The Matildas have assembled on home soil for the mission that will define their legacies and could write one of the great chapters in Australian sporting history, with the Women’s World Cup just fifteen days away.
Manager Tony Gustavsson this week trimmed his provisional squad to the final twenty-three that will become the focus of the nation come their opening match against the Republic of Ireland on July 20, even if a fair portion of that nation aren’t aware of it yet.
Australia and New Zealand won the hosting rights to the tournament on June 25, 2020, so naturally the build-up has been a slow burn. It’s imperative that it ignites now, if it’s to muscle its way into the crowded local sporting consciousness already spread thin by the AFL, NRL and the Ashes.
‘I get the sense that after today [Monday], the first time the Matildas have really been able to speak to the media, sit down and do feature length interviews, that we’re going to see a whole lot more of them taking up mainstream media space’, The ABC’s Tracey Holmes, a long-time observer of the Matildas and their place in Australian sport, told Box2Box.
‘You feel their profile is now going to be a daily occurrence. Australia will jump on board and it would be great to get off to a big start against the Republic of Ireland, but even if they don’t, I think the enormity of the event is suddenly going to dawn on people.’
Swedish manager Gustavsson was a gun hired in September 2020 for this precise moment. A key backroom member in the United States’ successful World Cups of 2015 and 2019, his Tillies’ resume is pockmarked by the Asian Cup disaster of January 2022 and a failure to medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
2023 has seen fears of catastrophe allayed, and more recently optimism renewed following success at the Football Australia-run Cup of Nations, and more pertinently a 2-0 win over European Champions England in London. Things might just be coming together, after all.
‘I hope it’s not just me being glass-half full, but when you talk about this year, things have to be going right for the team that is going to get to the pointy end and hopefully win the thing. I do think the Matildas feel it’s there, within their reach.
‘Rumours are swirling about other big nations, around challenges they’re going through: USA as the defending champions, England who have done so well in Europe, Spain, Germany. There’s a lot there, but you start hearing there might be cracks in these teams, that they aren’t what they were six months, twelve months, four years ago.
‘But with the Matildas you get this sense that they’re building, bit by bit, and that really challenging road that Gustavsson has put them on… in saying ‘trust me, you won’t like this journey… I’ll take you to the best teams now so we can learn to play them.’
Perhaps save for Pat Cummins, skipper Sam Kerr will spend the next six weeks as the pre-eminent figure in Australian sport. Her expressiveness on the pitch can be contrasted with a reluctance to engage openly off it, particularly with the press. Should the goals fail to fly in, her attitude will be more scrutinised by the general public than any technical flaw within the team, fairly or not.
‘Sam can be very flat. You can tell she doesn’t like to give a lot away, that there’s a lot going through her mind, But she was [at Monday’s press conference] what I’d describe as the happiest and bubbliest I’ve seen her.
‘I think the team have worked through these things, the emotional rollercoaster the media, general public and their family members will be on, and how they’ll manage that. It seems they’ve been working really hard on living in the moment – that we know how to, and have proven in the last little while that they can do, live for these moments.’