{"id":351599,"date":"2023-12-05T02:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T03:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351599"},"modified":"2023-12-05T04:02:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T04:02:05","slug":"matildas-turn-to-big-guns-after-humiliating-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351599","title":{"rendered":"Matildas turn to big guns after humiliating loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matildas<\/a> coach Tony Gustavsson<\/a> will deploy his best available line-up for his side's second international friendly against Canada on Wednesday (AEDT) following the team's 5-0 drubbing at the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gustavsson started six players with less than 20 caps in an experimental team bearing no resemblance to the one that belted Canada 4-0 at the World Cup in August.<\/p>\n

Sarah Hunter and Charlie Rule made their Matildas debuts in the loss and fringe players Alex Chidiac, Courtney Nevin, Clare Wheeler\ufeff, Amy Sayer and Remy Siemsen also got opportunities.<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Teen signs insane $123m baseball deal without playing a game<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Panthers up the ante to ward off $1.2m Luai offer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Selection battle that could shape Australia's Test cricket future<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"BRISBANE,<\/p>\n

Despite the thrashing, \ufeffGustavsson stood by his decision, insisting that his inexperienced players benefited from the opportunity against the reigning Olympic champions.<\/p>\n

Australia is preparing for the \ufefffinal leg of Olympic qualifying in February against Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

"As a coach, you know what it's like when you lose the game – either you get criticised for not explaining what you're doing, or you get criticised for the explanation you gave," Gustavsson told reporters in Vancouver on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"That's how it works when you lose 5-0 in this game. As long as that criticism is to me, it's fine, but I think we need to be very respectful of these players."<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

"They were extremely professional in this last game to go all in and try things.<\/p>\n

"It was a credit to the experienced players and my support staff to create a safe space for these young players to be out there and play. Some people probably go, 'Hey, is this fair to the players to give them this type of experience?'<\/p>\n

"They love it. This is what they want. They want to play against top teams. They want to learn. As long as I make sure I create a safe space for them to get this experience, it's what they need.<\/p>\n

"Then I wanted to balance that with the opportunity to have some continuity as well in a line-up. Because this might be the only camp before the Olympics when we can play a top-ranked nation. It's difficult scheduling now with all the teams being locked into schedules all the way up (to Paris 2024)."<\/p>\n

After the loss Gustavsson indicated he would revert to his strongest team with "maybe even 10 changes."<\/p>\n

Familiar faces Emily van Egmond, Mary Fowler, Katrina Gorry, Kyrah Cooney-Cross, Alanna Kennedy and Hayley Raso all came off the bench in the first friendly while Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter and Clare Hunt are also in the mix for a starting nod on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gorry sat out the training session on Tuesday with illness but is expected to be available.<\/p>\n

Sam Kerr (foot) and Mackenzie Arnold (arm) have been ruled out of the series with injury.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Matildas coughed up three goals on Saturday after being dispossessed in their own half.<\/p>\n

Gustavsson maintained that the team would continue to play out from the back.<\/p>\n

"We've struggled a little bit (previously) to play through lines," he said<\/p>\n

"Which means come the Olympics, we don't want to be as predictable in our attack and I want to improve playing through.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I really pushed them to the limit to try things in this game to see where we're at and what that looks like against a top-10 ranked opponent, and I think the players committed tremendously. So credit to them.<\/p>\n

"We might make some mistakes as well, and maybe they'll cost us a goal or two, but we're in the process now where we want to work on this to take the team to the next level."<\/p>\n

The Matildas struggled to adapt to the behaviour of the ball on the wet artificial turf at Starlight Stadium in Langford.<\/p>\n

However, Gustavsson was confident that the "technical quality" of the surface at Vancouver's BC Place would be acceptable.<\/p>\n

Watch football's biggest clubs and best players in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League,<\/strong><\/em> streaming ad free, live and exclusive on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The \ufeffground has been renamed Christine Sinclair Place to celebrate the Canada legend's final international game before retirement.<\/p>\n

The match kicks off at 2pm AEDT on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson will deploy his best available line-up for his side's second international friendly against Canada on Wednesday (AEDT) following the team's 5-0 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351601,"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\/351599"}],"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=351599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351603,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351599\/revisions\/351603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}