The Matildas’ Olympic campaign is off to the worst possible start, crushed 3-0 by a rampant Germany in Marseille in a bitter reality check for Tony Gustavsson’s team.
Having dominated lesser opposition earlier in the year to cruise into qualification for the Paris Games, Australia must now regroup and fast before their second group stage match against Zambia in Nice on Monday morning (AEST).
Set pieces were a continuous thorn in the Matildas’ side, with the world’s fourth-ranked side and 2016 Olympic champions scoring twice from headed corners before a second half tap-in from Julie Brand put the exclamation mark on the rout.
Making matters worse, the scoreline arguably flattered them, with Germany missing several gilt-edged chances that could have made things even uglier.
Speaking after the loss, Gustavsson could only apologise to fans for the performance, lamenting the Tillies’ ‘rusty performance’.
“I just want to say I’m so sorry to let down the fans back home… I know we disappointed a lot of people,” he said.
“This side is so physical normally, we win all the one-on-one duels, there’s aggressiveness there, we’re running and our speed beats teams. But it wasn’t really there tonight.
“Hopefully that was the rusty performance we hopefully needed to get out of the system and then come back against Zambia.”
The Matildas were left to rue a crippling lack of match fitness, with the absence of champion striker Sam Kerr due to injury also leaving a gaping hole.
The loss continues a wretched start to the Paris Games in which everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, with the team notably having had their bags briefly go missing in transit upon arrival in France.
Gustavsson is hopeful the Matildas can repeat their famous recovery from a similar sluggish start to their 2023 Women’s World Cup campaign on home soil, where the team rebounded from a shock group stage loss to Nigeria to make it all the way to the semi-finals.
“I think we needed that as a wake-up call to say okay, now we’re in it,” he said.
“The one thing I know about this team is that when they’re backed against a corner and there’s a lot of s–t thrown at them with curve balls and different ways, a loss 3-0 or baggage going missing… they never use these things as excuses.”
Speaking after the match, captain Steph Catley echoed Gustavvson’s sentiments, saying the defeat was a ‘wake-up call’.
“We did it to ourselves in the end – we conceded two set pieces. We are usually much, much better on set pieces,” she said.
“It’s a wake-up call, and it’s not to our standard – we know that, so we’ll go back and look at what we need to improve, and we need to be better for the next game and turn this tournament around.”
When asked by a Nine reporter how they could achieve this, Catley tersely replied ‘what I just said’.
Eight teams of the 12 who qualified for the Games will make it through to the knockout stage, meaning the Matildas’ hopes of progressing are far from done – but they’ll need to improve fast.
A win over Zambia in their next match, who are ranked 64th in the world, should be enough to avoid bottom spot in the group and a humiliating first-stage exit; however, waiting in the wings is the mighty USA in their final group stage match, with another performance similar to that against Germany potentially enough to leave them as the third-ranked third-placed team, which would eliminate them from the tournament.
The Roarhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2024/07/26/disappointed-a-lot-of-people-gustavsson-apologises-after-matildas-rocked-by-2016-champs-in-brutal-olympic-reality-check/‘Disappointed a lot of people’: Gustavsson apologises after Matildas rocked by 2016 champs in brutal Olympic reality check
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