Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson believes the public shouldn’t be surprised that Spain thrashed Australia 7-0, suggesting the country does not have the depth of talent available to expect anything but a heavy loss against the European nation.
The Matildas suffered their biggest defeat in more than 25 years when they were humiliated by Spain in a friendly in Huelva over the weekend.
The Swede said the Matildas never stood a chance against Spain, ranked five places higher on FIFA’s standings, due to the talent that was available to him.
Tony Gustavsson believes the public should have expected a 7-0 thrashing from Spain.Credit: Getty
Speaking ahead of Wednesday morning’s friendly away to Portugal, Gustavsson suggested the standard of Australian women’s soccer has fallen so low that the country shouldn’t have expected anything but a heavy defeat against Spain, especially given the absences of key players.
“First of all, it surprised me that people are surprised,” Gustavsson said. “You look at their scores against teams like Scotland [whom Spain beat 8-0 last year] or whatever it might be, and you look at the scorelines of what they’ve done. Then you look at what kind of team we are bringing. I’m actually surprised that people are surprised because that is where we are. And we need to be OK to see the truth in the eye here and identify that and then keep investing and keep believing and keep wanting to improve.”
‘... You know that you most likely are going to lose, it’s a question of how many goals.’
The Matildas were not at full strength for the Spain match; Sam Kerr, Ellie Carpenter and Steph Catley were among the key players missing. But they still had five experienced, first-team regulars in a starting side that possessed almost 500 caps combined. Nevertheless, Gustavsson said they still aren’t of a level capable of competing against a team like Spain.
“That is not to criticise the players on the park but if you have four players playing NPL [during the A-League Women’s off-season], and one player playing college [also during the A-League Women’s off-season], and you play Spain, you know that you most likely are going to lose, it’s a question of how many goals,” he said. “It’s just an answer telling on where we are right now with those players and that pathway. And it’s more looking at that as, OK, that’s an insight that tells us where we’re at.”
The defeat to Spain continued Gustavsson’s poor run of results since taking charge of the Matildas, bringing his tally to 11 defeats, four draws and eight wins. Over those wins, three were against New Zealand, one was over Great Britain after extra-time, one in a friendly over Brazil with the others against minnows Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Gustavsson hinted he would make several changes to the Matildas squad for Wednesday morning’s match.
“I don’t want to go into details on who’s available or not,” Gustavsson said. “But we might be forced to make a couple of changes in the lineup tomorrow based on player availability. But I will know more in the morning.”
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