With the Commonwealth Bank Matildas match-up against the USWNT only hours away, head coach, Tony Gustavsson, and defender, Steph Catley, spoke about preparation and the strategy behind treating these friendlies as though they were World Cup finals.
“It's been good,” Catley said on the team’s arrival back in Australia to face the world number one side.
“It's been a bit of a whirlwind and we've done a lot of travel. For a lot of us that are playing over in Europe, it's been a bit of a back and forth, but there's nothing like coming home.”
Gustavsson spoke about the preparation for the matches and the balancing act with the staggered arrivals of the squad following the conclusion of their league weekend matches.
“In terms of the preparation, when it comes to the content, it's been a little bit of a challenging camp, to be honest,” he stated. “Almost half of the team arrived late on Tuesday, even some midnight, so the last two to three trainings in the beginning of the camp here.
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“The one thing I'd say though, to the players and all the staff, is that the group have once again shown a tremendous ability to adjust to change and uncertainty in circumstances that we can control, because the focus has been fantastic in the meetings and the training.”
Tomorrow will mark the third time this year the two teams would have faced off after two encounters during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Catley spoke about the lessons learned from the two clashes in July and August.
“I think we had two pretty different games,” she said.
“The first one, we were pretty in control. We had a lot of the ball and created a lot of good chances. Then the second time around, they pressed us pretty high and we struggled to begin with to play out. Then we sort of started solving problems eventually. I think that it just shows that they're a really flexible team.”
For Gustavsson, while this match is an international friendly, the week’s lead-up has been treated like a World Cup final with the fixture taking place in the venue of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ final.
“When it comes to how to treat the game we've been very clear on we need to train the processes as staff and as players for a World Cup on home soil,” he said.
“When we play at the stadium, that's going to be the final stadium for the World Cup, and we'll play the number one ranked team in the world, we were very clear that when we approached this game it would be as a World Cup final with all the routines.
“Whether that's a press conference, whether it's a pre-training meeting, whether it's training content, we're going to go in with a mindset that it's all about winning this game and nothing else.”
Commonwealth Bank Matildas v U.S. Women’s National Team
Saturday, 27 November 2021
Venue: Stadium Australia, Sydney
Kick-Off: 3.00pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: Live and free on 10 and simulcast on 10 Play
Ticketing: www.ticketek.com.au
Commonwealth Bank Matildas v U.S. Women’s National Team
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
Kick-Off: 8.05pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: Live and free on Network 10 and simulcast on 10 Play
Ticketing: www.ticketmaster.com.au