‘They have all the pieces’: US Cup-winning coach says Matildas can lift trophy

In the dark hours after the Matildas’ 3-2 loss to Nigeria, as the team teetered on the brink of oblivion, coach Tony Gustavsson received a text message from a long-time friend and colleague.

“The road to the top is never smooth,” it read.

The sender was Jill Ellis – and she would know.

Tony Gustavsson with Jill Ellis after winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup with the United States.Credit: Getty

Ellis is arguably the greatest coach the women’s game has ever seen, and the only one to have won the Women’s World Cup twice. She knows precisely what it takes. So does Gustavsson, who was by her side at the 2019 tournament in France as the United States went back to back.

So the following view from Ellis on Australia’s prospects for the remainder of the World Cup should carry significant weight.

“They’ve got all the pieces,” she told this masthead.

Ellis has taken a closer interest in the Matildas not just out of loyalty to her former assistant but also as the lead of FIFA’s technical study group – a panel of coaches and analysts who sift through matches to find trends, patterns and indicators about where football is going and what successful teams are doing differently to win.

The woman who masterminded the US’s triumphs at the past two Women’s World Cups believes Sam Kerr and the Matildas have what it takes to do the same.Credit: Getty

What she sees in this Australian side is a perfectly prepared, battle-hardened group who have faced two dramatic obstacles – the injury to Sam Kerr on the eve of their opening match, and the loss to Nigeria that piled on immense pressure – only to blow Canada away 4-0 and answer every question asked of them.

“From the outside looking in, most coaches would say to you that an Australia without Sam Kerr is not the same team,” Ellis says.

“So to navigate the group stages without one of the best players in the world, and really the kind of pinnacle of your team, it was a big ask. I don’t think people truly understand. I said to someone, it’s like the Patriots going to the Super Bowl without Tom Brady.

“The fact that they’ve come through it, and did it in such a convincing way against Canada, was actually pretty extraordinary: massive test, incredible pressure moment, and to play in front of your home crowd against a good team and have to get a result ... I was at the Germany-South Korea game and they needed a result and couldn’t find a way.

Tony Gustavsson has dealt with a lot already this World Cup.Credit: Eddie Jim

“You kind of put that in your bank, that moment, because it will pay you back as you continue to go. You want your resolve to be tested coming out of the group stage. You don’t want to walk out of the group not having had a tight game or a game that’s really challenged you. It’s actually a valuable lesson to learn adversity in the group stage and still be able to come through it, because there’s a few giants who are out – Canada’s out, Brazil’s out, Germany’s out. It’s an unprecedented World Cup we’re seeing.

“I think they’ll come out of that game realising they have everything within them to create the outcome.”

Ellis was Football Australia’s first choice for the Matildas job but steered the federation towards Gustavsson – who she first met when they were assistants to Pia Sundhage when the US won gold at the 2012 Olympics – after deciding she could not commit to a World Cup cycle on the other side of the planet.

“I did have conversations, yes,” she says. “And, with family and everything, the timing, I have a young daughter ... but, yes, Tony is one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen, ever worked with. It’s crazy, and I know the process he’s been on.

Tony Gustavsson and Jill Ellis celebrated the United States’ 2019 World Cup win.Credit: Getty

“I text him after every game. We’ve obviously stayed in touch; we’ve become like family. He’s just so charismatic, loves to laugh, works incredibly hard. He will turn over every stone to find a way to get results. I think he’s a fantastic coach and an even better person. I have a lot of time for Tony G.”

Gustavsson learnt a lot from Ellis, including his opaque public handling of Kerr’s injury, the details of which have been carefully suppressed and her prognosis entirely hidden from the media except for a 15-minute window at the start of some training sessions.

It is a move that appears to have been ripped straight out of his old boss’ playbook.

“I love that. I used to do that,” Ellis says with a laugh. “I wouldn’t have anyone run around until afterwards, until you all [the media] left.”

Ellis is full of praise for the way Gustavsson has played the cards he has been dealt at this tournament. None of it surprises her, knowing well his meticulous, borderline obsessive ways.

“It’s an absolute curveball,” she says of Kerr’s injury. “But part of what you’re very fortunate in having is someone that will have his team almost over-prepared. Having worked with Tony, you’re going to have options one, two and three already mapped out.

“Would it be something that he had considered? I guarantee for every position he’s had a plan B, and I actually thought the other day putting [Emily] van Egmond up there was really interesting and, I thought, really productive. It allowed [Caitlin] Foord to be out wide.

“I thought it was a really effective tool, a good adjustment, and that’s coaching – finding the best ways to make it work. My gut is I think they’re probably one of the most dangerous teams right now heading into these knockout stages, in terms of what they can do and how organised he’s going to have them, and how prepared he’s going to have them.

“When I watched the scrimmage, the game against France, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this team is ready’. I definitely think that they are. Without Kerr, I was like, ‘Well, can they?’ But hopefully, they get her back, and I think they can make a lot of noise in this tournament.”

Is it time for Sam Kerr against Denmark? Jill Ellis thinks she’ll only be used if required.Credit: Getty

She does not expect much to change for Monday night’s round-of-16 clash between the Matildas and Denmark, including Gustavsson’s deployment of Kerr, who is apparently available after this week taking a big step towards her recovery by resuming training with a ball. He did not use her against Canada because he did not have to.

“You see how it goes,” Ellis says. “Obviously to go out and put four by Canada, you’ve got players that are confident, bought in and willing to step up, so I think you approach the Denmark game as ‘if needed’.”

Ellis has been shocked by how so many big nations have fallen already at this World Cup and was not expecting lower-ranked teams to have been able to close the gap on them for at least another four years.

“It’s been a doozy so far,” she says. “It’s hard to break down teams that are very, very organised. The level of coaching, the level of sophistication ... if you can keep things tight, you’re always in with a chance with a penalty kick, a set piece or a quick transition.

“I’ve been surprised in a pleasant way to see that this is truly becoming a global game. We saw it last year in Qatar, on the men’s side, countries knocking off perennial powers, and now to start to see that evolving and happening on the women’s side, it speaks to the fact that we are the game for women in the world.”

But Ellis is not prepared to write off the US, who came within a whisker of missing out on the round of 16 and have been roundly criticised for a lack of clear tactical identity under her successor, Vlatko Andonovski. Ellis attributed their struggles thus far to an absence of chemistry between new players who have not yet had time to cement their combinations – but it may yet come, she warned.

“I still think that they definitely have the arsenal and the depth to win the whole thing,” she says.

“You can just see that there is not a synergy and a clear understanding, and I think it’s hard for players to have that when they haven’t spent a lot of time on the pitch together. It’s the first time that [Naomi] Girma and [Julie] Ertz have played together; [Savannah] DeMelo gets her first or second cap. Those are pieces that are hard, but I also know the team is going to dig in, and I think if it can fall into place, they’re going to be a very tough team to beat.

“People only see the tip of the iceberg from the outside. They’ll be the first ones to put their hands up and go, ‘Hey, listen, it’s got to be better’. And I think they understand that. But I also think that there’s still a confidence, when you’ve got the amount of experience in that locker room that you have, people that know how to win – I’m still optimistic that is a team that can go all the way.”

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