Gustavsson is an outstanding coach. Gustavsson was previously assistant coach for the USA womans team, to me the best coached and attacking team I’ve seen; ahead of even Manchester City men.
They went out to score goals from the kick off and scored early.
By comparison previous Matildas coach, Stajic, had the players pass the ball back to the goalkeeper. That tells you everything about the mindset instilled.

This team is on track and its a shame we aren’t playing the silly poms in the World Cup final.

I’de rather lose to anyone but them!

It should be an epic contest.

The misogynist flops managing the AFL still haven’t realised that around 50% of the population are woman and they have the buying power. Thats why they dress in 1950s suits in a hot country and put up measured responses. The AFLW needs equal funding to the mens. The crowds follow.
Just look at the England situation and Arsenal woman for comparison. Money, 25k ave crowds (way more than watch Oz play test cricket there). These cavemen are Victorian to the bone. Backward!

I thought there would have been a French furore about Clare Hunt getting away with the handball in the penalty area in the second half. It was inadvertent, not deliberate but still a penalty.
If it was us we would have been “robbed”.
I was hoping Mary Fowler could kick her penalty hard enough, and it went like a rifle shot.
She has to be up there among the best players in womans football.
The Manchester United womens WEPL coach must be a complete fool.

This promises to be a top game against a classy French team.
I so hope we play well and can score goals.
I think we’re in bonus territory now.

A World Cup semi-final for the Matildas would be fantastic.

This one is also a junket. Vlandys present to himself and staff.
No doubt he’ll quit afterwards, having conquered the world.

they seem very ordinary teams.

Funny reading this as Man C coach Pep Guardiola recently said how the formation eg 4-3-3 was talk for the journos and fans but not relevant to his team.
They are professional footballers in a dynamic situation and will respond in whatever way is best as they see it.
The formation thing is to try and convince others you know what you are talking about.
So read every expert comment with that in mind.

This is a top Australian team. Previously we had a weak middle order but Head, Green and now Marsh are laying waste to that. Our bowling attack has always been competitive with the best and as pointed out England are currently ok away as well but that is rare as with India.
We shall see how good England are away when they visit India in the New Year.
I expect India will eventually be dominant when they get over their psychological shortcomings.
They appear to have an endless stream of quality talent but hopeless selectors who do their best to stymie the talent which is so apparent in IPL.

Cambage is an embarrassment to herself. Unwanted in the USA, Australia and little doubt she will be unwanted in Nigeria. They already know what she is like. Just retire please.

The talk is great but the performance isn’t. I can’t see this Australian team beating Wales, England or Argentina at the World Cup.
But you can bet your last dollar that the coach will have an explanation for it.
The key problems are the Coach and the players.
There are no World Class (best 15) players, or close in the Australian team.
The Coach is long washed up but is mates with the limp embarrassment that is McLennan.
And there is no Australian coach better than Jones.
No one else would want the gig with McLennan as CEO.
A great team will beat champion individuals but that requires a great coach! We don’t have one.

That may be so Sheek, but if you were born in a prison would you want to represent the prison for your life. Or worse be born in Fremantle and be confined to a lifetime of Freo Dockers with only fleeting prospects of winning a flag or escaping to a good team.
I think every sportsperson should have a choice. There are consequences to every choice as they will know.
We saluted Harry Soutar at the mens World Cup, apparently yet to live a day in Australia. We don’t care. The team did great and he was a big part of it.
Wimbleton champion Rybakina is a Kazak who represents Kazakhstan but I think still has her home in Moscow, but is nationally celebrated in both countries.

The system is just fine the way it is.

The Wallabies have a lot of room to grow. This World Cup is to soon. ABs have played well this season against SH teams but that doesn’t make them better than NH teams.
Australia will be stretched to get through the group stage, even with their super coach who was so recently dumped by England. They also lost at home to Argentina and Wales just beat England. But if we don’t get out of the group stage EJ will be letting you know why.
Verbal diarrhea is what he is best at.

It seems to me we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The ABs looked a spent force last season but rocked SA so now all is good for the World Cup. Australia competed well with the ABs in Dunedin so EJ has us winning the World Cup.
But none of these teams looked like beating the likes of France, Ireland last time around and a coach like Jones must be well aware having not been able to cut the mustard since the last World Cup.
We only have to beat the lowly England that Jones coached, Wales and Argentina to be in the last grouping in this upcoming World Cup. So we’re a chance but not a very good one. Talk is cheap for a BS artist like Jones.
The team is ok but they’re a long way from being World Champs at this stage in their careers.

Didn’t all those Roar experts have Boland in for all 5 tests as a Terry Alderman fit. The difference was the Poms came at Boland in an unprecedented way in test cricket. His immaculate length became half volleys because they studied him and attacked him out of the attack (two steps down the wicket). It was planned. He is no worse than he was before the series.

When Australia lost to India in Australia the Indians brought in two fresh bowlers at the end of the series. One was Siraj. They won India the series. Australia didn’t learn from that. We had already played the WTC final as a warm up, but in the end it was to much. Bringing in Jyhe Richardson and Lance Morris for the last two tests would have been perfect. But I think they’re injured.
Also we are front runners, and pretty much always have been. So why send the Poms in to bat in the last test when it has pretty much failed every time.

It seems to me, we don’t learn from past mistakes.

Farthing, worth quarter of a penny. At least you have the right value for yourself.

Ej press conferences are “feed the chooks” affairs.
The 9 to 5 rugby writers lap it up.
BS is what Jones has always done best.

But he’s on the right track with the team.
Just not for the upcoming World Cup.

Alpine were looking on track before Ricciardo departed for a number 2 seat at McLaren. Strange as he appeared to be having a good time and was number one. Alfonso said he would have signed any written contract put in front of him, but none was. While Ocon and Gasly are ok F1 drivers they don’t appear to have WDC potential as Dan had at one stage and Alonso and Piastri have. And their engine is still 30hp down on the others after all these years. The blame game won’t help them and the number of departures would appear to make it harder to attract quality staff.
I think Alpine have zero interest in Michael Andretti or any deal with him. That is a current gossip line with what seems to be no foundation.
Alpine say they have long term F1 funding in place.
Why doesn’t Andretti go for Haas?

I prefer Ponting in commentary where he is outstanding or the rest are less than mediocre.

Australia have played that extra test for the WTC trophy and have done great to get to this stage. Cummins dim witted critics are beneath contempt. Sure he can improve but so can everyone. His critics lack a spine. The backbone that winners like Cummins possess.
It’s been a great series.

Watta ya mean. All he needed was to get played that mark he took at the end and he would (could) have been a hero. Could also have been penalised.
Not much in this game but we stopped playing positive with about 10 to go.

Not to mention Redcliffe is as Rugby League centric as it gets and when I left Perth you needed to look a few pages from the back page to find the weekend NRL scores in the West paper.
I doubt NRL makes any Perth TV news channel even now.
It would rely on Eastern States has beens moving there each year to survive and this didn’t work previously. And the RL talent is thin on the ground now with the present number of teams.
Hence the blow out scores.

It’de be great if McIlroy retired. We wouldn’t have to put up with his dim-witted regular comments.
This is the guy who dumps his girlfriend by text message, such is his class of person.

Looked to be becoming an all-time great golfer prior to deciding he preferred the celebrity status.

I’m proud of this Australian team under Pat Cummins. He is articulate and smart
and we aren’t getting the seedy behaviour so prevalent in the past twenty years
despite the likes of Warner still being there.
He will only get better with experience of course. Here we see the same critics for
not bowling Murphy, Green as those who would criticise him for bowling them when
they’re not doing the job.
If you were watching you’de know why they weren’t getting a bowl.
Murphy has a way to go with flight and is obviously being targeted because of that.
Who-ever said he was better than Ali can’t see what they’re watching.
Ali has a lot of experience at test level and flights the ball nicely.

But back to Cummins. If he wins the Ashes series in England this team will become an all-time great team if they aren’t already. And Cummins is a great bowler now and when his onfield captaincy gets to the same level, we’ll be on a roll.

And he’s not doing so badly now with Australia being WTC champions for the first time ever.

Ricciardo was weak at McLaren but they were trying to make him a technical driver eg change settings frequently and that obviously did not suit him.
Red Bull reckon Dan has improved out of site since arriving back in familiar surroundings.
This puts a rocket under Perez who hasn’t got the fastest F1 car out of Q1 for 5 successive GPs.
But in all likelihood Perez will be back at the front in Hungary due to necessity.
He needs to be winning races if Verstappen doesn’t or he will be replaced by some lucky driver.

The Alpha Tauri has been poor lately after starting the season well. Its hard to know if it’s the drivers or the car but Tsunodo did start the season with impressive speed.
So Ricciardo has a chance to impress but I doubt he will do enough to get a 2024 drive except potentially replacing Tsunodo as Alpha Tauris number one driver.
I still see Lawson as next in line for the second Red Bull seat if Perez doesn’t improve quickly.

DeVries was in the wrong team for a first season veteran. Haas, Williams & Alfa would suit him better but his F1 driving career is probably over.

Browns met all the Dragon requirements for a hefty contract at St George.