Tony Gustavsson insists Australia’s showing at the World Cup is just the start of his journey with the team, and has challenged Football Australia to make a meaningful investment into women’s football and show they are serious about growing the game.
The Matildas ended their campaign with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Sweden in the third-place playoff match at Brisbane Stadium, but the focus after full-time soon turned to Gustavsson’s future in the role.
The Swede is contracted until the end of the 2024 Olympics, but on the back of guiding Australia to the World Cup semi-finals his name has been put forward by Jill Ellis as a candidate to take over as USA coach.
And with some criticism emerging regarding his team selection and squad rotation during the tournament, Gustavsson said it is fair that the loss to Sweden “will influence some people’s opinions about me as a coach”.
“What I can say is I love working with this team; it resonates with me as a coach – their identity, their why,” Gustavsson said.
“I don’t see this as an end of a journey, I see it as a beginning of a journey. But I also want to be very clear that I want to see investment now, I really do. And I mean real investment, like we’re serious about what we do.”
When asked what that investment looks like, Gustavsson narrowed it down to grassroots football – “the more players that play, the more players we will get” – improved facilities and the step up from Under-23 to senior national level.
“That gap we have from youth team to senior national team – we need a massive investment in that space because we’ve seen some players come through where that step has been too big to go from youth national team to senior national tea. That step in between has to be invested in.”
Considering the resources available Gustavsson described Australia’s final-four World Cup finish as an over-achievement, but conceded there is a massive amount of work to do to capitalise on it.
Again, he emphasised the investment required to take the Matildas to the next level.
“To be able to break into the top four in the world I think is unique,” he said.
“I think these players have, in some way, overachieved if you look at where the players play compared to the top 10 nations – in terms of how many players we have in top teams, in top leagues, starting consistently.
“It’s amazing to see that the players coming into this environment are performing the football they do considering the little game time they’ve had in clubs.
“The next thing now is investment, long term investment, not just a quick fix. A lot of these players are going to play in the Olympics as well, so keeping investing in these players and having a lot of players knocking on the door and wanting to be part of it. Long term investment, really making sure we benefit from the crossroads moment for women’s football in this country.”
