{"id":370947,"date":"2024-02-27T02:08:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T03:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370947"},"modified":"2024-02-27T04:02:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T04:02:37","slug":"coachs-plea-after-pink-gigs-hamper-matildas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370947","title":{"rendered":"Coach's plea after Pink gigs hamper Matildas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pink's concerts\ufeff at Marvel Stadium have left Matildas<\/a> coach Tony Gustavsson<\/a> concerned for the surface a day out from the side's final Olympic<\/a> qualifier.<\/p>\n

The\ufeff American rockstar performed at the Melbourne venue on Friday and Saturday, less than a week out from the Matildas' final Paris 2024<\/a> qualifier against Uzbekistan on the same turf, taking place on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Gustavsson indicated the pitch was in need of more maintenance when asked about the surface on Tuesday, hours out from a squad training session at the same venue.<\/p>\n

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"\ufeffIt's definitely a pitch we can play our football on, but I think it's extremely important that we water it a lot," Gustavsson told media.<\/p>\n

"Right now the ball sticks in the grass, as of right now when it's this dry. So we definitely need to water it a lot to get a fast surface that we can play fast football on."<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

Gustavsson also said recalled striker Michelle Heyman<\/a>\ufeff and winger Caitlin Foord were possibilities to start against Uzbekistan, after being used off the bench in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on Saturday night (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Foord replaced Matildas debutant Kaitlyn Torpey on the left wing at the start of the second half, before scoring one of Australia's three goals in the 3-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heyman, making her first Matildas appearance since \ufeffretiring from international football in 2019, was injected into the action in the 65th minute and bagged Australia's first goal less than 10 minutes later, her first in green and gold since the Rio 2016 Olympics.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffBoth of them are definitely options to start, especially considering Heyman's performance when she came off the bench," Gustavsson said.<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

"Caitlin \u2014 we knew we had to adjust her load a little bit coming in.<\/p>\n

"We'll see in training today how she looks in terms of how many minutes [she might play], and then whether we use those minutes from the start or in the second half.<\/p>\n

"You might see a couple of rotations, but we also need to remember … that I also think consistency and chemistry is key. You've seen that over the years.<\/p>\n

"And also, we don't have that many games before the Olympics. We haven't qualified yet, so we need to focus on one game, but it's not just a game to qualify; it's also a game to get minutes preparing for a potential Olympics, as well."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pink's concerts\ufeff at Marvel Stadium have left Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson concerned for the surface a day out from the side's final Olympic qualifier. The\ufeff […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370949,"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\/370947"}],"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=370947"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370951,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370947\/revisions\/370951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/370949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}