Mex test the answer
Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson is adamant the Mexico friendly delivered “a lot of answers” for their Olympics preparation as he heaped praise on an aggressive second-half performance.
Gustavsson took a conservative approach to his personnel in the 2-0 win in San Antonio but said he was pleased to experiment with different midfield and defensive combinations in the absence of injured stars Katrina Gorry and Clare Hunt.
He said the Matildas produced possibly the best attacking performance of his tenure during the second half despite it only yielding a single goal to Caitlin Foord.
Gustavsson said whether key players would return in time for Paris remained “a big question mark” but he was focused on trialling different formations rather than unearthing like-for-like swaps.
He opted against starting in-form Everton midfielder Clare Wheeler despite saying she “deserved” the opportunity after impressing in the Matildas’ camp, bringing her on in the 62nd minute along with veteran defender Clare Polkinghorne and returning winger Cortnee Vine.
“Based on training, (Wheeler) would have deserved to start, she’s been very, very good in training,” Gustavsson said after the game.
“I talked to her this morning and it was pre-planned to get her minutes because she deserved it.
“And we wanted to look at a lot of different pairings in there, I think we had four different centre-midfield pairings that were looked at now – when Mini (Gorry) is away, we wanted to test it.”
Gustavsson said Mexico’s relentless high press in the first half-hour of the match was “exactly what we needed”, with Olympics group opponents Germany and USA both expected to employ a similar tactic.
“Their commitment, the pressing, the tactical awareness … they really threw a challenge at us in the first 30 minutes,” he said.
“That’s exactly what we needed – I said before this game we really wanted to test the limits tonight. We know Germany is going to come flying at us with pressing, we know the US is going to come flying at us with pressing – let’s test the limits. “Now the next step is obviously can we now do this against a top-ranked opposition, which we haven’t tested yet.”
After using versatile newcomer Kaitlyn Torpey as a left-back in her third appearance, Gustavsson continued to be impressed by her unflappable nature in a strong hint she would be one of the 18 picked to travel to Paris.
Torpey was shifted there after playing mostly as a rightwinger in the Uzbekistan matches, but a starting spot opened up at left-back with skipper Steph Catley moved into Clare Hunt’s vacant central defensive role.
“Is the left side the best for (Torpey)? Maybe not, same with Charli (Grant) but both of them can manage the outside back positions, so we wanted to experiment with that as well,” Gustavsson said.
“I think Torpey, what I like is she’s very level-headed, she doesn’t freak out and get rattled by this environment, she’s just true to herself and very confident, calm and composed.”