The Matildas are out of the Olympic Games football tournament after a second group stage loss meant they finished outside the top eight and the quarterfinals stage.
The Matildas lost 2-1 to the United States and were outplayed for most of a game that included a farcical 10-minute delay to confirm the Americans’ opening goal.
The Aussies’ hopes were left riding on Colombia snatching a draw or win over Canada, but the Canadians held on for a 1-0 victory in the later game and advanced despite losing six points for spying on New Zealand.
Trinity Rodman, the daughter of Chicago Bulls legend Denis Rodman, had put the USA 1-0 up against the Aussies before a review for offside on her teammate that was delayed due to technical errors. A livid Australian coach Tony Gusatvsson was yellow carded in the chaos but the goal was allowed to stand.
Mackenzie Arnold, whose form was criticised after the 6-5 loss to Zambia, failed to deal with a long-range strike from Korbin Albert as the USA went 2-0 ahead.
Australia showed plenty of courage to get back into the match, with Alanna Kennedy, thrust up front in the dying stages, pulling a goal back. However, Kennedy had a golden chance to seal progress with a header at the death, but missed the curling cross from Ellie Carpenter. She was in tears at the final whistle as the costly miss sank in.
The result left Australia in third place in Group B after Germany beat Zambia 4-1 at the same time. Two of the third place teams advanced but Australia missed out due to their -3 goal difference.
The Matildas have ridden a wave of public support since their excellent World Cup campaign on home soil, but this was a poor campaign in what should be Gustavsson’s swansong as coach.
“It’s a tough one to take for us. We left it all out there,” Hayley Raso told Channel 9.
“There’s still a little bit of hope so we’ll go back and follow the result of the next game closely and go from there.”
“You can tell we’re all devastated,” Clare Wheeler added.
“It’s going to be one of those games we wish we could have again … we can only hope.”
“We’re sorry we couldn’t get the job done today.”
Gustavsson was proud of his team, even though it was not enough.
“I said to the players in the circle that they should be extremely proud of the performance,” he said. “They stuck to the game plan. We were playing one of the most in-form teams of the tournament.”
Tony Harperhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2024/08/01/devastated-matildas-miss-out-on-quarters-as-loss-to-usa-and-canadas-win-sends-aussies-home/‘Devastated’: Matildas eliminated amid VAR drama as loss to USA and Canada’s win sends Aussies home
Post a Comment