Matildas quickly back in the groove with win over New Zealand
All the drama of the past six weeks appeared to have little effect on a Matildas outfit that simply got on with the job of playing effective football against New Zealand.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same.
After the dramatic removal of their previous coach and all the headlines and the angst, there was a relief in seeing the Matildas just get back to playing football in a manner that has become so familiar.
Avert your eyes from the technical area and its new occupant, and this could have been a Matildas performance like we have become used to over the past World Cup cycle under Alen Stajcic, as if all the tumult of the past six weeks hadn’t actually happened.
Stajcic might have been removed from coaching this team, but it will take more than 90 minutes for his influence to wane on the way they play.
It was hardly a surprise that a team which has played together so often was quickly back in a familiar groove (even if that did include bouts of the sloppiness in possession that has crept into their game on occasion in the past year).
The front three switched positions at will, the trio of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord and Emily Gielnik a powerful forward line rotating in the hunt for a pocket of space.
Behind them Elise Kellond-Knight was the usual epitome of brisk efficiency, exhorting the team to play from the back.
Overseeing it all was the new man in the hotseat, Ante Milicic, thrown into the coaching role he least expected in the world only a few weeks ago.
It took all of 28 seconds for Milicic to be off his seat, his hands a blur as he gestured for his team to move the ball quicker, for the movement in midfield to be rewarded with uptempo passing.
His debut as head coach of a senior team had been a long time coming and his animation on the sideline betrayed the importance of the occasion in a personal sense.
A few metres along that sideline was a reassuringly familiar figure in Tom Sermanni, once of the Matildas and now coaching New Zealand.
Sermanni had set his team out to defy the home side and hit them on the break, a strategy likely to be seen again at the World Cup in June for a team ranked 19th in the world.
The Kiwis’ obduracy meant it was hardly a classic game, though there was the feel-good ending of Hayley Raso scoring Australia’s second on her first international after recovering from a broken back.
Now we have to hope that the fractures and dislocation left by Stajcic’s exit will heal just as successfully before the Matildas head to France for the World Cup.