{"id":319728,"date":"2023-07-28T22:45:16","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T22:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=319728"},"modified":"2023-07-29T01:01:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T01:01:50","slug":"cult-favourite-backs-coachs-plan-despite-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=319728","title":{"rendered":"Cult favourite backs coach's plan despite outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mat\ufeffildas<\/a> midfielder Alex Chidiac endured a rollercoaster of a World Cup<\/a> debut on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Even before arriving at Brisbane Stadium for Australia's second group match against Nigeria, Chidiac was the subject of the two-way selection battle for the injured Mary Fowler's spot, \ufeffwhich she eventually lost out to veteran Emily van Egmond.<\/p>\n

A\ufeff cult favourite in the Matildas' squad, the omission of "Chids" from the starting lineup triggered an outpour of reaction on social media with many punters claiming the 24-year-old had once more been snubbed by coach Tony Gustavsson.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> What Olympian brother thinks of Starc's harshest critics<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Joey's scary prediction after Storm masterclass<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Australia 3-1\ufeff down in the 84th minute, it seemed Gustavsson could no longer contain Chidiac's creativity in front of goal, introducing her into the match for Haley Raso.<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media post-match, Chidiac described her late deployment as "a bit of a blur" with her first appearance onto the World Cup stage overshadowed by the Matildas' 3-2 loss to the Super Falcons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"It's a very proud moment for me to get on the field at a World Cup and that's something I've been working towards, but the result in the end is not what I hoped for," she said.<\/p>\n

"I felt really involved in the game from the get go. Definitely with the crowd getting behind us as well, that gave me extra positivity going forward."<\/p>\n

Chidiac immediately injected energy into the game's frantic final minutes and was unlucky not to score after a smattering of half chances.<\/p>\n

Asked if felt she felt she could have had more of an impact on the game if brought into the fold sooner, Chidiac took a team-first view.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

"I think that's \ufeffevery player sitting on the bench," she said of thoughts that she could have been an earlier game-changer.<\/p>\n

"You always want to get on the field and help the team out.<\/p>\n

"You never go against what the coach says. He knows what he's doing, clearly, and he's got a game plan and all of us follow that.<\/p>\n

"We're all one team, at the end of the day, and whatever role I have to play in this World Cup, I'm going to play at the best of my ability."<\/p>\n

Chidiac also spoke of her respect for Gustavsson's call to start van Egmond at her own expense.<\/p>\n

"I'm sure he's got things in his mind ticking over, and yes, personally, of course, I want to play but at the same time it's a team sport and if I'm going to be best utilised coming off the bench then that's what\ufeff I'm going to do," she said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Now facing a must-win clash against\ufeff Canada<\/a> on Monday night to claw their way out of the group stage, Chidiac trusted that her teammates would shake off the shock loss and put out a performance worthy of the Matildas' trademark 'never say die' attitude.<\/p>\n

"You look at all World Cups in history, male and female, and teams face adversity and bounce back. I think we're a team that thrives off of that so I have no doubt that we can bounce back against Canada," she said.<\/p>\n

"We've had things against us with injury and various things outside what we can control but we back ourselves."<\/p>\n

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":"

Mat\ufeffildas midfielder Alex Chidiac endured a rollercoaster of a World Cup debut on Thursday night. Even before arriving at Brisbane Stadium for Australia's second group […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":319730,"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\/319728"}],"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=319728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319732,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319728\/revisions\/319732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/319730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}