{"id":317534,"date":"2023-07-20T14:05:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T14:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=317534"},"modified":"2023-07-20T15:00:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T15:00:38","slug":"sloppy-skippers-admission-after-matildas-win-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=317534","title":{"rendered":"'Sloppy': Skipper's admission after Matildas win thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matildas<\/a> skipper Steph Catley admits her side was "sloppy" after Australia survived a thrilling finish to secure a 1-0 win against Ireland in the hosts' opening match of the FIFA Women's World Cup.<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia was rocked by the late out of superstar captain Sam Kerr with a calf injury, but Catley stepped up when her team needed her the most.<\/p>\n

Catley converted from the spot in the 52nd minute to put the Matildas in front, a position they remained for the rest of the night despite a furious finish from Ireland.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED:<\/strong> Australia and New Zealand win WC openers\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Sad twist in 'disgusting' sportsmanship saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Waugh and Broad question Aussie selection 'mistake'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The 29-year-old was relieved to have secured an important three points despite the scratchy performance.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

"It's hard to put into words, to be honest," the Aussie skipper told Optus Sport.<\/p>\n

"It's been such a big lead-up\ufeff and I think we had a lot of adrenaline, so at times there were moments where we were working through that.<\/p>\n

"It was a little bit sloppy and a little bit over-zealous, but in the end we got the result and that's what you need to do in tournaments like this."<\/p>\n

Catley revealed Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson had talked to her about taking penalty duties, even before the injury to Kerr.<\/p>\n

\"Raso<\/p>\n

"\ufeffObviously we didn't have Sammy in tonight, and I've been practising a lot," she said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI was confident in taking it and Tony spoke to me a couple of weeks ago about potentially taking one now and then if it comes up."<\/p>\n

Gustavsson was full of praise for his team, saying he was most impressed by the "mental toughness" to rebound from a busy lead-up and the loss of Kerr.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Of course it's intense but that's tournament football," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Grim<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThis game was going to be tough, we've seen Ireland against top teams before, and all the teams that are here are going to put up a fight. Look at New Zealand beating Norway in Auckland, everyone can beat everyone.<\/p>\n

"Tournament football is about always finding a way to win. There's been a lot of challenges thrown at this team in the last 24 hours."<\/p>\n

The Matlidas' win came in front of a record crowd of 75,784 inside Sydney's Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

Australia will next be in action against Nigeria at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on July 27.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/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<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matildas skipper Steph Catley admits her side was "sloppy" after Australia survived a thrilling finish to secure a 1-0 win against Ireland in the hosts' […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317539,"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\/317534"}],"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=317534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317542,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317534\/revisions\/317542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/317539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}