No worries. Yeah, 'just' a friendly but I'm anticipating quite an interest for tickets. Should be fine in the opening hours of sale.

Game opening up now. Wish Australia would practice holding the ball well and shutting up shop.

Johnszasz - Thanks for your commentary. Definitely going to the Mens England friendly in October at Wembley.

Much better. 2:0. Good build up play for a cross. A header is deflected hard and it goes in but they all count.

England incredibly sluggish while Australia very compact and switched on tonight. You could argue this current score will do Australia a lot for confidence while the deficit is probably decent timing for England to reflect pre tournament. 

Kerr just a bit casual to make it 2:0 there.

GK
Arnold
Micah
Williams

CB
Kennedy
Hunt
Polkinghorne

FB
Catley - Lb, can also play lcb
Grant Lb or Rb
Carpenter Rb

DM
Gorry
Wheeler
Luik - desperate cb option

CM
Cooney-Cross
Yallop - utility

AM
Chidiac - can play deeper in cm
Fowler - desperate striker option

LW
Foord - can also play up top
HMcnamara 

RW
Raso - can play both wings or rb
Vine

S
Kerr
Simon - can play wing, striker or am
Heyman


Cut
Whyman
MMcnamara
Nevin
Sayer
Gielnik
Crummer
Siemsen

Vine on for hurt Yallop. Doesn't look tournament ending though. Rough knock on leg. 

Nice long floating ball makes the England centre back panic and weakly head and Kerr can latch on and score. 

Don't know much about her but Cooney-Cross having a solid display so far.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/65243435

Pretty disappointed to see a lot of seat rows empty. Maybe traffic but this game sold out so quickly. Should've played at Emirates or Olympic stadium. 

Here we go against England. 

Something like

M: Fowler/Wheeler/? 
CB: Hunt/Kennedy 

I agree about Wheeler. I think a number 6 and a number 8 who can hold the ball under pressure and hit a forward pass are who we lack. We seem to have a bunch of no. 10s who want to run forward or no. 6/8s with workrate but questionable technique. 

📰 SQUAD UPDATE: Forward Remy Siemsen has been called up to the squad, following the medical withdrawal of Emily van Egmond and Holly McNamara.

I was surprised that Gorry was named Rebel player of the match.

Wheeler should have started, deep lying play maker used ti the intensity of European football, alas Tony was giving time to players who spend too much time on the bench and also the home based players 

Fowler must if thought she was on the bench as she wore gloves, it was 16 degree.

First few paragraphs of your post were spot on

It's not Polkingorne and Luik (who didn't start last night) that's for sure.

Good to see Carpenter back flying down the wing and pushing forward with intent  but geez she needs to sort out her final pass in and around the 18. So many wasted balls that were hit too hard, too soft and/or wayward.

Over of my favourite players but if she could sort this part of her game out she'd be one of the best backs in the world.

Having said that she didn't put a foot wrong defensively.

It's our midfield I worry about. I thought Fowler was good otherwise we lacked a bit. Assuming we stick with a 4-3-3 who are our best midfield combination? What's our best CB pairing?

It’s quite bizarre.

Was impressed by Scotland's Full Pressing and Intensive Squeezing for most of the game.  I was also impressed by their body on body physicality.  They also built up through the midfield - I expected them to be more direct. They are well coached.

They constantly forced our players to lose possession.  Matildas' body positions faced towards our own goal, not  having the correct body shape to play forwards and facing the Scottish goal, and we struggled in  less time  and space.

A further issue was sometimes the centre of the pitch wasn't covered, or, we were outnumbered in midfield.

We also tend to build up too quickly - often using accelerated attacks.  It is good to change the rhythm of the game - some slow build ups interspersed with accelerated attacks. I understand we have a lot of pace on the flanks and attacking FBs, but Scotland matched us for pace in wide areas. Hence, the Gustafson game plan was negated.

Gustafson needed to change the game plan, to having two midfield screeners,  when we had the ball, to play out.  Also, the wide players, needed to tuck in  more. The axiom is to condense pace when the team has the ball, and to spread the formation when a team has it, but the Matildas were  too from each other in Ball Possession.

I've said for ages, Gustafson is the wrong coach. We need an Aussie, French, Spanish, German or Dutch coach, inculcated in the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 national system we and those countries use as a development system.  He might be an excellent player manager, who the players are happy with, but he is executing the wrong game plans against some opponents.

At the same time given Scotland have a world ranked of 23rd, and we are 10th, maybe it is a question of the epicentre of women's football changing to the European male powerhouse countries now they're taking women's football more seriously. I heard 83 000 watched the female English team a few days ago!

A further issue, is that like in men's football in the top teams of the UEFA big five , some of our top players are suffering from playing too much club football. I think the optimum is about 30 - 35 games per year. More and players are  tired for international football from playing too many club games, and playing less than 30, they don't play enough club football.

She is a good defensive player.

But as a goal scorer, Crummer struggled in this game. She took too long on the ball, by often taking an extra touch, or her handling speed and foot to foot speed with the ball was too slow. 

Crumer must be the worst striker I've ever seen. Can anyone tell me why she"s still with the Matilda?

Have you checked if you are coloured blind

Gorry very poor will get shown up even more against better quality.
Crummer international football is well above her abilities
Fowler poor needs to be playing more club football

Tanya oxtoby would make a better manager than Tony

Goodbye Crummer, should have gone with Heyman. Cant get foord, Catley, kennedy and Simon back in quick enough.

1:0 loss. Well done Scotland for having a go. Australia absolute rabble. Not impressed. 

England 6:0 on Monday. Arnold isn't exactly busy in July....