I was at the game and the big thing that I noticed (again) was how poor the first touch of practically all the Australian players is. FFS, they were all terrible, with the possible exception of Cooney-Cross. It was painful to watch. No wonder they can't build up an attack any other way than put it wide and pump in a high ball, their poor first touch means that it takes them 2-3 seconds to get the ball under control, and by then if they are in the attacking third the defenders are all over them.

Passing accuracy (or rather inaccuracy) was nearly as bad, so many times a pass made under no pressure, even short passes, were 2 metres off target.

And van Egmond as a second striker??? Give me strength. The only good thing about her playing higher is that when she lost the ball we still had a lot of players behind her, compared to when she plays in midfield and loses the ball.

Gustavsson, what a clown. Waits until 10 minutes from time to make the first sub, even though by then we had been 3-1 down for 15 minutes, and his change is to put on a central defender so he can throw another central defender up front. Then he waits another five minutes before putting on a technical player who may have been able to open up the defence, but by then there is only 5 minutes plus stoppage time to go. He has no fucking idea.

Reminds me of our youth sides. Lots of strange lobs into the box that Cahill would struggle to do something with, yet we don't have anyone that seemed aerially dominant

Chids was great when she came on. Inexcusable that Tony didn’t make a single proactive change until past the 80 min mark.

Being at the game, I haven’t seen any replays or highlights. But my take was that Nigeria only scored from our mistakes.

Carpenter woefully out of position for their first, allowing their winger acres of space. Admittedly she made up ground, but ultimately wasn’t able to stop the cross from going on.

Second goal was a mistake from Arnold. Should’ve dealt with the initial shot. 

The long ball should be banned from the curriculum because it happens at all levels with Australian teams it seems lol.

We do have a tall striker….Gielnik…oh wait she wasn’t picked!!
I’ll just pick 2 injured players and use a tall central defender if we get in a situation where we need a tall target in the middle.
oh shit it worked…sorry Tony but we lost!

Kennedy may have scored after going up front, but remember it was from a corner where she would have been anyway even if she was still playing at the back. So moving her up front and pumping high balls to her actually achieved bugger all.

Gielnik was injured, more so than Simon.
it was Siemsen, Crummer as possibles, both terrible.
mcnamara did not make the reserves.

imo, it’s crazy that heymann has been left out for so long, top aussie goal scorer this past season and very quick.

Ayres was another that could have been considered. In fantastic scoring form. 

The Matilda's remind me of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes.They have been built up by the media,particularly the non football media and sold to the public as this world class combination but in reality are just a very ordinary mob with a coach who is out of his depth.Missing their best striker is difficult to overcome but their tactical naivety and defensive frailties were exposed by a determined Nigerian side.

Chidiac should be in the starting line up for the Canada game-she looked our best player in her her cameo appearance.Also we should not forget that Gorry's tackle which received a yellow could easily have been a red so apart from being reduced to ten women last night she would not have been available for the next game.

You are right, unfortunately, you could have said it 20 years and still be right.

Women's football is a developing sport where everyone began with a clean slate to create the football culture they wanted.  Indeed certain nations have enjoyed a 10 year head-start over others  We're one of them, and yet we still chose to select and develop the same type of player we always have where as the Europeans and even Asians started later and now are going past us.  Why did this happen?

Its because this is who we are as a football nation. The men are the same. Our football culture will NOT change. 

Arnold had a shocking 2nd half. Should Williams be GK for Canada?? Chidiac should start as many have already said 

Fuck you are a tool. You prove it again and again every time you open your mouth. Lefty this, PC that. Grow up.

Was at the game too and was so disappointing to see how we played. The warning signs were there against Ireland, but we went into this game and played the same way. I called out Gorry last game for her shit passing and it was evident again today. I'm not sure what Gustavsson is playing at. Every post match presser after he was basically gaslighting the fans. 

Talking about how we played well and were creating chances. Yeah we had shots, but they were not actually clear chances. They were shots from tight angles or shots straight at defenders. The headers that went over were not well connected and the Nigerians had like 3 around the ball compared to our 1. Our conceded goals were also extremely school boy error-ish. 

We would have had to go through a play off against Vietnam, Chinese Taipei and Thailand. But yeah, we were at risk of not qualifiying for the World Cup if we were not hosts. He really should have been sacked straight after that game. 

what is so disappointing is if we don't make it we've just shot ourselves in the foot again.

this is a massive moment for the game in our country. I have not seen so many people who normally don't follow football (or only in small parts) completely embracing it. We cannot fuck this up.

There was no Tony lovefest. Stop rewriting history. We were getting flogged and conceded heaps of goals early. This forum is littered with people bagging him out with me being one of his biggest critics. 

I only cut him a little slack in the last 6 months because it seemed he'd righted the ship with some ground out wins against big nations.

After last night's performance though it's back to square 1. He is a spud with no clue.

Was at the game last night. Players weren't even warming up at the 75th minute. Puts Kennedy up front, fair enough, but brings Polkinghorne on to do it. Fuck! We're 3-1 down, go to 3 at the back or 2 if you have to. Then Chidiac on in the 86th. Fuck a duck, great player, way too late.

Picking Simon has proven to be a joke and has come back to bite him in the arse.

400 balls into the box from the right before the 18 that just lobbed in there were hopeless. If you're going to cross, cross and cross again you need to get down to the byline.

Chidiac was great because she ran at them. Carpenter needs to be fed when she makes the wrap around runs.

So, so disappointed.

Watched Canada against Ireland. We are in a lot of trouble.

As for fuckwits saying we didn't want Staj the thread where he got sacked ran to 48 pages or something. Easily the most populated thread over the past 5 years. Shit tons of people were pissed.

But of revisionist history going on here this morning.

I can't remember many people (If any?) agreeing with his sacking at all 

Exactly. People were apoplectic about it. Barely seen the forum that fired up about another subject.

Now all of I sudden I'm reading everyone was for it which is absolute bullshit.

Some really good points here by obvious knowledgeable football people.
I do not remember any Tony love fest, ?
Almost a little of the opposite,
Its apparent to me he was unable to decide on what tactical changes needed to be made and when. This is a skill that is absolutely necessary in international and or tournament football.
From my observations this is something we all agree on, and I and others were concerned about this very fact a long time ago and here we are now today, with a huge task to advance that to me seems unlikely with Gusto’s tactical ability.

When people here say "we" they don't mean "us", they mean "them".  If you don't know who "them" is then read again those 48 pages or something-pretty obvious who "them" is.

See above.

we have some absolutely brain damaged OPs on this thread - not a single one said anything bad about Tony or the squad pre-world cup 

I even remember the fukwits here defending the squad after failing to get a medal at the Olympics - now all of a sudden when muppets are called out where told we are history 'didnt happen like that' 

same ones wanting the ruin the game with political shit are the ones acting as if it isnt their fault Staj got sacked. He got sacked becuz the FA has to be 'PC' they are too scared to have a hard authoritarian manager becuz the 'girls had their feelings hurt' unfortunately you try and tell these fukwits to keep politics out of football, winning shit is actually hard and that the game 'is about winning' they cry becuz the game to them is about sports washing with rainbows, fake diversity and welcome to country etc.

Same blokes saying fans should be banned for bagging players and calling players names in the stands are the ones pretending it isn't their fault football is going down the fukn toilet in this country....wake the fuk up it is YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.


It is actually funny how stupid they are....we dont deserve to win anything the younger generation have a soft loser mentality and there is a few OP on here that are shining examples of that. I got no time for them just dont complain when we get knocked out to Canada and the media bags the f--k out football for bottling it.

The coaching and talent ID needs a reboot.

You can make positive changes at grassroots level i.e the base level but unfortunately it takes alot of time which people are not patient to wait for these days.

~20 years ago we had a full rest and went Dutch.....almost nothing and i mean this sincerely is better then the old system bar the fact we have more money to waste 

Our player development is marginally worse 

Grassroots and pathways to top levels are worse 

qualifying for WC at junior levels A LOT worse 

the only thing that improved was coaching becuz we set standards for coaches to have there A-licenses meaning you couldnt just give jobs for the boys otherwise we are currently about to get knocked out of a world cup we're hosting (both Aus and NZ) and fans are pretending that's 'ok'  

the issue isnt just 'grassroots' it is the suits running the game it always has been and the inability to back the sport, tell the media to f--k off and backs us or fuk off and get the government to ACTUALLY invest in the sport like the AFL and NRL do...

15 corners!!!!!! 15 corners and every single one was back stick to NOBODY ... dont they fucken train set pieces at all?????? Shit even under 15s know if you try something 10 times and it doesn work try fucken something else.... just gutted after last night.... Chidiak  at least made an impact but when he brought on that old bulldog at 3-1 down just to put Kennedu up front ... (reminded my of Arnies "masterstroke" at the Olympics.....  my oh my  no words..... I hope the "mafia" who are now running this squad are happy..... 

Plenty of comments here that hard not to disagree with.

I always say everything in football begins and ends on the pitch.
Easy to get exposed for failings and successes.

What I can say is that after more than 10 years we still don't get the National Curriculum, if we even adhere to it anymore, the NC spelled out our limits of how we play football and how we need to play football to be successful.
That was on full display against Nigeria.

When we are chasing a game we revert to the Long Ball, second ball, just get it in the box, game.

Add to the layers of this that criticism of the Matilda's football style, what we see on the pitch, is not allowed to be mentioned.
As the Women's game professionalises this is slowly changing.

So what do we value as a Football, and what do we value as a footballer?
According to the NC we valued athleticism, strength, speed, safe footballers, above technical footballers.
This is still the case 10 years later.
When the NC said we needed to change, developing a possession game with technical players to become a powerhouse.
How quickly this can be changed is demonstrated by Spain, it has only taken them 8 years since they took the Women's game seriously to become a dominate force.
And to an extent Holland as well.

At the same time as the Women's game has changed, we are stuck with the Matilda's pathways as the ONLY way to access the senior team, along with ONLY players who are contracted to the FA being selected.
While in Europe the pathways for National team selection is based on performance for your club.

Now to the harsh reality, we are not good enough, the why I have stated above as a part of it, maybe now we get a root and branch change. Especially as half this squad will be too old for the 2027 World Cup, let alone the Olympics.

Bring in Josip Gombau I say.

Huge respect to the Nigerian girls though, physical, tactical and Jesus those long legs of theirs just outran our girls..... They stuck to a pretty fundamental game plan and deservedly got their win.....  Hope they go far in the tournament.

Yeah, I noticed this too. Any half decent coach would have had subs warmed up and ready to go from at least 60 minutes onwards. I couldn't believe it when I looked down at the bench at about 75 minutes and still couldn't see any subs warming up.

Someone in an earlier pre game post mentioned that they thought Mackenzie Arnold was a gun.On last night's performance she was more like a faulty water pistol.