FIFA World Cup 2023: Sam Kerr return poses huge selection dilemma for Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson
Sam Kerr thrilled Matildas fans with her late cameo as Australia sealed their passage to the World Cup quarter-finals, but the superstar striker has also given her coach a huge headache.
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It’s the question Matildas fans never thought they’d have to ask, but should a fit Sam Kerr be an automatic starter in the quarter-final this weekend?
Coach Tony Gustavsson was giving nothing away following his side’s 2-0 win over Denmark that has sent them into the final eight, despite Kerr’s successful comeback from the calf injury that had kept her sidelined throughout the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Now comes the dilemma, with the Matildas playing outstanding football without their attacking superstar, as the likes of Caitlin Foord and Mary Fowler have stepped up to fill her big boots.
While Foord said rival teams will be scared to realise Australia has their main attacking strike weapon back for the finals, Gustavsson could not guarantee Kerr would start in the quarters against the winner of France versus Morocco.
“What has been good and important for this team — it started when we played some games without Sam — we played 30 minutes against France without Sam in the send-off game, it was nil-nil at the time and we managed to win 1-nil with Sam not on the park,” Gustavsson said.
“That helped the team, and I think it also helped Sam. Because what I think is important, if a team is going to be successful you can’t only rely on one player.
“And I do not say this out of disrespect for Sam because you guys know how much I love working with Sam and how much I say she’s the best forward in the world, but I think Sam coming back now could be a good thing because we don’t need to look at her taking over and having everything on her shoulders.
“It’s a team effort and a team tournament, it’s the icing on the cake, it’s that extra that comes in.
“It also means the players are challenging me now in decision-making, I’ve got more than 11 players now that deserve to start.”
Player of the match, Foord, who scored the opening goal and terrorized the Danish defence throughout, said: “Sam was obviously ready to get some minutes and it was a massive boost for us to have her back, not only for us but for her as well, this dream is for her as well.
“She plays a massive part in our team. For us it was just nice to see her back on and it just helped boost the team even more.
“For teams looking ahead, it’s pretty scary to know that now she’s back in the team and she’s going to be part of it with us, I’m just really happy for her.”
Gustavsson admitted he had not pre-planned sending Kerr on in the 79th minute, when his side had already established their 2-0 lead.
“I could sit here and say it was easy but it wasn’t, those decisions are big,” he said.
“It takes a lot of talk, a lot of communication going back and forth with my experts, my support team around me, and I need to take a moment here to give perspective, you said we’d had some challenges for players and myself to go through, but what the sports science and sports medicine team have gone through in this tournament is just unreal.”
And while the Matildas have kept a clean sheet in their past two matches, Gustavsson’s clear focus is on their defence heading into the quarters, after Denmark created some clear chances.
“One thing we definitely need to get better at moving forward is our positioning in our defensive shape, and also reading the pressure trigger better,” he said.
“We didn’t generate as much press today as we normally do, we need to look into that.
“We did it fix it during the game, it did get much better, but in terms of a 90-minute performance in a quarter-final, no matter who we play, we need to look into that and get back to the way we were defending against France, England and Sweden and Canada, that type of defensive attitude with a little bit more of a pressing defensive mindset.
“But I stress tournament football is about playing what’s in front of you, and find a way. And this team has proven now they can always find a way.
“We’ve scored nine goals, and if you look to our last 12, 14 games that we’ve played, we’ve had a lot of wins and scored a lot of goals.
“As long as we can be solid defensively, we know we have the individual brilliance, we have set plays, we have multiple options as well, not just Sam Kerr, we have multiple options to score goals.”
‘READY TO PLAY’: MATILDAS GREAT EXCITED BY KERR RETURN
Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson insisted he was not relieved to see Sam Kerr take the field for her first minutes this tournament – blowing the cobwebs out with a nervy 15 minutes at the end of Australia’s 2-0 win.
He said he was simply happy. But the truth is he should be excited, as injured Matilda Elise Kellond-Knight said in a giddy post-match review.
“The most exciting thing about tonight was seeing Sam back,” Kellond-Knight explained.
“So many questions around her fitness – I myself had questions. I was worried they put her on 2-nil up. Seeing her out there proves she’s ready to play. We saw her first touch. She wasn’t great. But good to get out the cobwebs.”
It was far from vintage Kerr, but after fellow attacking dynamo Caitlin Foord stole the spotlight – scoring Australia’s opening goal in a player-of-the-match performance – she noted the significance of having her partner-in-crime return.
“It’s massive for us obviously to have a player like her back. It’s a huge boost,” Foord said.
“I don’t know how (Denmark) feel, but I would’ve felt pretty worried seeing Sam Kerr come onto the pitch.”
Australia’s next challenge – the winner of Tuesday night’s clash between France and Morocco – will be another step up.
But Foord is not worried.
“If we play like that, I’m confident we can beat anyone,” she said.
Already the Matildas have shown the sort of fight that Australia demanded of them after a dispiriting group stage loss to Nigeria.
But even that result, in hindsight, doesn’t seem as disastrous as it might have at first considering Nigeria’s stirring exit on penalties to World Cup favourites England earlier on Monday.
Former England star Izzy Christiansen said Australia faced a simple choice in the wake of that defeat. And they’ve gone down the right path.
“When you lose against Nigeria you have the a choice to make: You get mad or get better,” Christiansen said on Channel 7.
“What this team have done in a very short space of time is they got better. The game understanding. The level of professionalism has gone up a notch. You can see there in the circle (of players after the win) a number of different people speaking. That’s the culture in the group.”
Legendary Matilda Heather Garriock did her best to sum up the mood felt around the country after Australia surged into the tournament’s final eight.
“I can’t explain in words what this means to Australia – what this means to the Matildas,” she said.
“The players deserve it. They’ve gone through scrutiny. They’ve had adversity. Unbelievable.”
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