{"id":109834,"date":"2021-08-01T09:30:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T09:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=109834"},"modified":"2021-08-01T13:58:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T13:58:59","slug":"kerr-gives-matildas-a-headache-ahead-of-semi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=109834","title":{"rendered":"Kerr gives Matildas a headache ahead of semi"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Matildas<\/a> could be forced to start captain Sam Kerr<\/a> on the bench in a vital Olympic semi-final clash against Sweden on Monday, with fatigue setting in for a number of Australia's stars.<\/p>\n

Kerr, who scored twice in the extra time quarter-final win over Great Britain, is one of five players who could be rotated out to start the semi-final, joining Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter, Tameka Yallop and Emily van Egmond.<\/p>\n

OLYMPICS LIVE BLOG: DAY 9 UPDATES, NEWS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> TOKYO GAMES EVENT CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, Kerr's involvement in the semi-final is likely to be as a "dangerous impact player from the bench", with teenager Mary Fowler training as a centre-forward in the lead-up to the clash in preparation to potentially start.<\/p>\n

However, Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson will give his stars every chance to be right to start the semi-final, and is not expected to make his final team selection until the morning of the match.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We have a couple of question marks, we are deep into the tournament," he said. <\/p>\n

"I want to be very clear\u2026 It's not just about the starting line-up it's about the finishing line-up."<\/p>\n

Sweden is the form side of these Olympics, having beaten Australia 4-2 in the group stage while also dismantling the United States 3-0, becoming the first team to defeat the Americans since 2019.<\/p>\n

Gustavsson suggested that his side's plan to counter the prolific Swedes will be centred around dominant ball-possession.<\/p>\n

"The best way to avoid having Sweden attack against is to make sure we have the ball," he said.<\/p>\n

So far they have been the best team in the tournament, looking at how they play.<\/p>\n

"A lot of their attacking players are in the form of their lives, you can see that in their attacking play, they are scoring a lot of goals."<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Matildas could be forced to start captain Sam Kerr on the bench in a vital Olympic semi-final clash against Sweden on Monday, with fatigue […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109836,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109834\/revisions\/109836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}