‘I don’t think we were very good’: Kerr’s verdict after Matildas drubbing

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has chalked up their humbling defeat to Germany as the kind of learning experience they need to have if they are to bridge the gap with the world’s best teams.

Australia ended a period of more than 12 months of inactivity with a rusty 5-2 loss in Wiesbaden to the reigning Olympic champions early on Sunday morning (AEST).

Sam Kerr couldn’t lift Australia to victory.Credit:Getty

Gustavsson was left searching for positives, and rightly was pleased that his side fought to the end – with their two goals, both from Emily Gielnik, coming in the final 10 minutes – while international debuts to Alexandra Huynh, Indiah-Paige Riley and Beattie Goad, plus a maiden start for teenage prodigy Mary Fowler, won’t hurt his mission to build more depth in the Australian ranks.

But the end result, which flattered the Matildas, shows how much work is needed in the months and years ahead if they are to contend for a medal in Tokyo or win the World Cup on home soil in 2023.

Another stern test awaits on Wednesday morning (AEST) in the form of the Netherlands, who were crowned European champions in 2017, made the World Cup final in 2019, and beat Germany 2-1 in a friendly in February.

“Every individual, every team that wants to take that next step … they also are brave enough to put themselves in situations where they are challenged, a little bit out of their comfort zone to reach a little bit higher,” Gustavsson said.

“It’s a good learning experience in the sense of, some of the things you might get away with in other areas or levels, you don’t get away with when you’re at the top, top level, because everything is so fast.

“That’s the number one reason I said from the first day [in the job] we need as tough schedule as possible to get this exposure, to get this learning, to see where we’re at, at the individual level and at the team level.

“Was this an extreme challenge this time? Of course it was with all the circumstances, but we’re not going to shy away from that. We’re still going to go into these type of games with the mindset of getting one day better, and learn and have takeaways from this.”

Gustavsson took an experimental approach to selection, using winger Hayley Raso as a fullback, striker Fowler as a box-to-box midfielder, and moving centre-back Alanna Kennedy in the second half to the base of midfield, where she plays her club football for Tottenham Hotspur.

It was mostly out of necessity, but with nations only able to take squads of 18 to the Olympics in three months’ time, versatility will be paramount come Tokyo.

“We can’t be too quick to be so hard on ourselves,” Kennedy said. “We started off really well, and then obviously lost our way towards the back end of our first half. It was positive to come back and score a couple of goals at the end but we definitely have a few things we need to work on.”

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