Borderline negligence in game management tonight. Way too close for comfort. Seemingly better though when Ireland attacked. Main goal achieved but a lot to consider and it's hard to celebrate. Tournament football still. 

my 'feelings' are i agree but perhaps we judge him at the end of the tournament...

A crappy performance but we got the much needed win.

How the fuck does Basheer keep getting commentary gigs. Fuck he is abysmal. Only saw the last 30 minutes and that was more than enough of his inane blithering.

Every time I have seen the Matilda's go into defensive mode at the end of the match, including tonight and the France game, they have looked more likely to concede than in their normal setup. Gustavsson's coaching leaves a lot to desired in terms of how he sets up his team to manage the game.

yea he is terrible but you wouldnt want any of the AFL flogs from channel 7 commentating - i'd bring back Kewell he was a champion last world cup

Of course, we don't want a non-football commentator, but surely these tv stations can do better than Basheer. What's the situation with Simon Hill, I wouldn't have thought he was tied in to Ten/Paramount+ to the extent that it would rule him out of commentating here. Or maybe he is tied to Ten/Paramount?

Hill will be working with Optus.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/world-cup/channel-7s-david-basheer-slammed-for-comment-about-matildas-katrina-gorry/news-story/33f18bb01ff1ae83fe6350444e8e5424

Watched on Optus. Robbie Thompson was the main commentator.

You've answered my question wondering if Optus had their own audio feed. I imagine it's much more 'football' than what 7 can churn out?

Milicic is where the rot happened, Tony is just more interested in himself.

Can't stand our spud coach as I've said many, many times but he's finally realised Polkinghorne is a liability and didn't start here against France or Ireland so that's a plus. Hopefully that's it for her except for bit parts.

Thought Fowler and Gorry were fantastic last night. Fowler has a great first touch and plays the around the corner ball really nicely.

Carpenter great in defence, no idea when going forward. One decent cross all night despite romping down the wing multiple times.

Love Raso's aggressiveness.

Not very pretty but 3 points is 3 points. Better to play average and win than the alternative.

Good to see the ferns win. Pub outside the stadium went off when they scored. Good for them.

Wow!

Reading the comments I was disappointed in the performance from the Matildas and I've always questioned Gustavson's game plans as a coach, but most  posters are less happy than me!

The players seem to like Tony G. Even former players around the team laud his achievements. However, I prefer Stajic's more proactive possession game, not the Gustavson counter attacking game plan. He  also went very defensive  - quickly - after the Catley penalty.

It might be the case when Tony G said the  Irish were one of the best set piece teams in the world, but there were a few instances of defenders using the wrong side of the body to tackle or block, that led to so many corners being conceded.

Also, our inability to retain possession was  disturbing after we scored, despite their effective pressing off the ball.

We are going to have to improve a lot to get to the quarters.  IMO France and England outplayed us, but we had the luck. I also thought Scotland shaded us.

Don't know what Bruce McAvaney was doing commentating?

Wrong gender, knows little about football and he is far too old!

There are plenty of knowledgeable, articulate,  former  female players like Grace Gill, Elise KK, Heather Garriock, Georgia Yeoman - Dale, Amy Duggan, etc.

 Fine having Mel McLaughlin and Adam Peacock interviewing. They have some semblance of football pedigree as reporters/hosts. The reporter Ten have used, Niamh ?, also tends to ask good questions for specialist players/coaches to answer too.   

Optus seemed to be 30-40 seconds delayed behind Channel 7 ... flicked between both out of curiosity to see what Channel &s treatment of the game would be and to be honest it was OK... Basha is alright... we waffles but its not that bad. 

He wasn't commentating, did you NOT watch?

Raso was immense as was Gorry... God if only she could weight her passes and make the right choice when in space we could have had 1-2 more goals last night... Lucky Arnald was on her toes we could/should have copped one maybe two last night.....  If their #11 McCabe had a left foot instead of jockying the chance around to right late in teh seocnd they would have scored for sure.
Player of the match for me was Foord..... involved in everything attacking wise and got herself into some tidy space....

One big positive - 76 000 spectators!

Another big positive - Katrina Gorry. IMO the  Matildas best and most consistent player  of the last few years. Terrific on and off the ball. The blond, talkative  English pundit,  a  former English national team player, thought she has seen  Gorry play better games on the ball, but it was still a superb performance. 

Raso good too.

Hunt is a real find.

Some good saves and decision-making by our keeper.

Catley's penalty was brilliant. Her general composure and leadership is good too.

Carpenter good going forward and defending was impressive.

Kennedy  is nicely two footed as a  distributor and a ball carrier, plus she is a rugged ball winning defender. She and Hunt are forming a good CB pairing.

  A few, now adult,  female players I've coached have told me the Matildas, through being forced to be part-time pros in the past, are much higher educated than Aussie male pro players.

All of Catley, Carpenter and Fowler, are very articulate and media friendly. The media are going to chase the likes of them around.  All are very easy on the eye too, which the media loves as well.

Why doesnt somebody ask these passionate football supporters why there are no male referees/linos in the womens world cup? Where is the equality and gender neutrality ffs?

He was a supposed expert commentator at the end of the game.

From what I've read, quite a number of the Matilidas found  Stajic to be too exacting and a hard taskmaster. 

They might like Tony G's player management more. They hated the female Dutch coach they had.

I preferred Stajic's possession game. I know we have a lot of pace to  utilise  on the  counter attack, but the current 4-4-2 we play in possession is more of a crossing game than the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 possession game  manifestations most Aus coaches now deploy.

 Fowler was more playing in a Number Ten role in the 4-4-1-1  or 4-2-3-1 that Aus played  in possession, when Fowler moved towards the midfield/ defence. However, last night her off the ball running  didn't  create enough space to open viable, consistent passing lanes often enough.

Notwithstanding, Ireland played a  compact 5-4-1 when we  had possession, and Fowler was often heavily marked and had little time and space to operate in.

Fair enough, I switched off after the final whistle and misunderstood your meaning... 

I watched last night on Channel 7 out of curiosity and apart from breaking to an add prior to kick off I thought the effort they put into it wasnt as bad as I had anticipated... You could tell calling the sport "football" tasted like ash in Bruce's mouth but overall the whole presentation and the attendance from the looks of things was a great "introduction" to the beautiful game for the mainly non-footballing mainstream... It knocked off the AFL talk from my morning coffee pit-stop and the bloke behind the jump even had a Matildas scarf on wanting to tell me how nerve-wracking watching 90 minutes of football can be when its only 1 goal. hahahahahahahahah 

I tend to agree.

However, nearly all current players (often the case) and former players are lauding his tenure.

This is our best team we've had, and I agree they are being wasted. I preferred Stajic.  Nevertheless,  as a player manager, Tony G might be what makes the players feel happier in camp. 

Ha ha!

I am  revelling  football now  having a big profile in the mainstream media in Aus.

Most of my mates and family are sick of me moaning football doesn't get our deserved  share of  coverage. Had a real go at a really good mate of mine at a social gathering, about constantly talking about AFL, with everybody else  listening intently. It was in extreme frustration at the lack of recent football coverage. I also proffered that the Socceroos and Matildas were the second and third most popular nation teams after the men's cricket team (which I also follow).  I was very embarrassed, ashamed and apologetic about my actions!

Yet when I travelled with him in  Italy, England and Switzerland, he was subjected to non- stop football chatter - that I contributed to. I was accused of leaving them out of the conversation! 

 Now family and friends are talking about Mary Fowler and Same Kerr, their families, ethnicity and upbringing. I imagine we are going to hear about Steph Catley too in the next few days. The media tend to  want glamorous, articulate females to interview. The Matildas have a number  of players that fit the stereotypes  that the media want - which is good for the profile of football. 

So Stacjic was too professional while Tony G is woke.Maybe the Filipinas find Alen's coaching just right.

If Kerr unavailable, I’d like to see another midfielder come in to nullify athletic pacey Nigeria.

Arnold
Carpenter - Hunt - Kennedy - Catley
Gorry - Cooney-Cross
Raso - Chidiac - Foord or Vine
Foord or Fowler

more subs used this game if early lead. 5 subs allowed.

polkinghorne for a cb - 20/25mins
grant for a fb - 20/25mins
wheeler or luik for dm or cm - 10/15mins
vanegmond for a cm or am -10/15mins
Fowler or Vine for a striker forward - 10/15mins

yallop and Simon still under some injury cloud.

A family member has played NPL and won a senior state title, is always criticising Courtney Vine. She thinks her skill level is way below her incredible pace and and athleticism.

Last night Vine received one  very difficult long pass, with the outside of her right foot and controlled it with consummate skill  despite  being tightly marked. She seemed to have trouble beating her Irish defenders 1 v1 though, like Raso was able to do on the right flank.

I'd also like to see Tony G swap wingers and interchange them at times - a modern football trend.

Interesting?

Grant has done well as a full back - on both flanks  from memory? She deserves some game time.

 I've wondered  about pushing Carpenter up to Right Wing and Raso across to Left Wing for a while in a game? 

Catley can also play CB, but we are well covered there if she was going to make way for Grant at Left Back at some stage of the match?

If Australia has any chance to go into the tournament Kat Gorry has to be at her best, they rely so much on her control and composure on the pitch.

I dont know why Chidiac doesn't get any game time out there, I know this team is an counter attacking one but they really struggled to control possession under pressure especially with the way Ireland squeezed the space from their defence to our midfield and we need players between those lines that aren't hiding from the ball.
Mary Fowler is the teams most creative player so they need to utilise her better but when she's in the game it helps the team immensely. 

Either a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-1-2 might be more suited to this team but it seems the coaches have other ideas, only time will tell if their 4-4-2 mid block will work or not.