The scoreline might have been surprising, and the result is definitely a setback.
But coach Ante Milicic and his staff will be hoping that the Matildas' 3-0 loss to The Netherlands is just the sort of reality check needed to hammer home to his players the magnitude of the task facing them heading into their World Cup opener against Italy next weekend.
Milicic and his team have seven days now to examine where things went wrong – largely at the back – against a powerful Dutch side, who will themselves take a huge boost from this match and fancy their chances of upsetting many more favoured nations in the month long tournament.
The coach played a strong side, although he was without pivotal midfielder Elise Kellond-Knight, a crucial element in his team's structure.
Steph Catley, whose absence in the 5-3 defeat to the US in April was widely noted, came in at left back and she will no doubt improve for the run after her injury.
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She will need to, along with the rest of the Australian rearguard.
The Matildas have now conceded eight goals in two games against the USA – the World Cup favourites – and the Dutch, who are ranked at number eight in the world, two slots behind Australia, coming into the World Cup.
Goals are not generally a problem for Australia given that their forward set up is led by Sam Kerr, one of the world's best strikers, and evergreen veteran Lisa De Vanna is also in the mix, either in from the start or off the bench.
Sam Kerr.Credit:AAP
But to get goals any team needs good service; that usually requires controlling or at least breaking even in the midfield battle and keeping things tight at the back.
There were some upsides to this performance, especially the appearance of Hayley Raso, who has shown enormous courage, character and commitment to get back to any sort of football, never mind top international competition, after breaking her back last year.
These sort of games are important, and they are not.
They are friendlies, but they are keenly contested.
They are practice matches, but there is a lot riding on them for each individual concerned given that a good showing might mean the difference between a place on the starting line up or on the bench for the game that really matters – next Sunday against Italy.
Coaches will experiment, but this close to the tournament experiments tend to be limited, or forced on a coach by the absence of key players – as Milicic was forced to do with Kellond-Knight's unavailability.
Still, each game provides a lesson – for the players as much as the coaching staff, and Milicic now knows, as he surely did already, that he will need his strongest eleven (including Kellond – Knight) out on the pitch in top form if the Australians are to play to their seeding and reach the last eight and perhaps go even further.
The lesson from this game is that the Matildas need to be better at the back and have to take their chances when they come, because at the highest level that isn't always that often.
“It was definitely not the result that we were after but I think there were some good patches in the first half and if we had taken a couple of our chances then it could have been a different game,” defender Clare Polkinghorne said.
“We conceded a couple of goals on set-pieces which we will have to tighten up. But Read More – Source
The scoreline might have been surprising, and the result is definitely a setback.
But coach Ante Milicic and his staff will be hoping that the Matildas' 3-0 loss to The Netherlands is just the sort of reality check needed to hammer home to his players the magnitude of the task facing them heading into their World Cup opener against Italy next weekend.
Milicic and his team have seven days now to examine where things went wrong – largely at the back – against a powerful Dutch side, who will themselves take a huge boost from this match and fancy their chances of upsetting many more favoured nations in the month long tournament.
The coach played a strong side, although he was without pivotal midfielder Elise Kellond-Knight, a crucial element in his team's structure.
Steph Catley, whose absence in the 5-3 defeat to the US in April was widely noted, came in at left back and she will no doubt improve for the run after her injury.
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She will need to, along with the rest of the Australian rearguard.
The Matildas have now conceded eight goals in two games against the USA – the World Cup favourites – and the Dutch, who are ranked at number eight in the world, two slots behind Australia, coming into the World Cup.
Goals are not generally a problem for Australia given that their forward set up is led by Sam Kerr, one of the world's best strikers, and evergreen veteran Lisa De Vanna is also in the mix, either in from the start or off the bench.
Sam Kerr.Credit:AAP
But to get goals any team needs good service; that usually requires controlling or at least breaking even in the midfield battle and keeping things tight at the back.
There were some upsides to this performance, especially the appearance of Hayley Raso, who has shown enormous courage, character and commitment to get back to any sort of football, never mind top international competition, after breaking her back last year.
These sort of games are important, and they are not.
They are friendlies, but they are keenly contested.
They are practice matches, but there is a lot riding on them for each individual concerned given that a good showing might mean the difference between a place on the starting line up or on the bench for the game that really matters – next Sunday against Italy.
Coaches will experiment, but this close to the tournament experiments tend to be limited, or forced on a coach by the absence of key players – as Milicic was forced to do with Kellond-Knight's unavailability.
Still, each game provides a lesson – for the players as much as the coaching staff, and Milicic now knows, as he surely did already, that he will need his strongest eleven (including Kellond – Knight) out on the pitch in top form if the Australians are to play to their seeding and reach the last eight and perhaps go even further.
The lesson from this game is that the Matildas need to be better at the back and have to take their chances when they come, because at the highest level that isn't always that often.
“It was definitely not the result that we were after but I think there were some good patches in the first half and if we had taken a couple of our chances then it could have been a different game,” defender Clare Polkinghorne said.
“We conceded a couple of goals on set-pieces which we will have to tighten up. But Read More – Source
