{"id":320071,"date":"2023-07-30T12:35:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T12:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=320071"},"modified":"2023-07-30T12:58:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T12:58:33","slug":"matildas-coachs-grim-admission-with-legacy-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=320071","title":{"rendered":"Matildas coach's grim admission with 'legacy' at stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beleaguered M\ufeffatildas<\/a> coach Tony Gustavsson says Australia's FIFA Women's World Cup<\/a> campaign will be a failure if the team crashes out in the group stage of its home tournament.<\/p>\n

Fronting the media on the eve of Australia's \ufeffdo-or-die match against Canada in Melbourne, Gustavsson admitted not reaching the knockout stage would be disastrous.<\/p>\n

"I definitely think it's fair to say it's a failure if we don't get out of the group [stage]. I mean everyone here understands that," he said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Inside Matildas' response to crushing Nigeria loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Stuart Broad stuns Ashes with retirement announcement<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Selection headache facing Australia's swim stars<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

"\ufeffOf course, we want to get out of the group being a home World Cup.<\/p>\n

"I'm the first to admit that hopefully they don't go out, but that's not our mindset\ufeff right now; our mindset is just about playing the game in front of us."<\/p>\n

Remaining true to one of his go-to lines, Gustavsson acknowledged the Matildas' shock 3-2 loss to Nigeria<\/a> last Thursday may have damaged his repute as the right person to mentor this team.<\/p>\n

"We know how this business works, that there's always going to be a lot of opinions … and more likely when you lose a game, as well," he said.<\/p>\n

"As I've said before, as a coach of a team you're never better than your last game, so right now I probably sit up here as not the best coach.<\/p>\n

"We did an in-depth review of … the Ireland game when we won, we did an \ufeffin-depth review after the Nigeria game when we lost. We take a lot of learnings from games one and two, and we move to game three."<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

In the wake of the game against Nigeria, Gustavsson's tactics have been heavily criticised.<\/p>\n

He made just \ufefftwo substitutions in the match, bringing on veteran defender Clare Polkinghorne in the 81st minute and midfielder Alex Chidiac three minutes later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In \ufeff"reviewing my in-game coaching", Gustavsson admitted he could have injected Chidiac and Polkinghorne into the game at the same time.<\/p>\n

The Swede\ufeff said the gravity of Monday's match was not lost on him.<\/p>\n

"It's a massive game in that sense and we can't shy away from that. We've spoken a couple of times before about legacy, and the legacy and the 'why' of this team," he said.<\/p>\n

"Long-term legacy\ufeff is a different type of question, but if you talk sports and results this game is massive.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully in 10 or 20 years\ufeff from now, we can look at other parts of the legacy [rather] than just one game, but right now, we can't shy away from [the fact] that this is a crucial moment, for sure."<\/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":"

Beleaguered M\ufeffatildas coach Tony Gustavsson says Australia's FIFA Women's World Cup campaign will be a failure if the team crashes out in the group stage […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":320073,"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\/320071"}],"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=320071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320076,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320071\/revisions\/320076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/320073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}