‘We’ll win for you’: How Kerr’s stirring pre-match message inspired marvellous Matildas

Tony Gustavsson believes the Matildas were driven to deliver arguably their best performance in recent memory by a pre-match pep-talk from injured skipper Sam Kerr, who urged them to beat Canada without her to give her more time to recover from her calf strain.

Kerr had declared herself fit to play on Monday night but wasn’t used and never warmed up – and in the end, she wasn’t needed as her fired-up teammates put the reigning Olympic champions to the sword in a rampant display that sent a strong World Cup statement.

Australia’s Emily Van Egmond, Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord celebrate their 4-0 win against Canada in Melbourne on Monday.Credit: AP

Australia’s medical team had cleared the 29-year-old for limited minutes, Gustavsson said, but she would have been at risk of exacerbating her injury had she played.

Now Kerr has another full week to prove her fitness for next Monday night’s round of 16 clash in Sydney – most likely against Denmark or China – and, if she can, she will slot back into a team that is firing on all cylinders again after a few tactical tweaks from Gustavsson unlocked the full range of their attacking wares.

The inspired decision to move Caitlin Foord to the left-hand side enabled her to combine brilliantly with Arsenal teammate Steph Catley, who was at the heart of the first-half assault which put them ahead after just nine minutes. Mary Fowler and Emily van Egmond were also sensational in central roles, while it was all underlined by a level of intent and determination hitherto unseen in the tournament – and ignited, Gustavsson said, by their skipper.

“Part of the reason why I also think that it was so united and performed the way that they did was Sam said to the team, ‘Make sure you win without me, so that I can get another week to train and recover and get healthy.’ And the team responded and said, ‘Yes we will. You sit on the bench tonight, and we’ll win for you,’” Gustavsson said.

Tony Gustavsson was all smiles on Monday night.Credit: Eddie Jim

“You can almost see that commitment from the players – ‘Let’s do it.’ [Kerr is], in my opinion the best striker in the world. [To] still go out and play the fluent football that we did and score four goals against the Olympic champions, I think it’s very impressive.”

Gustavsson’s job was on the line against Canada but after intense scrutiny of his methods after their 3-2 loss to Nigeria, he was in no mood to gloat or return fire to his critics.

“It’s not about coming in here and trying to prove someone wrong ... it’s definitely not about me, proving everyone wrong. This is about the Matildas. This is about the team,” he said.

“The performance against Nigeria, it wasn’t as bad as people want it to be. We lost, we did some defending mistakes that cost us badly, and then the conversion rate wasn’t good, but there was part of our attacking game already against Nigeria that was very fluent, and good and fast. We created a lot, but today we converted as well.”

Why do the Matildas need to have their backs against the wall to play this well? Gustavsson said it was an “interesting question” and one that could only be answered through a deep dive into the team’s culture, which was established long before his involvement.

But that ‘Never Say Die’ attitude, he said, was Australia’s “superpower”, and one he hopes they can now draw upon in each of their remaining matches, since they are all must-wins.

Canada coach Bev Priestman admitted her team “lacked belief” and said the Matildas showed that quality in bucketloads, tipping them to go on a deep run into the knockouts while crediting Gustavsson for his response to the Nigeria game.

“I know that guy’s been under a massive amount of criticism and pressure. And he was brave and good on him,” she said.

“If they play with that level of belief ... these moments define you. I know that from Tokyo. That result, they’re going to be riding a massive high. They’ve turned things around in one game, and they were brave, and they went for it and changed things.

“Listen, Australia are a top, top side. There’s nothing stopping them pushing through this because they should be probably in the top four of a World Cup.”

Gustavsson was not afraid to embrace the possibilities before them.

“Since we played Canada last time, we have won 11 out of 13 games, including five against top-ranked oppositions. We scored 33 goals, conceded eight. We beat Sweden 4-0, Spain 3-2, England 2-0, France 1-0 and Canada 4-0,” he said.

“We know we might not have the best team on paper. We might not have the most top players in the top clubs in the top leagues. But we have something else that no one can take away from this team, and that’s the identity the DNA and the belief that we’ve seen, and then being on home soil with the support from the fans ... we have something unique, which means we know it can beat anyone on any given day.”

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