by The Matildas are two games away from a place at the Paris Olympics and another shot at a gold medal, but in Uzbekistan they face a relatively unknown quantity that presents a “different challenge” to Tony Gustavsson’s team.
The hotly-fancied Australians take on the team ranked No 47 in the world over two legs – in Tashkent on Saturday and next week at a sold-out Marvel stadium in Melbourne – in a final qualifier that will decide their Olympic fate.
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Post an aggregate win and they will stamp their ticket to Paris in July as one of 12 teams competing for medals in France – and give themselves the chance to go one better than their fourth place at the Tokyo Games. Lose and their Olympic dream will be around for another four years.
The 12th-placed Matildas are fresh off a barnstorming run at last year’s Women’s World Cup and with a squad full of players who ply their trade in the world’s top leagues, understandably entering the tie votes as their favorite choice. But Australia know they don’t put their opponents at risk.
The two sides have only met once before – also in an Olympic qualifier, all the way back in 2007 when the Matildas won 10-0 in 2007 – but such a poor result is unlikely to happen again.
Uzbekistan have reached this stage of the qualifying process on merit – upsetting Vietnam – who had thrashed them 7-0 at the Asian Games just weeks before – and beating India as the second best over the three qualifying groups. Only Japan got the better of them in a 2-0 win at the Bunyodkor stadium – the venue that will host the Matildas on Saturday.
The Uzbeks have been successful on their trip so far, defensively solid and willing to sit back and take pressure, and the Matildas expect similar tactics to be used over the next week. Much of the talk in the build-up focused on the need for Gustavsson’s charges to remain patient and avoid getting frustrated when faced with a strong defensive block.
“[The key] stay on,” goalie Mackenzie Arnold said. “It’s a bit easier to focus in these games if you don’t get too much of the ball, especially a goalkeeper. We have to make sure we are waiting for the play, moving with the ball, communicating with each other.
“You never know what can happen in these games, especially against a team we haven’t played before. We’re confident going into it, but we’re focusing on ourselves.”
Veteran defender Clare Polkinghorne – the only player in the current squad with experience of playing against Uzbekistan, having come on for the second half of the 2007 qualifier – said a lack of familiarity could be exploited on the opposition to the interests of the Matildas.
“The coaches will scout their team and give us the important information but it gives us a good opportunity to focus on ourselves and what we need to do to be successful in these games,” Polkinghorne.
“Sometimes that’s a positive thing, you can just focus on your processes and how you want to play as a group to get the best result. Of course, it’s a team that we don’t know much about but we will undoubtedly have the coaches well prepared.
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“The most important thing is to start well and start with energy and hopefully we will have a lot of possession. Sometimes those games can be a bit frustrating. But we now have a few tools to use to break down the opposition. It’s vital for us to stay positive and stay calm and stick to our processes and our action plan.”
Absentee captain Sam Kerr, who is recovering from a torn ACL, and influential winger Cortnee Vine, who pulled out of the squad last week for personal reasons, came as a double blow for the Matildas in the preparation period.
Veteran Michelle Heyman was brought into the squad to offer an alternative up front, but Gustavsson has previously navigated the loss of Kerr, and Polkinghorne said she was confident there were enough other attacking options in the current squad to ensure the a lost talismanic striker.
“You can’t replace Sam Kerr,” said Polkinghorne. “On and off the field she is the leader of our group and a very important part of this team. We will miss her a lot but we saw at the World Cup that we have several different options that we can use and then a few new and old players coming in. There are a lot of players who can step up and fill that role.”
