Category Archives: Women’s World Cup

Paris 2024 Review: Matildas World Cup Heroes to Olympic Flops & Top 5 Australia Gold Medals

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16 August 2024

What a difference a year makes. Last year at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the Matildas, Australia’s national women’s football team, became the toast of the nation during their run to the semi finals. A year later, at the Paris 2024 Olympics, they were bundled out in the first round in one of the most embarrassing displays ever witnessed by an Australian national football team. The Matildas could not even achieve the low standard of being two of the best third placed teams out of the three groups, even with Canada docked 6 points in one of the other groups. It was also their earliest elimination since Sydney 2000.

Australia knocked out of the Paris 2024 Olympics following a 2-1 loss to USA. Olympics Review & Top 5 Australia Gold Medals
Australia knocked out of the Paris 2024 Olympics following a 2-1 loss to USA – Image: Getty

After a 3-0 loss in the opening game to Germany, Australia inexplicable were 5-2 behind against Zambia, and only sneaking the win 6-5 thanks to an own goal, a shocking goalkeeping error, and a sloppy penalty conceded. Winning that game was a moment of relief, not of rejoice, yet they celebrated like it was a great success. The final game, which Australia were required to win, finished in a 2-1 loss to the USA. That was a flattering result, with the Americans dominant and Australia only grabbing a goal near the end to make it interesting.

The theme of all these losses was terrible defending. It was well known that Australia had trouble defending set pieces, so to see Germany score their first two goals from corners was galling. It’s like they learnt nothing. Coach, Tony Gustavsson, publicly stated it was an area that needed work heading into the Olympics, yet when the moment came, Germany had zero difficulties finding a free player and scoring. The USA’s first goal against Australia also came from a corner.

In hindsight, perhaps the 2023 World Cup was flattering. After a scrappy 1-0 win over Ireland, Australia lost 3-2 to Nigeria before defeating Canada 4-0. That match was probably Australia’s best performance under Gustavsson, and about the only time they beat a quality opponent (Canada were the Olympic champions from 2021 in Tokyo). Australia then beat Denmark 2-0 in the round of 16. In the quarter finals, it took a penalty shootout to beat France following a 0-0 final score, and then England and Sweden outclassed Australia 3-1 and 2-0, respectively, in the semi final and the third placed game.

The Matildas’ woes actually started way earlier than in 2023. In January of 2019, just 5 months before the World Cup in France, Alen Stajcic was sacked as coach of the Matildas by Football Federation Australia for supposedly overseeing a poor playing environment. This followed a “Matildas Wellbeing Audit”, which was always dubious, as it seemed an orchestrated affair in response to a few players complaining about a “culture of fear”. Apparently, a quarter of them responded that they felt psychological distress and many were afraid to ask for support.

Despite the supposed problems under Alen Stajcic, that era saw the Matildas at their best when they won the Tournament of Nations in 2017 held in the United States, beating USA, Japan and thrashing Brazil 6-1 along the way. They followed that in the 2018 tournament with wins over Brazil and Japan and a draw against the USA to finish second to the Americans on goal difference.

Ante Milicic replaced Stajcic for the 2019 World Cup held in June and July, where Australia were defensively abhorrent. Following 5-2 and 3-0 losses to the USA and Netherlands, respectively, in warm up games, Australia lost 2-1 to a dominant Italy in the first World Cup game. Australia then went two goals down to Brazil before winning 3-2. Poor goalkeeping by Jamaica contributed to Australia winning 4-1 in the final game. Australia were then bundled out on penalties in the round of 16 by Norway following a 1-1 draw.

Curiously, this was the not first time an uprising by the Matildas caused the removal of a coach. In 2014, a player mutiny against Hesterine de Reus saw her sacked by the FFA. Apparently, she was too tough on the players. Fast forward to the Gustavsson era, we had a coach that seemed to pamper, mollycoddle and let the players run the show rather than force his imprint on the team. Following the Olympics exit, some players labelled his era as “disorganised chaos”. That really shows he lacked sufficient control and authority within the team. A notorious trait of his was constantly being boastful about the team, which is a sign of hiding weaknesses and trying to avoid scrutiny.

Former Matildas coach Tom Sermanni responded about the post-Olympics whinging and said it’s easy to find upset or unhappy players. That seems a pattern now, with a core group of players actually running the team. When it gets too tough, a few of them initiate a revolt. Gustavsson just let them have it rather than fight it. With a bunch of spoiled brats, a team led by a con man not a coach, and a team operating on the moronic “Til it’s done” motto as though a major championship will just automatically happen, the whole campaign reeked of distraction, entitlement and laziness. The end result was no surprise in that context.

Australia’s Paris 2024 Medal Results

18 Gold, 19 Silver, 16 Bronze

It does make you wonder why even bother spending so much on team sports for only one set of medals on offer when swimming has a dozen opportunities within a week. Football is a bit different in that it’s already a mainstream sport and highly popular. Something like hockey, where Australia has performed abysmally for the past four Olympics, and it’s a sport with niche appeal, seems a waste of time.

Australia’s haul of 18 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze medals, for a total of 53 medals, was an outstanding result, and the second highest total behind the 58 won in Sydney (16 gold, 25 silver, 17 bronze). While there are more sports and events than ever (no skateboarding or BMX in Sydney and Australia won 13 gold from 151 events in Melbourne in 1956 vs 18 from 329 in Paris), the competition is overall tougher. The early onslaught of gold in Paris was particularly stunning, while the hopes to reach 20 gold slipped away with a rush of silver towards the end.

After just 7 days, Australia had 11 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze, so 22 medals within a week, and half of them gold. For the next 9 days it was 7 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze. This reflects more that Australia’s most dominant sport, swimming, was held in the first week, while the canoe slalom was also scheduled early where 2 gold medals were quickly won thanks to Jessica Fox. Swimming contributed 7 gold, with the women’s road cycling time trial on the first day delivering gold and women’s BMX racing the 11th gold.

The remaining 7 gold medals came from canoe slalom (women’s kayak cross), tennis (men’s doubles), 2 in skateboarding (men’s and women’s park), sailing (men’s dinghy), track cycling (men’s team pursuit) and athletics (women’s pole vault). The last day that Australia won gold medals were the four on 7 August 2024, or the Wednesday of week 2, and then no more came over the final four days of the Games. Those four gold were the sailing, men’s skateboarding and the track cycling, with the pole vault the very final gold medal won. Note, that sailing gold would have arrived a day earlier if not for weather delays, so it was more a coincidence that Australia won four golds that day. Matt Wearn’s lead was actually so large that the final race was mostly a formality (he won it anyway). It was also the fourth straight Olympics that Australia won the men’s dinghy in sailing, with Wearn repeating his effort from Tokyo.

It must be mentioned that most of these medals, and specifically the overall haul, was not a surprise. Australia spends a lot of money on Olympic athletes and sent the third largest team behind USA and the hosts, France. The aim is to finish top 5 at every Olympics. Australia finished fourth, just squeaked out of third on the final day by Japan when they won two golds in wrestling. As the previous hosts, Japan is no doubt feeling the legacy effect of the money invested in sport for their home Games, and finished with an excellent haul of 20 gold (including 8 in wrestling), 12 silver and 13 bronze for 45 total.

Could Australia have done even better?

Australia actually missed several excellent chances for gold. Gracenote, the data company that analyses form leading into the Olympics, predicted Australia would win 54 medals – just one more than the actual. Their breakdown was 15 gold, 23 silver and 16 bronze. Most interesting of all, they predicted 10 gold in swimming, not the eventual 7. The missed predictions were the men’s 200m breaststroke, women’s medley relay and probably the women’s 100m freestyle. French superstar Leon Marchand, who won four events, easily beat Zac Stubblety-Cook into silver in the breaststroke. USA won the relay in world record time. The 10th event is not mentioned and I presume it’s the women’s 100m freestyle given the strength of Mollie O’Callaghan. Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström surprisingly won gold after initially deciding not to race it, while O’Callaghan could only finish fourth. Had she swum her personal best, should would have won. The other option could have been the men’s 400m freestyle in which Elijah Winnington was beaten into silver in a fairly close race. Sjöström would win her pet event, the 50m freestyle too.

Given the 9 swimming gold medals won at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) and the bravado coming into Paris to beat the USA, Australia would have hoped to win at least 9. The final total was 7 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze. In hindsight, the women’s medley relay was an improbable chance, so would have expected the women’s 100m freestyle and one of the other two to come through. Countering that, Australia winning the 50m freestyle thanks to Cameron McEvoy was the trickiest of the predicted golds by Gracenote, and it was a gold that was highly hoped more than expected.

With two more gold medals, Australia would have won 20 gold total for the Games, finished third overall, and beaten the USA by 1 gold to win the swim meet itself. They’ve only done that once before: at the Melbourne 1956 Olympics (8 golds to 2 from 13 swimming events), where they also finished third overall with 13 gold. Curiously, France’s Leon Marchand won 4 by himself in Paris and Canada’s Summer McIntosh won 3. McIntosh actually beat 3 Americans into silver so Australia can thank her for getting so close to the USA. Interesting that Australia does not produce such superstar swimmers like Marchand and McIntosh capable of winning more than 2 gold medals, relying more on specialists and team depth. Shane Gould is the only swimmer, and any athlete, to win three individual events at a single Olympics, when she won the women’s 200m and 400m freestyle, and the 200m medley, at the 1972 Munich Olympics. She also took silver in the 800m freestyle and bronze in the 100m freestyle.

The other tricky golds won were women’s BMX racing, women’s kayak cross, men’s doubles tennis, women’s skateboarding park and women’s pole vault. All were good chances, if not strong chances; it’s just that things can go wrong. Then there are the misses: zero from rowing (always expect one or two gold; only won one bronze), track cycling (could have won one more with luck), kayak sprint (lost men’s K2 500m by 0.04 seconds) and men’s BMX freestyle (defending champion fell in all three rounds after qualifying in third). Australia were also close to winning the men’s windsurfing, men’s surfing (unlucky with waves), women’s water polo and individual eventing in equestrian, with all of them winning silver instead. Jessica Hull was unlucky to be beaten by a legend in the women’s 1500m athletics. Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won the event for the third straight Olympics. Women’s hockey were expected to challenge for gold, and choked at the quarter final stage yet again. They’ve been a disaster since their win in 2000. Women’s rugby sevens also had a shocker, missing a medal entirely.

Balancing the gold medals that were a bit tricky versus the plethora of other chances not converted, Australia really should have won 20 gold medals at these Olympics. We’ll take 18 and still call it a wild result, even if, on examination, it was optimal.

Minor Medals

Silver and Bronze can be a monumental achievement, like men’s basketball finally winning a medal at Tokyo 2020 with bronze. For Paris 2024, it’s hard to go past the silver Jessica Hull won in the women’s 1500m on the track as the best minor medal. She was in a purple patch of form, having recently broken the 2000m world record (even if it’s a rarely contested race), and raced every round perfectly. While silver will never be as good as gold (had she won gold, our response to her run would be stratospheric!), her achievement is undeniably stellar. Australians just don’t win medals in middle distance races, and we need to go back to the 1950s and 1960s and the likes of John Landy, Herb Elliot, Brenda Jones and Ralph Doubell for middle distance medals.

Raygun

Yes, Rachel Gunn in the breaking (break dancing) was a joke and a complete embarrassment. Her appearance speaks more about the selection process and the drive to get the sport into the Olympics before it was ready. The World DanceSport Federation, who have tried to get ballroom dancing into the Games over the years, only became the official governing body of breaking in 2018. They really had little knowledge of it, and farmed out the qualifying process to regional organisations (AUSBreaking for Oceania). The judging panel was comprised of nine independent international judges as selected by WDSF. Raygun won the Oceania spot. Then she made a mockery of it in Paris. Knowing she could not beat the other b-girls on “the dynamic and the power moves”, she decided to be “artistic and creative”. Meaning, she wore a daggy tracksuit and hopped around the stage and rolled around the floor like an idiot, and lost 54-0. If you’re outclassed, fine. At least try and compete as intended by the event.

Other Countries

Applaud our neighbours, New Zealand, with 10 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze for 20 medals total. Ellesse Andrews won two in track cycling while canoe sprint legend, Lisa Carrington, won 3 more gold medals (in the 500m races for K1, K2 and K4) to add to her 5 previous gold medals. On the silly per capita argument (wealth and investment is more relevant than raw population), NZ won the medal tally ahead of Netherlands (15, 7 and 12 for 34 total) and Australia, if you exclude tiny countries like Dominica and Saint Lucia.

USA won the overall medal tally when they won the final event of the Games: women’s basketball. They finished equal with China on gold (40 each), and won far more minor medals. On total medals, it was USA with 126, China 91, Great Britain 65 (+4 spots vs rank by gold), France 64 (+1), Australia 53 (-1), Japan 45 (-3), Italy 40 (+2), Netherlands 34 (-2), Germany 33 (+1) and Korea 32 (-2). As for the American media listing the medal table by total medals instead of gold, they have always done that (and it’s common in Canada). It’s a quirk of theirs, not a new scheme to look good after a slow start to the Games. Perhaps after the ignorant ridicule, they might follow the rest of the world in future and list by gold first.

Paris 2024 Olympics - Final Medal Table. Olympics Review & Top 5 Australia Gold Medals.
Paris 2024 Olympics – Final Medal Table

Australia’s Top 5 Gold Medals

5 Kaylee McKeown (200m backstroke – women)

The double double! Kaylee not only became the only Australian to win four individual gold medals at the Olympics (even the famed Ian Thorpe could only manage three), she was the first to defend two Olympic titles. She won both backstroke events, the 100m and the 200m, at successive Games. If gold medals are everything at the Olympics, then she’s also Australia’s greatest Olympian ever.

4 Team Pursuit (track cycling – men)

Since Australia won five gold medals on the velodrome in 2004, which included the men’s team pursuit, it’s been a horror run for the track cycling team. Only one gold medal since, by Anna Meares in 2012 in the women’s sprint, and hopes were high for the team pursuit in Paris. The men broke the world record with a phenomenal time of 3:40:730 in the semi finals (I remember when breaking 4 minutes was a major achievement) and then it was a matter of beating arch rivals, Great Britain, in the gold medal race. It was neck and neck throughout with Australia holding onto the slightest of advantages. The Brits pushed it so hard that one of their riders slipped off the saddle on the final lap and it was all over.

3 Cameron McEvoy (50m freestyle – men)

A story of resilience and perseverance as it took McEvoy until his fourth Olympics to finally win gold. McEvoy choked badly at Rio 2016 as a hot favourite in the 100m and almost quit the sport following the Tokyo Games in 2021 in which he underperformed. He revitalised his training routine, taking a more scientific approach and reducing his time considerably in the pool. It worked. He won gold at the 2023 World Championships and now it was it matter of putting all together in Paris. The squeal from commentator Giaan Rooney as McEvoy touched the wall said it all. While the women won all of Australia’s other gold medals in the pool, the best one was from a man.

2 Jessica Fox (K1 canoe slalom – women)

Another story of resilience and perseverance. Since bursting onto the scene with a silver at London 2012, big things were expected from Fox at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Both times ended in disappointment after errors cost her the gold and relegating her to bronze. While she recovered in Tokyo to win the new event of the C1 slalom to finally win a gold medal, it wasn’t THE gold medal. Fox would need to wait for her fourth Olympics to win that elusive K1 gold and this time there were no mistakes. Again, the reaction said it all, with screams and tears and relief and joy! That was just from me! Fox’s emotions were at another level. Just hearing her name announced at the medal ceremony as “Olympic champion” brought more tears to her, and myself. Fox would then win the C1 event too, while her little sister, Noemie, stunned herself, Jessica, her parents, me, and Australia, by winning the kayak cross. Jessica was knocked out in an earlier round, in a race that involved Noemie, so it shows you the fickle nature of that event. The thing is, Noemie was exceptional in all the rounds, putting herself in the right position and nailing all the gates, so her victory was all hers. Her win also meant the Fox sisters became the first ever siblings to win an individual gold medal in Australian Olympic history.

1 Saya Sakakibara (BMX racing – women)

Saya Sakakibara wins the gold medal in BMX Racing at Paris 2024. Olympics Review & Top 5 Australia Gold Medals
An emotional gold medal for Saya Sakakibara in BMX Racing at Paris 2024 – Image: Getty

Australia’s history in this event is wretched, with previous hot favourites that crashed, as did Saya in the final heat of the semi finals in Tokyo. She really hoped to win a medal in Tokyo given Japan is the home country of her mother and she was riding for her brother, Kai, who crashed in a race in 2020 and suffered a severe brain injury that left him in a coma for 6 weeks. That crash was devastating for Saya, and then followed a run of injuries and several concussions that saw her contemplate quitting the sport. Come Paris, it was redemption time, and riding with Kai’s race number of 77, Saya was flawless from the very start in qualifying and in every round of racing, and won gold in emotional scenes. In her words: “All I had to do was just f…ing go and I f…ing went for it.” After the race, Saya provided one of the greatest and most honest sporting quotes about her quest for gold: “Either way, it was going to end in tears, and I wanted to make sure they are happy tears.” She’s a legend. Just prior to her race, her boyfriend, Romain Mahieu, riding for France, won bronze in the men’s event behind two other Frenchmen. He embraced her as she crossed the line and after she let out a guttural scream. Unknown to Saya, her gold was the third that Australia won that day in 77 minutes.

Saya Sakakibara celebrates her Olympic gold medal with brother Kai at Paris 2024. Olympics Review & Top 5 Australia Gold Medals.
Saya Sakakibara celebrates her Olympic gold medal with brother Kai at Paris 2024 – Image: AAP

The two golds that preceded Saya’s were those of McEvoy and McKeown as listed above. That personally made that day, 2 August 2024, our greatest day in Olympic history. Too often we get obsessed by total medals won instead of savouring them individually. That day we got the chance.

Paris 2024

Paris 2024 were a wonderful Olympics. The French did everything right, except perhaps not converting some minor medals to gold (16 gold, 26 silver and 22 bronze for 64 total). The opening ceremony along the Seine River was a novel idea, especially for the parade of nations, and the lighting of the cauldron was spectacular. Then the French took the opposite approach when snuffing the flame at the closing ceremony. The crowds were loud and passionate, all the venues and locations were spectacular, and there was so much available free to the general public. Little touches like the medalists taking selfies were appreciated, while Champions Park, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where medalists were presented to the public, will no doubt be a feature of future Olympic Games. The Winter Games already had something similar with their medal ceremonies conducted on a big public stage in the actual host city, rather than on some remote ski slope, and now the Summer Games have their own version. Paris certainly did it their way. The closing ceremony ending with a breathtaking performance of My Way by Yseult was perfect, while the rendition of the United States national anthem by H.E.R. earlier in the evening was among the best ever. Truly a superb Games – c’est magnifique! – and now my favourite Olympics ever ahead of London 2012 and Barcelona 1992. Merci, Paris!

AUSTRALIA’S MEDALS

GOLD

Athletics

Women’s Pole Vault – Nina KENNEDY

Canoe Slalom

Women’s Kayak Single – Jessica FOX
Women’s Canoe Single – Jessica FOX
Women’s Kayak Cross – Noemie FOX

Cycling BMX Racing

Women – Saya SAKAKIBARA

Cycling Road

Women’s Individual Time Trial – Grace BROWN

Cycling Track

Men’s Team Pursuit – Australia

Sailing

Men’s Dinghy – Matt WEARN

Skateboarding

Women’s Park – Arisa TREW
Men’s Park – Keegan PALMER

Swimming

Women’s 200m Freestyle – Mollie O’CALLAGHAN
Women’s 400m Freestyle – Ariarne TITMUS
Women’s 100m Backstroke – Kaylee McKEOWN
Women’s 200m Backstroke – Kaylee McKEOWN
Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay – Australia
Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay – Australia
Men’s 50m Freestyle – Cameron McEVOY

Tennis

Men’s Doubles – EBDEN/PEERS

SILVER

Athletics

Women’s 1500m – Jessica HULL
Women’s High Jump Nicola OLYSLAGERS

Canoe Sprint

Men’s Kayak Four 500m – Australia

Cycling Track

Men’s Sprint – Matthew RICHARDSON
Men’s Keirin – Matthew RICHARDSON

Diving

Women’s 3m Springboard – Maddison KEENEY

Equestrian

Eventing Individual – Christopher BURTON

Marathon Swimming

Women’s 10km – Moesha JOHNSON

Sailing

Men’s Windsurfing – Grae MORRIS

Surfing

Men – Jack ROBINSON

Swimming

Women’s 50m Freestyle – Meg HARRIS
Women’s 200m Freestyle – Ariarne TITMUS
Women’s 800m Freestyle – Ariarne TITMUS
Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Australia
Men’s 100m Freestyle – Kyle CHALMERS
Men’s 400m Freestyle – Elijah WINNINGTON
Men’s 200m Breaststroke – Zac STUBBLETY-COOK
Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay – Australia

Water Polo

Women – Australia

BRONZE

Athletics

Men’s Discus Throw – Matthew DENNY
Women’s High Jump – Eleanor PATTERSON
Women’s 20km Race Walk – Jemima MONTAG
Marathon Race Walk Relay Mixed – COWLEY R/MONTAG J

Basketball

Women – Australia

Boxing

Men’s 57kg – Charlie SENIOR
Women’s 75kg – Caitlin PARKER

Canoe Sprint

Men’s Kayak Double 500m – van der WE/GREEN

Cycling BMX Freestyle

Women’s Park – Natalya DIEHM

Cycling Track

Men’s Team Sprint – Australia
Men’s Keirin – Matthew GLAETZER

Rowing

Women’s Pair – MORRISON/McINTYRE

Shooting

Trap Women – Penny SMITH

Swimming

Women’s 200m Individual Medley – Kaylee McKEOWN
Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay – Australia
Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Australia

France 2019 – Women’s World Cup Review

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Review – Grading Australia’s Performance

France 2019 – Women’s World Cup Review

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Alen Stajcic sacked for no reason sees Australia predictably fail

13 July 2019

On the surface, a loss to Norway at the round of 16 stage via a penalty shootout after 1-1 draw doesn’t seem so bad. It could even be explained as simply being unlucky. In reality, the loss capped off a disastrous few months for the Matildas, as Australia’s women’s soccer team went from genuine World Cup contenders to an inept defensive unit and struggling to beat teams they ordinarily were dealing with quite easily.

The troubles started when Alen Stajcic was sacked as coach by Football Federation Australia in January for apparently overseeing a poor playing environment following a “Matildas Wellbeing Audit”. A quarter of a players in two confidential surveys – the type that are notoriously used to inflate personal grievances into systemic problems – said they felt under stress, while the FFA cited “workplace culture” and “player welfare” issues. Director Heather Reid was quoted in the media at the time saying “if people knew the actual facts about Mr Stajcic’s behaviour ‘they would be shocked’.”

This was all a lie as FFA wanted Stajcic out for reasons unclear. While CEO David Gallop maintains Stajcic was sacked to give Australia “the best chance to perform at the World Cup”, who did they hire as his replacement? No, not Jesus, who would be just about the only person who could be doing better with the Matildas at the time. They hired Ante Milicic! This was a coach getting his first serious senior gig! So you replace a proven performer, who had won the Tournament of Nations in 2017, beating USA, Japan and thrashing Brazil 6-1 along the way, and followed that in 2018 with wins over Brazil and Japan and a draw against the USA, with a newcomer.

France 2019 - Women's World Cup Review - Sam Kerr misses penalty shootout kick for Australia vs Norway
Sam Kerr despondent after missing her penalty in the shootout as Australia lose 4-1 to Norway. Image: fifa.com

It’s utterly bonkers the FFA can expect anyone to seriously believe them and, indeed, Heather Reid would later apologise and withdraw her statements “entirely and unconditionally”. She would say “I apologise unreservedly for the damage, distress and hurt that I have caused to Alen Stajcic” and “I apologise also for pain and suffering that I have caused to Mr Stajcic’s wife and two young children”, while the FFA confirmed “Stajcic’s contract was not terminated on the basis that he had breached his contract or had engaged in any misconduct”. Reid has been on indefinite leave from the FFA board due to health reasons since the crisis started, and that’s probably the reason she hasn’t been sacked yet. Gallop has announced he will leave in December – at least 12 months too late. He should have quit the moment the Matildas, and therefore he, failed.

Still we don’t know why Stajcic was really sacked. Either that survey, in this crazy “woke” era we live in, spooked the FFA into a ridiculous overreaction, or the FFA wanted him out for whatever reason and commissioned the survey hoping to get some dirt to use against Stajcic. Many high profile players were stunned at his sacking, and defended Stajcic publicly. Indeed, many didn’t even realise the survey would be used against Stajcic, and had they known, might not have been so cavalier in answering it. So if there is any legitimacy to player distress, it’s probably only a handful of younger snowflake peripheral players who think earning a spot in a national team should be easy.

No surprise it was a dreadful start for Australia in its opening game against Italy when Italy tore them apart, and were unlucky to only win 2-1. They constantly breached Australia’s high defending, while Australia lacked cohesion going forward, and wasted possession. This was a continuation of the pattern we’d already seen in preparation games against USA and Netherlands, in which Australia lost 5-2 and 3-0, with the latter result only one week before Australia’s opening World Cup match.

Australia vs Italy Highlights – France 2019 Women’s World Cup

It must be noted that team pedigree for the women does not align with the men. Even though they were current European champions, this was Netherlands’ second ever World Cup, while Italy hadn’t qualified in 20 years. France is still developing, while Spain is a step behind. Germany is the only traditional European power to excel, when winning the World Cup in 2003 and 2007. Norway has been the traditional European power (won in 1995), with Sweden just below them, as these were the first European countries that empowered women to play. In recent years, the more traditional powers have started domestic leagues for women and are beginning to exert their force. South America is still way behind with only Brazil showing glimpses of ability to challenge the best teams. China led the way in Asian initially before Japan took over (won in 2011). Now Japan are off the boil. Of course, the best female team traditionally is the USA. Australia’s mostly hovered around the second tier of teams over the years, and only hit the top tier in recent years under Alen Stajcic. Of course, he was sacked before his true test, at this World Cup in France.

Australia’s second match was against Brazil, which they won 3-2 after falling behind 2-0 – again being caught high. A goal just before half time was able to provide confidence leading into the second half. Still, it must be tempered with the fact that Brazil had lost 9 games leading into this World Cup before beating lowly Jamaica in their opening Cup game, and only lost to Australia due to a dreadful own goal by Monica.

Australia vs Brazil Highlights – France 2019 Women’s World Cup

Jamaica would be Australia’s final game in the group, and again it proved a struggle, and they had to thank some poor Jamaican defending and a goal-keeping blunder in their 4-1 win. At 2-1, Jamaica actually looked ominous until Australia snuck a goal.

Jamaica vs Australia Highlights – France 2019 Women’s World Cup

Against Norway in that round of 16 clash, Australia were caught high again when falling behind, before managing to equalise late through a fluky direct corner. Naturally the Australian media whinged about being dudded against Norway. A penalty was awarded to Australia for allegedly hand-ball in the box. Replays show the ball hit the Norwegian’s shoulder and it would have been a clear and obvious error had the penalty not been rescinded.

Norway vs Australia Highlights – France 2019 Women’s World Cup

If Australia were dudded, it was sacking coach Alen Stajcic for no reason months before the World Cup started. The defense was diabolical ever ever since, conceding multiple goals in most matches, and were lucky to beat Brazil and survive the group. Let’s not fault the players either. This debacle was all administrative, as when you sack the coach for no reason just months before the World Cup starts, you can’t expect it to go without consequences. The Matildas were put in an unmanageable position to succeed.

So the World Cup that seemingly Australia was on the precipice of achieving their best ever result, if not winning, ended in a performance and result well below ability and expectation. Sacking Stajcic was never about giving the team the best possible chance to perform, it was an exercise in vanity and ego, and likely to distract from the FFA’s own flaws. Let’s note the men’s team is at their lowest ebb in decades and the youth teams often fail to qualify for World Cups and Olympics, and now we have the women’s team go backwards. In a way, the Matildas’ failure at France 2019 is justice for the treachery of the FFA. Such selfish and despicable actions should never be rewarded.

Finally…

Overall, it was a great World Cup. USA won for the second time in a row and the fourth time overall, and showed their class throughout and handled Netherlands quite comfortably in the final for their 2-0 win. Most notable from the tournament is the Europeans have really developed and dominated, with the quarter finals featuring seven of them: Norway, England, France, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. The standard has improved too, notably with the goal-keepers. In the early days of women’s football they were an embarrassment.

It’s a shame the American success wasn’t as unifying as it could be due to Megan Rapinoe’s unsavoury antics, notably kneeling during the anthem in 2016, the general criticism of her country, and the equal pay dispute between men and women. Curiously, that kneeling event was when Rapinoe started on the bench. She’d dare not do it on the field – restricted at the World Cup to simply not singing – and no doubt was told at the time she’d be booted off the team if there’s a repeat episode. After all, this is the USA national team. It represents the country and its people. If you don’t respect that, get out. If she was really passionate about diversity, she’d not be playing soccer anyway. One look at the American team and it looks more whiter than the Republican Party and that many come from privileged backgrounds. As for equal pay, she can start with all players in her own team and domestic competition earning the same. They do the same work, the same training, so why not? No doubt she’ll respond market forces and her value dictate her higher salary. Bingo. Same goes when trying to compare a Rapinoe to a Ronaldo, or the women’s World Cup to the men’s.

The Video Assistant Referee was highly visible in this World Cup, and while there was some minor controversy about decisions, this was more due to FIFA’s stricter guidelines on handballs and trips regarding penalties, than any wrong decisions made. Overall, it worked. Probably the area to rethink is offsides let go, and often only called once the player offside eventually touches the ball. This can causes players, notably defenders, run for the ball for no reason. Personally, the line referee needs to signal of a potential offside, especially an obvious one, so the players don’t waste their energy. If it’s not obvious, you let the game go and only check if a goal is scored, as is has become practice now. Ensuring goal-keepers don’t leave their line before a penalty kick is taken is another great use of VAR. It’s been an area of cheating for decades in the game, and it should have been long stamped out. Bravo to FIFA for actually doing good things for the game, and to the women for an excellent tournament.

Results

Group

Australia 1 – Kerr 22′
Italy 2 – Bonansea 56′, 90+5′

Australia 3 – Foord 45+1′, Logarzo 58′, Monica 66′ (OG)
Brazil 2 – Marta 27′ (PK), Cristiane 38′

Jamaica 1 – Solaun 49′
Australia 4 – Kerr 11′, 42′, 69′, 83′

Round of 16

Norway 1 – Herlovsen 31′
Australia 1 – Kellond-Knight 83′
(Norway won 4-1 on penalties)

Canada 2015 – Women’s World Cup – Review of Australia / Matildas

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28 June 2015

Disappointing end to a promising campaign

After escaping the so-called “group of death”, and then beating Brazil in the round of 16 to record their first knock-out match win ever, the Matildas succumbed to World Champions Japan 1-0 in the quarter final. Even with 5 days break compared to 3 for Japan, the Matildas seemed lethargic from the start and unable to impose their game. While commentators suggested fatigue was the problem, it seemed more like a combination of Japan being too good and Australia possibly pacing the game in case of extra time. The “hot weather”, which was 26 at the start of the game and forecast to reach 31, should not have been a problem. The artificial pitch, supposedly 50 degrees in such conditions, did not hamper the players’ post match commiseration, as they lay sprawled all over it in sadness. Pacing the knockout games seemed to be a trend at the men’s World Cup in Brazil last year, and maybe it’s crept in here too. It’s a good strategy, as long as you’re not sucker-punched near the end of regulation time.

Other than the early phase of the second half, Australia were shut out of the game, and ultimately hit with a sucker punch. Their only shots were speculative from range or from the very rare Japanese mistakes. While 8 corners to zero and a 60% possession rate are suggestive of the dominance, the reality of the dominance is that Japan’s high-pressing strategy saw Australia’s attempt to play its possession game collapse. It only seemed a matter of time that Japan would capitalise on a mistake or convert a corner, and that proved exactly true when a loose pass out of defence was picked off. After the shot was blocked, the resulting corner on 87 minutes was scrambled into the net. Game over against a Japanese team that all teams have found difficult to crack. Ignoring the bad goal-keeping error in the R16 final against the Netherlands, Japan have only conceded one goal all tournament.

Australia’s best performance of the tournament came against Brazil in the R16 final. They managed to shut down the dangerous Brazil while creating good opportunities for themselves. The winning goal came on the 64th minute by the fabulous Kyah Simon, who scored both goals in the pivotal game against Nigeria that virtually sealed Australia’s place in the second round, to leave the Brazilians shattered. It was marvellous scenes for both the jubilation of the Matildas and tears of the often arrogant and conceited Brazilians.

This World Cup had been expanded to 24 nations from 16, meaning the four best third-place teams from the six groups would also progress and 3 points is quite often to progress. Australia drew 1-1 with Sweden in their final group match to hold second place, while Sweden’s three draws were enough for them to progress in third. USA, which had difficulties against Australia and Sweden, won the group with 7 points. Against the USA, Australia matched them for the first 60 minutes, entering half time at 1-1, before class told in the end and USA ran out 3-1 winners.

Quotes – Norio Sasaki, Japan’s coach

Even if we didn’t get a goal within 90 minutes, I felt we would get it inside 120 minutes. The game-plan was executed very well. We recognise the growth of Australia in this World Cup and my team will take confidence from this and we can build with future success (at the tournament). Also the solutions we came up for this match worked very well, and this also gives us confidence. We will fight hard in the semi-final being mindful of the people supporting us back in Japan.

Quotes – Alen Stajcic, Australia’s coach

Clearly the better team won, even though I thought it evened out a bit after the first 20 minutes. Japan were a lot more composed over the full 90 minutes. We didn’t set out to play any differently, but we just spent a lot of energy in the first 20 minutes chasing the game. Most of our players are young, and it is a heartbreaking moment for them, but sometimes you learn from these experiences. We don’t want to compete with the best, we want to beat the best, so now it is a case of taking further steps. There is a lot of room for growth moving forward.

The Women’s Game

Watching these tournaments since Sweden 1995, when just 12 teams participated and Australia lost all 3 games, the growth in skill has been phenomenal. The key growth area is the goal-keepers, who bordered on embarrassing even until the last World Cup in Germany. So many long shots would be scored as the goalies’ poor athleticism would preclude them from reaching shots that seemed in very simple reach of the men. Even allowing for women being less powerful in the leap and generally shorter, the attempts to save looked terrible, or the women would be left flat-footed. That’s all changed for Canada 2015 with notably far few shots from range being scored, and that’s not from the lack of trying. Australia’s Lydia Williams notably pulled off several world class saves, especially against Brazil, and she’s only 175cm tall. Defending is also tighter in general, especially the lack of one-on-ones. It’s only the African and Latin American teams, who are quite a bit off the pace, that you still see some of this calamity. Also the expansion to 24 teams did bring a few weaker teams in, notably Ivory Coast and Ecuador, both of whom conceded 10 goals in a match.

The general attraction of the women’s game – the more open play and more shots on goal – that’s still there. That should remain a part of the fabric of the game given women’s weakness (or strength!) of being naturally not quite as strong or fast as the men. So, too, should the paucity of diving, cheating and time-wasting that often blights the men’s game. Let’s hope this difference is a result of women having more integrity rather than being “less professional” than the men so that it never enters the women’s game. This overall increase in action and flow meant that the Australia/Japan QF was probably the only match that approached the banality of a stalemate in the men’s game. If the women keep improving, there’s no reason why they cannot provide a product that’s as compelling to watch as the men’s. In tennis and basketball, connoisseurs of those sports (including myself) appreciate the more technical and nuance nature of the female versions. Football, with the rules unchanged for the woman, can certainly reach this level.

Of course, the other attraction of the women’s game is the women themselves. Let’s be realistic and resist accusations of sexism, women have for generations enjoyed watching men play for reasons more than just watching a football match, so why not vice versa? Thankfully the women are not treated as sex objects, as play in the same uniforms as the men, not any stupid bodysuits to artificially “sex up” the game, like Australian basketball did or once Sepp Blatter notoriously suggested that football do. Kyah Simon has the prettiest eyes and a winning smile that’s as lethal as her boot, and is certainly my favourite of the Australian team, while any player with a long ponytail looks so elegant. Japan’s Rumi Utsugi, who was integral in converting the winning corner, is one notable, as too almost the entire starting eleven of the Netherlands. USA still has the glamorous Hope Solo, who’s been a long time favourite.

It’s good to see different teams dominate at world level. In the early days the trio of USA, Norway and China were the most dominant. While Norway and China have slid a little, the USA have reached the semi final of every single World Cup. Japan has taken over as Asia’s most dominant team, while Germany has supplanted Norway. Traditional footballing countries are now improving thanks to their domestic leagues, notably England and France, and this was the first ever World Cup for Spain, Netherlands and Switzerland. Latin America is poor (except for Brazil) and Africa is far behind. Canada is the other strong member in the Americas, while Asia saw Thailand qualify to reinforce the power of the east. New Zealand is competitive for Oceania.

Offsides

Give the female assistant referees a gig at the men’s events! Never before have I see a virtual faultless display off refereeing the offside law. Most particular the “favour the attacker” edict in that, yes, in every line-ball case, the referees favoured the attackers! Maybe only once I’ve seen an obvious offside allowed, and even then we’re still talking reasonably close. More importantly, I don’t recall seeing a wrong offside called. Those are the true bane of the sport, because they deny goals and goal chances. The spirit of the law is being refereed perfectly at this World Cup. Whatever it is, better eyesight, reinforcement of the edict, or females having a better empathy for the game, it’s been wonderful. The outfield refereeing has also been great. If there’s an area that the women have clearly surpassed the men, it’s the referees.

Equality

The big talking point in the media has been the discrepancy of pay between the men and women. While the men get $6000 per match at their World Cup, the women get $500 at theirs. Obviously market forces are involved here, with the men generating far more revenue. They also get a slice of the prize-money, which the women also do. While you could say double the match payment to $1000, there will still be calls of inequality unless it’s even. Just look at Grand Slam tennis where even at less than 5% difference in recent years, the women were still howling until it was equal. That’s even despite the fact their matches are only 60% as long as the men, they attract less crowds and the depth in their fields is much weaker. Given the match payments are a relatively small cost in the overall expense of sending a team to a World Cup, the FFA should probably just make it equal. As for prize-money split, that percentage should also be equal. Unfortunately, until the women’s game generates enough revenue to pay the massive prize-money on offer at a men’s World Cup, that means total dollars from prize-money will remain low compared to the men.

The important thing with any issue of equality is to see it progressing. It was only 20 years ago that the men were striking at their pathetic pay, which was in the realm of a few hundred dollars like the women now. Remember World Series Cricket in the 70s? That was all about pay, particularly revenue coming into the game that wasn’t being spread to the players. Cricket has just recently put their women on contract, something that the FFA has emulated. The advantage with the cricket model is that, yes, you do control your players, so your national team is never compromised. Unfortunately that’s created a problem that the women are then precluded to play overseas, where they could earn much more money than the local W-League. Football is not cricket, with fundamentally different structures at international level. Whereas cricket is a pseudo club team almost permanently on international tour, football is representative and an adjunct to domestic club competitions. For the short-term sacrifice to the improvement of the Matildas that the contract system seems to have made for this World Cup, it would better to disband the contracts, use that money to pay higher wages in the W-League, and be more accommodating to any player that does want to go overseas. After all, if it’s about equality, our female warriors should be treated equally to our male ones.

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