Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson lashes out amid cryptic message over Sweden links

Tony Gustavsson, Matildas coach refused to completely sever ties with the Swedish head coaching role, although he reiterated his desire to take the team to the Olympics. Last week, Daniel Kristoffersson, journalist at Sportbladet reported that Gustavsson met with the Swedish Football Association “at least once” and that a follow-up meeting was also held to discuss the vacant position.

The report states that the new manager will be either Gustavsson, BK Hacken boss Per-Mathias Høgmo or IF Elfsborg manager Jimmy Thelin. Sweden are falling in the FIFA world rankings and a change is needed.

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Gustavsson played a vital role in the Matildas’ historic run to the World Cup semi-final earlier this year. The Matildas broke records in Australia en route to a fourth place finish. And Gustavsson tried to allay any fears about a move away from the Matildas ahead of the Olympics.

However, he did not completely rule out these links when questioning the media. “The interest in this team will continue to grow, which means there will always be speculation about whether it concerns me or a player,” Gustavsson said in his pre-press conference. game Friday.

“What I want to be clear, although it is important to me, is that my only goal is to get the Matildas to qualify for the Olympics and we have unfinished business with this team. And I’ve said this from day one, and I know there will always be people who will interpret this quote differently and speculate about it but the one thing I want to be very clear about is that I. I am extremely passionate about working with this team.”

Gustavsson admitted he is very close to the Matildas squad and chose to speak to the players about the news as they look to qualify for the Paris Olympics. “I actually have a very, very, very close relationship with the players in terms of discussing things that could potentially disrupt our performance,” he added.

“One thing would be to speculate on the future of the coach. We are always open about everything and what I really like about this team is the professionalism. They say ‘it’s part of the business. Let’s move on thing, let’s get ready for the Olympics.’ It’s about the next practice and the next game and that’s what we’re focused on.

Matildas will recruit new players against Canada

Sam Kerr will not be available for the friendly against Canada, which will also see first-choice goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold miss the match with an arm injury. Gustavsson hoped Kerr would be back soon, but admitted it was a good opportunity to introduce new players against the world No.10 team.

“You’re going to see a lot of new faces in this first game. We really need to take this opportunity and be brave enough to do it,” he said. “We are currently in a process in which we have to test players to see who can earn a place in the Olympic roster, but also test things and what we are currently doing in terms of developing our style of play.

“Doing this against a top away team is a perfect opportunity for us and I don’t want to miss this window.”

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