Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has defended his selection of a “high-intensity” coaching session that has value Australia the providers of two extra gamers, together with younger attacking star Mary Fowler, for Thursday evening’s FIFA Women’s World Cup conflict in opposition to Nigeria in Brisbane.
The Matildas’ already compromised ahead shares suffered an extra blow when Fowler was concussed at Tuesday’s behind-closed-doors session.
Veteran utility participant Aivi Luik additionally fell sufferer to concussion throughout the identical coaching scrimmage.
However, with captain and star striker Sam Kerr already sidelined indefinitely with a calf damage, and one other of the squad’s forwards in Kyah Simon having carried a knee damage into the match and unavailable, Fowler’s misfortune significantly hurts the Australians.
“I totally understand if you didn’t see the training, if I were you I would say ‘what the heck is happening at training?’” Gustavsson stated.
“Two concussions in one training (session) two days out from the game, but it was a completely normal training (session).
“Two days out, you always have a high intensity medium-sized game and play eight-v-eight at high intensity.
“Everything was good. We were unlucky, unfortunately, with two head knocks.
“We don’t want to go into details because we don’t repeat those things that happen at training but … we didn’t do anything different than normal, and we were a bit unlucky this time, but the session was very good.
“Once again the players showed when that happened … they just kept going and focused, and new players stepped into those roles.
“The player are on a mission, and focused what they can control, so credit to the players at yesterday’s training how they responded to it.”
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The Matildas skilled at Brisbane’s Perry Park on Wednesday morning, with Kerr, Fowler and Simon all restricted to strolling laps of the sector.
Gustavsson was additionally compelled to defend his choice to call the injured Simon in his squad, of venture that has seemingly backfired with each Kerr and Fowler now additionally sidelined.
“I’m never going to never regret picking Kyah,” the Matildas coach stated.
“I picked for her for different reasons. We knew she was going to have limited minutes but her game-changing quality was what we picked her for, and what she showed in training in the last couple of weeks before (the squad’s) selection was amazing.
“We knew it was a risk, but you never know what it’s going to be like.
“The other thing is what she contributes to the group in the locker room and off the pitch with her experience and her personality, but also coming into (games) in big pressure moments. “She’s come up big in big games before. I’m never going to regret that She still contributes to us.”
Caitlin Foord is ready to steer the Matildas’ assault in opposition to the Nigerians, with the versatile Tameka Yallop and Alex Chidiac two of the choices to interchange Fowler upfront.
However, Gustavsson stated Yallop, who injured her thigh in opposition to France in a pleasant lower than two weeks in the past, would play “limited minutes”.
“Sometimes you are unlucky and you need to deal with the cards you’re handed, and we’re ready to play those cards,” he stated.
“We have a lot of attacking options still in the roster, but this team has also showed that we are very adaptable, so we might have a different profile of a player but we’re still going to have the same identity. We might have a different formation, but we’re still going to have the same identity.
“We’ve seen that time over time in the last two or three games where we’ve played almost four to five different formations, and 16 different players against France, but we still have the same identity.”
The Matildas will assure themselves a spot within the match’s knockout levels with a Group B recreation to spare with a win over the Nigerians.
Source: www.news.com.au
