Damning Gustavsson claim after Matildas’ Olympic failure

Departing Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson is facing more criticism in the wake of the team’s humbling Olympics group stage exit, with reports claiming players were dissatisfied with his coaching well before the nightmare in Paris.

The darlings of Australian sport failed to back up their fourth-placed finish at the Tokyo Olympics and at last year’s home Women’s World Cup, losing twice to Germany and the USA and escaping with a rollicking 6-5 win over Zambia in a performance that failed to alleviate any fears over the Matildas’ long-term stability.

Gustavsson has been a beacon for criticism of the team since taking on the job in 2020, and a report from The Australian has claimed players were just as disenchanted with his coaching as many pundits and members of the general public.

The report claims the Swede had lost the dressing room in the lead-up to the Olympics, with players confused by his often helter-skelter tactics during major tournaments.

Some even described his tenure as ‘four years of hell’.

Those claims were backed up by News Corp reporter Jess O’Halloran, who told Fox Sports’ Matty and the Missile in Paris podcast the Matildas were ‘a very unhappy camp’ in Paris.

“They felt that it was just complete disorganised chaos on the field, and you could see that here in France,” O’Halloran said of the Matildas players.

“It was a nightmare for them.”

O’Halloran added that the absence of Sam Kerr due to a knee injury was an even bigger blow than previously thought, with the Matildas champion reportedly ‘controlling the side tactically’ instead of Gustavsson for lengthy periods.

It was during the World Cup they said basically Sam Kerr was controlling the side tactually,” O’Halloran said.

“She was effectively captain-coach.”

The disastrous result prompted Robbie Slater, who lashed out at the Matildas following their 3-0 loss to Germany to begin their Olympic campaign, to once again sink the boots in, describing the tournament as an ‘unmitigated disaster’.

“A quarter-final berth should have been the bare minimum requirement for the Aussies, even in the absence of their best player Sam Kerr,” Slater wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

“With only four of the 12 nations missing out on a spot in the last eight, it was harder not to qualify for the knockout stages than to qualify.

“Yet, the Matildas, a team which reached the Women’s World Cup semi-finals last year, still couldn’t do it.”

Slater accused the team of being ‘pampered’ by Football Australia, blaming the excess attention and presence of family and friends with the team in Paris as well as in Spain for the team’s pre-Olympic training camp, for distracting them.

“I believe the way the squad was pampered was embarrassing and probably part of the reason they performed so badly,” he wrote.

“Instead of working on their on-field performance, it seemed the priority was making sure the players’ clothes were neatly folded, that every player had a single room and didn’t even carry their own bags. It would be funny if it wasn’t true.

“There’s little doubt they started to believe in the hype generated in part by FA chief executive officer James Johnson, who stated days before the Matildas’ first game that it didn’t matter how the team performed at the Olympics because of the “legacy” they had already created.