Tony Gustavsson is a man with a plan. And at the moment, everything is going to plan. Even the weather is cooperating.
On Monday, the Matildas had just started training session at their base in Brisbane when a storm front approached. As the players ran through their drills on the pristine grass of the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre, the weather remained at bay – just a few sprinkles troubling the team. Only once the Matildas were done, and defender Alanna Kennedy had stepped inside to speak with the media, did the heavens open.
Untroubled by the deluge, Kennedy said the team had always kept faith in Gustavsson’s plan, even during a turbulent 2021 when the Matildas won just three of 16 matches, or mid-last year when they team were trounced 7-0 by Spain. “We’ve always trusted – you have to believe and trust in the process,” said the centre-back.
“We know what Tony brings as a coach, we know the plan and the vision,. Sometimes it takes time, and it takes a bit of a teething process, blooding the young players. It’s all coming together now.”
Starting on Thursday with the opening match against Ireland, Australia will find out if Gustavsson’s plan survives contact with reality. And what a reality it is: the pressurised cauldron of Australia’s first home World Cup, with the hopes of a nation on the Matildas’ shoulders.
If all goes to plan, Gustavsson will be credited with masterminding a sporting triumph – winning the Women’s World Cup would be on-par with anything that has come before in the pantheon of great Australian sporting moments. But if the Matildas fall short – and anything less than reaching the quarter-final would be a disappointment – many will wonder if Gustavsson was ever the right man for the job.
Such is the cruel nature of sport, when moments of individual brilliance or a second of misfortune can determine legacies. It might be unfair – arguably the fruits of Gustavsson’s reign will only become fully apparent later in the decade. But those who live by the sword die by the sword. Gustavsson knows that his reputation rests on how his plan unfolds over the next four weeks.
At a final pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday, Gustavsson echoed something that star striker Sam Kerr had said moments earlier. “In football, you’re only as good as your last result.” The coach smiled, acknowledging the difficulty of juggling short- and long-term ambitions in such a fickle sport. “After tomorrow, I’m either going to be a phenomenal coach or the worst coach that has ever coached the Matildas.”
When Gustavsson began his tenure at Football Australia in late 2020, at the height of the pandemic, he was presented with a report on the “performance gap” in Australian women’s football. Crammed with graphs, tables and data, the report contained three difficult truths.
Despite a strong core, the Matildas lacked depth – the worst of the 12 leading nations analysed in the report. As a consequence, the national team was too reliant on key players, increasing injury risk and minimising opportunities to improve depth. And Australia were not playing enough international football, particularly against top-ranked teams.
Gustavsson set to work. He brought young talent into the squad, even if it meant losing matches. He rested key players to manage their workload, contributing to the overwhelming defeat to Spain. And he picked a schedule that saw the Matildas consistently play top rivals. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Australia have faced every other team in the top 10.
Since Gustavsson took over the Matildas, his team have played 36 matches. They have lost 14 and drawn five. But over the past nine months, the Australians have lost just once. Slowly but surely, the plan is coming together. The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle seemed to fit into place last Friday, when the Matildas beat France in their only World Cup warm-up match. “It’s thanks to the patience and the belief in the process from everyone,” Gustavsson said afterwards.
A mathematics teacher by training, Gustavsson has brought tactical vigour to the team. During matches he prowls the sidelines wearing a headset, so an analyst stationed in the stands – with a birds-eye view – can communicate perspective not gleaned at pitch level.
Gustavsson is friendly and affable. Unusually, he even eschews defensiveness when addressing criticism of poor performances. But the coach also has a steely edge, a desire to control and plan for every eventuality.
Befitting his background, he loves to reel off statistics. After Friday’s match, it was Tony the Maths Teacher at the press conference (he has previously used a whiteboard to explain concepts to the media). “I have some stats here,” he began. Gustavsson proceeded to list some positive statistics: the Matildas five consecutive wins against top European opponents, and six clean sheets in the past eight matches. In other words, the plan is working.
But for all the added depth, the experience playing and beating top-ranked international opponents, for all the tactical sessions, Gustavsson knows that there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to winning big tournaments. There is an intangible element, a combination of good fortune and unstoppable momentum, the presence of which is often only discernible in hindsight.
After concluding his stats-talk last week, Gustavsson admitted that he had told the team after the win: “That doesn’t mean anything on the 20th [of July] when we’re going to play Ireland.” Whether in the opening match or if the Matildas progress through to the knockout rounds, on each occasion what has come before cannot fully predict what will come next. The Australians will have to find that special ingredient to propel them forward.
In the search of the intangible, last week the Matildas backroom staff brought Cathy Freeman into camp. The Sydney 2000 Olympics sensation knows all too well how to succeed with the weight of a nation’s expectations on her shoulders, and agreed to meet with the Matildas to share her wisdom. “It’s just a crazy, wild ride,” Freeman told the players. “You’re writing your names in history, ladies.”
It was an inspired move to have Freeman speak with the players, imbuing confidence and determination that no amount of tactical analysis can instil. A holistic plan, then, from Gustavsson. “Knowing how much she means for these players, and they shared some of the reasons why behind what they do and what they want to achieve,” the coach said. “It was only natural to try and get that connection, a personal connection, for them.”
Buoyed by the plan, and inspired by Freeman, on Thursday the Matildas get to work. Gustavsson admitted that he and his captain Kerr had paused for a moment on the walk to Wednesday’s press conference at Stadium Australia to take in the moment. “It felt a bit unreal,” he said. “It’s actually happening tomorrow – all the prep work that we’ve done for years, all the days of hard work.” It’s time to put the plan to the test.
