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Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson will deploy his best available line-up for his side’s second international friendly against Canada on Wednesday (AEDT) following the team’s 5-0 drubbing at the weekend.
Gustavsson started six players with less than 20 caps in an experimental team bearing no resemblance to the one that belted Canada 4-0 at the World Cup in August.
Sarah Hunter and Charlie Rule made their Matildas debuts in the loss and fringe players Alex Chidiac, Courtney Nevin, Clare Wheeler, Amy Sayer and Remy Siemsen also got opportunities.
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Despite the thrashing, Gustavsson stood by his decision, insisting that his inexperienced players benefited from the opportunity against the reigning Olympic champions.
Australia is preparing for the final leg of Olympic qualifying in February against Uzbekistan.
“As a coach, you know what it’s like when you lose the game – either you get criticised for not explaining what you’re doing, or you get criticised for the explanation you gave,” Gustavsson told reporters in Vancouver on Tuesday.
“That’s how it works when you lose 5-0 in this game. As long as that criticism is to me, it’s fine, but I think we need to be very respectful of these players.”
“They were extremely professional in this last game to go all in and try things.
“It was a credit to the experienced players and my support staff to create a safe space for these young players to be out there and play. Some people probably go, ‘Hey, is this fair to the players to give them this type of experience?’
“They love it. This is what they want. They want to play against top teams. They want to learn. As long as I make sure I create a safe space for them to get this experience, it’s what they need.
“Then I wanted to balance that with the opportunity to have some continuity as well in a line-up. Because this might be the only camp before the Olympics when we can play a top-ranked nation. It’s difficult scheduling now with all the teams being locked into schedules all the way up (to Paris 2024).”
After the loss Gustavsson indicated he would revert to his strongest team with “maybe even 10 changes.”
Familiar faces Emily van Egmond, Mary Fowler, Katrina Gorry, Kyrah Cooney-Cross, Alanna Kennedy and Hayley Raso all came off the bench in the first friendly while Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter and Clare Hunt are also in the mix for a starting nod on Wednesday.
Gorry sat out the training session on Tuesday with illness but is expected to be available.
Sam Kerr (foot) and Mackenzie Arnold (arm) have been ruled out of the series with injury.
The Matildas coughed up three goals on Saturday after being dispossessed in their own half.
Gustavsson maintained that the team would continue to play out from the back.
“We’ve struggled a little bit (previously) to play through lines,” he said
“Which means come the Olympics, we don’t want to be as predictable in our attack and I want to improve playing through.
“I really pushed them to the limit to try things in this game to see where we’re at and what that looks like against a top-10 ranked opponent, and I think the players committed tremendously. So credit to them.
“We might make some mistakes as well, and maybe they’ll cost us a goal or two, but we’re in the process now where we want to work on this to take the team to the next level.”
The Matildas struggled to adapt to the behaviour of the ball on the wet artificial turf at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
However, Gustavsson was confident that the “technical quality” of the surface at Vancouver’s BC Place would be acceptable.
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The ground has been renamed Christine Sinclair Place to celebrate the Canada legend’s final international game before retirement.
The match kicks off at 2pm AEDT on Wednesday.
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