Matildas on an Asian Cup ‘mission’, says coach Tony Gustavsson

Conceding a goal at the Asian Cup has left the Matildas in an angry mood, and that pleases coach Tony Gustavsson.

Nipawan Panyosuk (centre) of Thailand celebrates with her Thailand teammates after scoring against Australia. Picture: Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images

The Matildas’ anger at conceding a goal at the Asian Cup has coach Tony Gustavsson convinced about his squad’s “mission” to win a major trophy for the first time since 2010.

The Matildas head into Sunday night\s quarter-final against South Korea in Pune full of confidence after topping Group B with a perfect nine points and 24 goals in three matches.

But having been criticised pre-tournament for their defensive frailties, the Matildas are dirty on themselves for conceding a stoppage-time goal in their 2-1 win over Thailand on Friday morning in Mumbai after keeping clean sheets against Indonesia (18-0) and the Philippines (4-0).

And that disappointment has pleased Gustavsson.

“I’m happy with how upset the team were after the game,|” the Sweden-born mentor said.

“They were upset about the goal we conceded in overtime.

“We put pride in clean sheets in this group stage and we’ve done a phenomenal job defensively – when we lose the ball we worked really, really, really hard – but the players were really upset that we conceded that goal, to not keep that clean sheet.

|”That says a lot about the mission these players are on now. Instead of celebrating the win, they’re upset about that one goal.”

Nipawan Panyosuk (left) celebrates scoring against the Matildas with her Thailand teammate Amornrat Utchai. Picture: Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images

While the strike from Thailand substitute Nipawan Panyosuk was sweet, it was a goal that could easily have been avoided has the Matildas defended better from a corner.

Despite Thailand’s consolation goal, which came after Emily van Egmond and Sam Kerr, who was not part of a largely experimental starting side, had given the Australians a 2-0 lead, Gustavsson said the Matildas had this far met his expectations.

“We had two clear set goals for the group stage – one was to win the group, and the second was to get out of the group with as many players as possible for play-offs but also fresh and peaking in form,” he said.

“The fact that we have had every player on the park during the group stage is a clear signal to everyone that we need everyone in the tournament and I’m really happy everyone has been on the park.”

Matildas midfielder Tameka Yallop remains in isolation after testing positive to Covid-19, while Holly McNamara is an injury concern after limping off against Thailand.

“I hope she gets well as soon as possible because she’s been really good at training, and it was a well-deserved start for her,” Gustavsson said.

The winner of the Matildas-South Korea will meet either Chinese Taipei or the Philippines in the semi-finals.

In other two quarter-finals. Japan meets Thailand, and China takes on Vietnam.