‘It’s been a stressful week’: Crunch time arrives for Matildas’ Olympic hopefuls

Only three spots are still up for grabs in the Matildas’ Olympics squad, coach Tony Gustavsson says, as the glut of players competing for them prepare to put their best feet forward in their final auditions for Paris 2024.

The Matildas face China in front of another sell-out crowd at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, and then have a rematch at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Monday, and while they are nominally friendlies, they could be genuinely make-or-break when it comes to some players’ Olympic dreams.

Tony Gustavsson with Matildas star Caitlin Foord at Thursday’s press conference.Credit: Getty

Gustavsson said he had already settled on 14 or 15 of the players who will make up his 18-strong squad, which will be revealed next week, and that one of the vacancies would go to Katrina Gorry if she is able to recovery from ankle surgery in time - and Gorry has already declared her supreme confidence in being able to do so in an interview with this masthead, predicting she will be back at full fitness with weeks to spare.

Assuming she is right, that leaves more than half a dozen players jostling for just three seats on the plane to Paris - among them defender Charli Grant, who Gustavsson hinted would make a rare start in her hometown, as well as retiring goalkeeper Lydia Williams, defender Courtney Nevin, and World Cup penalty shootout hero Cortnee Vine.

“It’s been a stressful week for me, to be honest,” Gustavsson said. “The worst part of being a head coach is I have to tell someone at the end of this week that you’re not going to the Olympics.

“It’s a lot of evaluation of trainings, look at players, meetings with the tech staff, and preparation is not just about the game tomorrow, it’s about the Olympics. The game tomorrow is a massive step in the preparation for the Olympics ... we don’t have that many games left to prepare, so it’s a very, very important game.”

Gustavsson has previously said he will aim to pick two goalkeepers, three central defenders, three wide defenders, three central midfielders, three wingers, three central attackers, and leave the final spot for another player whose attributes complement those selected.

A change to the Olympic selection rules, only revealed to competing teams recently, allows any of four alternate players to be activated in the event of injury at any time until the gold medal match on August 10.

Gustavsson said that because of the condensed Olympic schedule - if they make it to the final four, the Matildas will play six games in just 17 days - it would have been better for player welfare reasons if squad sizes were expanded to 23, as with most FIFA or AFC tournaments.

Ante Milicic, his predecessor as Matildas boss and now his rival, having been appointed as Chinese head coach earlier this month, said he can empathise with the crunch Gustavsson is facing.

Former Matildas coach Ante Milicic is now in charge of the Steel Roses, China’s women’s national team.Credit: Getty

Milicic said he found it hard enough to settle on his 23-player squad for the 2019 World Cup, let alone the 18 players that Gustavsson will be restricted to picking - not that he had to go through that process himself, having quit to become Macarthur FC’s inaugural head coach in the A-League one year before the Tokyo Olympics were originally scheduled to take place.

Having taken a break from coaching after his stint with the Bulls, Milicic said he had a “gut instinct” that the opportunity presented by the Steel Roses, who are the reigning Asian champions, was the right one for him.

He also said he had watched the Matildas’ development - as a team and individually - with great pride from afar.

“I’m so happy for the girls, first and foremost, because they deserved to be in the situation that they are, the results that they’ve had but also individually as players, the way that their careers have gone,” he said.

“I remember when I was in charge, I called it that ‘comfort zone’ clubland football - half a year in Australia, half a year in America, it was summer, it was speaking English, it was dominating those leagues. And I really felt ... they needed to make that step into Europe.

“If you look now, the last round of the English league, how many of the Australian girls are starting and playing and dominating. So that puts them in a scenario where they can take that club form into the national team. They’ve changed Australian football, basically, with the World Cup. Now they’re carrying Australian football, in some ways, on their shoulders and I couldn’t be prouder with the direction that they’ve taken.”

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

Watch every match of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand, with select matches in 4K UHD.