10 Am today who's watching? 

Working from home today so I'll definitely have it on in the background.

I'm not minding the different style of play. Happy to see us trying different things and not minding that we are struggling a bit under the Mexican high press.

It is showing up frequent poor touches by us which undermine a lot of the good work we are doing to maintain possession under very close pressure.

Heyman has been mostly unutilised - drifting around to apply some light pressure then not finding time or space when we bring the ball forwards. We are bringing the ball forward with greater numbers and not necessarily to our benefit because we are also bringing lots of Mexican players with us. I think the congestion around the 18 yard box is keeping Heyman out of the play.

Van Egmond has been moving anywhere from DM through to striker as the game progresses. She has done a good job of winning back balls lost to poor passes by others and still has vision to combine with others in heavy passing traffic. She is too slow to match it with any of the opposition players when they are at speed but is not having a bad game.

I think, as we learn to play a different way, we are passing the ball back through the Mexican lines we have skilfully and sometimes laboriously worked our way through rather than finding a way to capitalise on what ground we earned. That would probably be my target for the second half - when we finally break through the first series of high presses work out what we want to do next rather than going back to the CBs and keeper and starting all over. Then again, if we want to practice working our way through a high press it makes sense to rinse and repeat rather than push on. We know our players know how to push on.

Carpenter is being beaten for pace when she runs up the wing. The Mexican team is fast and agile and it is a great test for individuals all over the park to use ball control and body to maintain possession while finding the next pass.

Good challenging game so far the way we are playing it.

Beautiful goal by Foord.

How is Carpenter a professional footballer? 

RIMB. A new style is fine but. Passing is too slow. No, or very little, movement off the ball to beat the press. Players turning into trouble constantly. Wayward passes everywhere.

And to make it even worse there's oi oi oi'ers in the crowd. Get in the bin.

Jesus fucking christ he's just subbed on Polkinghorne.  FFS.

I am hoping the slow movement and especially the turning into danger by several players all game is a factor of being uncertain of each other playing differently. Unfortunately I think the turning blind into an opponent is more a very bad habit that players have picked up playing against lesser opponents and is something to be stopped before it kills us.

You may have been able to screen it out, but the instigator of the aussie aussie aussie tried a 3, 3, 2, 2, 3 combination too. Just thought I'd let you know in case you missed that little gem.

Vine showed particularly poor touch this game. She makes great runs, controls the ball beautifully, works well with her team mates, then hits the ball 2 metres longer than she intended and gives it away. Fowler also had one of her worst touch/passing games - giving the ball away half the time with inaccurate passing. She tended to do that early on in her Matildas appearances but grew out of it.

I thought Raso had a very good first half before being subbed early in the second. As always, I cannot understand Gustavsson leaving Van Egmond on all game, and worse by making her one of two up front for the whole second half. What is he trying to learn from that? That tired outfield players may want a tall person to pass to if they get bored? Meaningless and pointless keeping her on up front - why not leave Heyman on instead to work out how to play her better in the team dynamic. The open second half was a better set up to see how she goes.

Cooney-Cross did well keeping possession in traffic and passing accurately. She continues to be a really good, solid player for us. That hideous moment where she short passed the goal kick back to Mackenzie-Arnold (like we had been doing all game), then received it back again to run between the two Mexican forwards was tunnel vision madness. Mackenzie-Arnold should have seen the forwards were too close for it to be safe and chosen another option. We were lucky not to give that goal away as the Mexican forwards sprung the trap.

All up the second half was much scrappier than the first. Mexico stopped doing the high press as much and we stopped trying to play it out at all costs. In a more open half, both teams gave the ball away cheaply time and again and it was a lot harder to read our system of play - with a lot of our normal style of play coming through.

Mexico looked to be trying to go over the top into space when Polks came on and we were lucky they were terrible at it. Polks did not seem to get tested for pace much at all.

It seems that Gustavsson cannot play a whole new game without bringing back old and favoured faces instead of giving new faces a decent run. What was the point of 5 minutes for Freier in a friendly like this and keeping Van Egmond on!

On another note Matildas are playing their games in Olympics at 3 am which is shite 

He wants to make sure he gets the result. He can't afford to play most of the new faces with the lack of basic skills like the game we got trashed by Canada 4-0.  

Without Foord/Fowler/Cooney Cross/Raso/Catley/Kennedy they becomes an ordinary team just like New Zealand. The level of our bench players are night/day to the main players.

Imagine being Charlie Grant sitting on the bench biding her time. She plays a whole year when Carpenter was out and smashed it only to watch Polkinghorne come on with the game petering out.

If Polkinghorne gets picked to go to the Olympics there won't be enough pejoratives in the dictionary for TG.

Haven't watched it yet, and I don't think I will having heard van Egmond played the full game. I just know I will feel like throwing stuff at the TV.

Yeah that Aussie oi oi oi cheer is embarassing to the nation. Someone should tell him to shut ta hell up.

Mate I went to every Matilda game at the WC except their 3 and 4th play off because I was heading in the opposite direction to Sydney for the final.

It drove me fucking bonkers. Shut the fuck up you farking idiots. It is such a grating piece of shit. I hate it immensly.

The only good thing about the Matildas missing the final was I got to sit in a stadium and not hear it.
 

Watched a replay this evening. Didn't want to waste the daylight.

Mexico applied a Full Press and Intensive Squeezing early in the game.  It was well-coached and well -executed. Supposedly, it was hot and humid. If a team tries to play that level of off the ball intensity as high up the pitch as Mexico did, it is energy sapping at the best of times. Teams often run out of gas at the 55 min - 60 min mark. In the heat and humidity it would have taken an even greater toll.

There were a few comments here early on in the game, about Aus's lack of movement off the ball to support the ball carrier. It might have been a strategy to conserve energy over 90 mins, given Mexico were using up more gas. Once Mexico ran out of energy, Aus dominated possession and territory.

Nevertheless, the Mexican Full Pressing and Intensive Squeezing provided a challenge to Aus, as Mexico dominated territory early in the game.

 Mexico used more of  a Half Press and Moderate Squeezing  off the ball in the second half. When they pressed  further forwards, there was  more space between the lines for Aus to play through. In Aus's Attacking Transitions and Ball Possession phases of play, it was much easier to play through increased space between and  within the Mexican lines. 

It was tough for Aus to receive and have the body position to play forwards early in the game. Notwithstanding, Fowler often held onto the ball against a number of opponents in the early stanza of the game, sometimes managing to create actions that led to build ups commencing with Aus players facing forwards. Impressive!

I  thought it was some of the better football I've seen the Matildas play. I'm biased towards playing the possession game. There was more patience applied in build ups, with greater sequences of passes in structured possession and attacking interplay. The movement off the ball looked fine as Mexico backed off  in their closing down of  space. Credit to Tony G for moving away from the Matildas constant  reliance on accelerated attacks.

Thought Torpey is a useful acquisition in an unfamiliar LB position. She played some intelligent balls and defended competently, tracking back well.  Torpey has fast handing speed, with a nice body position as she receives, that  results in a decent first touch. The technically correct first touch enables the second touch (often a pass) to be executed quickly after the first touch - equating to fast handling speed.

Raso's goal was a beauty! There was a neat sole of the foot turn and shot under a fair bit of defensive pressure.