Haley Raso used to play for the Victory so through my eyes she has a face like a dropped pie.
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Arnold’s just left West ham
Surely she only goes with a deal wrapped up. Replacing Earps at Man U?
One of about 7 released, according to their socials. Loads of top women players have been released this off season. Not quite the same as men leaving on a free.
The Matildas get beaten by Canada 2-1 in their final warm up match for the Olympics
Good write up on the ABC website on the game.
It appears that TG has been flogging them at training, Guus style, and deliberately had them go into this game fatigued.
It was a “B” International so there were unlimited subs.
Result doesn’t matter. It was a ‘keep fit’ exercise.
Practice for when the girls go deep into a tournament using an overall total of 14 players.
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Looks like it’s you tube highlights for me.
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3 x 3am. Yep. Highlights.
3 games in 6 days is just average park season stuff. Catch up game last night, scheduled game tomorrow, another catch up game Tuesday. 
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Squad depth and player rotation will be key in that short turn around and in a euro summer.
Too areas of speciality for this coach
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And our one and only out-and-out striker is 35 years old.
In fact, the average age of the squad is 27 years old, the outlying youngsters are Fowler (21) and Cooney Cross (22). Seven of the squad are 30 years or older. I realise that squad sizes for the olympics are small but its disappointing that after so long in charge of the national team, Tony hasn’t really put any sort of succession plan in place.
He’s given plenty of young players a go.
At some stage you have to all out for the win though. The Olympics is probably the last chance saloon for quite a few of the squad so pick your strongest squad possible.
There’s plenty of WC Qualifiers coming up where the younger players will get the chance to cement their claims.
Usually all in one go in 6-0 loss so that he can write the whole lot off and never pick them again.
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Literally every squad he’s picked has been the same safe players that were embedded Matildas left over from his predecessor. Some are even older players who were frozen out and have come back in. Stajcic was in charge when Fowler made her debut, and Carpenter hers both at 15 years. Cooney Cross made her debut under Gustavsson but thats about it. Williams is old as fuck and is still in the reserve squad while Whyman hasn’t even been capped.
That can also be seen as them not being ready yet, particularly for a major tournament. There’s plenty of games for them to get their chance between the Olympics and the next World Cup.
This is TG’s last chance at winning another major trophy with them.
He took over in 2020. These is the list of players to have made their debut under him:
| 206 | 2021 | Beatrice | Goad |
|---|---|---|---|
| 207 | 2021 | Indiah-Paige | Riley |
| 208 | 2021 | Alex | Huynh |
| 209 | 2021 | Dylan | Holmes |
| 210 | 2021 | Kyra | Cooney-Cross |
| 211 | 2021 | Courtney | Nevin |
| 212 | 2021 | Teagan | Micah |
| 213 | 2021 | Clare | Wheeler |
| 214 | 2021 | Charlotte | Grant |
| 215 | 2021 | Angela | Beard |
| 216 | 2021 | Remy | Siemsen |
| 217 | 2021 | Bryleeh | Henry |
| 218 | 2021 | Jessika | Nash |
| 219 | 2022 | Holly | McNamara |
| 220 | 2022 | Cortnee | Vine |
| 221 | 2022 | Jamilla | Rankin |
| 222 | 2022 | Taylor | Ray |
| 223 | 2022 | Matilda | McNamara |
| 224 | 2023 | Clare | Hunt |
| 225 | 2023 | Charlie | Rule |
| 226 | 2023 | Sarah | Hunter |
| 227 | 2024 | Kaitlyn | Torpey |
| 228 | 2024 | Sharn | Freier |
6 of the players on that list are in the squad for the Olympics. That’s 1/3 of the squad.
There are plenty of other players on that list that have been given game time and will be ready for the next cycle.
The argument that he hasn’t left a succession plan is a lie.
18 in an Olympic squad, right? There are 11 current Matildas who have over 100 caps (Polkinghorne, Kellond-Knight, Simon, Yallop, Kerr, Van Egmond, Foord, Kennedy, Catley, Gorry). Kellond-Knight, Simon and Kerr are the only ones who are not in the Olympic squad (Williams is on the short list). Williams made her debut in 2005, Gorry made hers in 2012. 10 of the players in the Olympic squad are 29 or over. Only 4 are under 25. Micah has been around the senior national team since 2017 Tournament of Nations and Cooney Cross since 2019 Womens World Cup (not capped). Nevin has also been around the squad since before Tony. He gave debut starts to Wheeler, Vine and Hunt who are all 26 (29 next WWC), and were all part of the Junior Matildas setup. It just took him 3 years to give them a run. He’s capped 20 players in 4 years but looking at that list:
Player (caps)
Riley (1) - now plays for NZ
Huynh (1)
Holmes (1)
Beard (3) - now plays for Philippines
Seimsen (7)
Henry (2)
Nash (1)
Rankin (1)
Ray (1)
M. McNamara (1)
Freier (2)
Shout out to Ally Green who he didn’t cap and now plays for NZ. We could use an option at LB.
The fact is, Gustavsson has no tactical flexibility. We play better football when we don’t rely on Kerr as the main point of attack, yet its still how we set up when she’s in the squad. We don’t have any options for 9. We are still playing Van Egmond. Didn’t he play Polkinghorne as a forward during a WWC game rather than make a substitution? Sure, he gave some minutes at the end of friendlies - we were up 7-0 over Philippines and he subbed Raso, Cooney-Cross, Gorry and Kerr for Vine, Sayer, Wheeler and Van Egmond. He will leave us with an old squad with little depth and a stack of players who have bugger all international experience at the top level.
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