One of the oft-repeated mantras of the Football Australia chief executive, James Johnson, lately is that the Matildas have time. That thanks to automatic qualification as hosts for the 2026 Asian Cup, Australia have plenty of time to find a permanent replacement for former coach Tony Gustavsson.
That the Matildas have time to bounce back from a disappointing Olympic Games and rediscover the sense of joy in their play that waned through that difficult tournament. And that they have plenty of time to build towards their peak for a continental showpiece event on home soil that offers the chance to perhaps not replicate the nation-defining unity that came with the Women’s World Cup but, at least, evoke a sense of nostalgia.
Yet time can also be a double-edged sword, as can be the significant mainstream appeal the group has gleaned from their efforts in 2023. As the Matildas prepare to face Switzerland and Germany in European-based friendlies in the coming days, with Tom Sermanni serving as their interim coach, the runway for their eventual, permanent coaching appointment before a home Asian Cup becomes one window shorter.
Disappointing performances risk further lowering morale among a playing group still stinging from the Paris Games. Defeats, be they with a good performance or not, risk knocking further shine off the side among a mainstream that doesn’t carry the same level of appreciation for intricate patterns of play or barnstorming overlaps down the right by Ellie Carpenter if they’re accompanied by defeat.
As has become something almost routine for this side, the coming friendlies are about both the forest and the trees. Just like the Women’s World Cup, this team doesn’t have to worry about qualifying for their next major tournament, nor do they have the kind of emotional connection to this window like Germany, who will farewell Alexandra Popp.
Yet after a calamitous group stage exit in Paris, the need for strong performances against two European outfits, helping to reassure the side isn’t being left further behind, carries significance for the players. Results against Switzerland and Germany, which carry an important differentiation from performances, will go some way to soothe sentiment and the hatchet jobs that accompanied their Olympic elimination. And that’s to say nothing of counting for Fifa ranking points, where the Matildas have fallen to 15th.
“Football is football and sometimes you do win ugly,” Carpenter said. “But I think for us, we want to play well. We want to play our style of play, the Australian way. And I think for us, we’ve got to go out there and play, represent our country and get back to winning ways.
“This new fresh cycle, it’s starting from scratch again. But we need to get results. We want to win. We don’t like losing.”
The elephant in the room of all this is, of course, the coaching situation. In stark contrast to how quickly Football Australia moved to replace Socceroos coach Graham Arnold with Tony Popovic – it took all of four days – it looks increasingly likely that Sermanni will see his third stint in charge of the Matildas (his first as interim) extended. The next women’s international window is jam-packed, with the side to play a pair of games against Brazil and then two fixtures against Taiwan, and starts in late November.
Matildas players are being consulted on who comes in next, to ensure a good fit. But in the context of international football, where the hours that a coach gets with their players are significantly reduced compared to their club counterparts, this is a significant number of contact hours to be providing an interim; especially since Gustavsson’s exit was confirmed on 1 August.
Admittedly, if there was to be any coach you would entrust in this less-than-ideal scenario to establish building blocks for the future, it would be Sermanni. The veteran Scottish-Australian gave debuts to a large chunk of players that would go on to become a Golden Generation of Matildas and, after the Olympics, would appear just as suited to picking the side back up on to their feet.
Given that Sermanni came into the role without knowing just how long he would be required as an interim, he hasn’t rested on his laurels with the assignment. The 70-year-old said in September that it was his job to leave a stable, focused foundation for his successor, one that would enable them to hit the ground running.
Indeed, after the crushing lows of the Paris Games, where the halo came closer than it otherwise has in recent times to slipping off Australia’s favourite sporting team, there is also a necessity to get the team enjoying themselves again; poor morale is not conducive to performance in any setting. But above all it’s about focusing on what raised them to this space in the first place, the core thing that brings this side joy. The football. “Football is the thing that makes this team,” Sermanni said. “Football is the thing that excites people and football is the thing that determines success.”
