a whole, she showed oodles of class, indeed, at a level that we are not used to seeing in Australian national teams.

It's a good point, having Raso and Foord wide AND Kerr and Fowler both forward of midfield was perhaps a touch ambitious, especially at the pointy end of the tournament.

Fowler & Van E are so over rated by the commentating press. They both give possession away so easily, Van E just passes the ball to oppositions. Fowler just looked so lazy when the press was on while others like Foord & Kerr were busting their gut. No excuses for her, she's younger than Foord, surely she can put it in. Until the Matildas can keep possession & control the ball right across the park like some of these Euro teams we aren't going to improve on 4th spot.