Honesty session helps Matildas move past Nigeria loss

Anna Harrington | July 29, 2023

The Matildas circled up to honestly break down their disastrous Women’s World Cup loss to Nigeria before quickly moving on to their must-win clash with Canada.

Australia’s campaign is on a knife’s edge after Thursday’s 3-2 loss dropped them to third in Group B, and needing to beat Canada on Monday to progress to the round of 16 without relying on Ireland beating Nigeria.

Skipper Sam Kerr, who has declared herself available to return from a calf injury, said the meeting, understood to be players-only, helped Australia quickly put the loss behind them.

“After every game we meet as a team, and we chat openly and honestly with each other,” Kerr told reporters.

“Maybe it’s good things, maybe it’s bad things, but the good thing about this team is that the captain doesn’t have to have that role and everyone speaks up and it was the same after the Nigeria game.

“We spoke openly and honestly to each other and then we move on and we prepare for the next game.”

Kerr said the practice started during Australia’s run to the Tokyo Olympics semi-finals in 2021.

“That’s been something that as a team we’ve brought in because we think it’s best for getting things out there. Not starting little conversations,” she said.

“It’s about speaking openly and honestly and it’s a free room, it’s a free time to express how you felt, what you thought could have happened better, what you thought happened better.

“That’s something as a team, it’s brought us closer because we’re allowed to voice our opinions, voice how we feel, voice what we think needs to be better and then from that moment onwards, it’s prepare for the next game and I think that’s really important in tournament football.”

Part of that preparation is fixing up the defensive lapses that marred the Nigeria game.

“As soon as that whistle went, we turned that page in that circle (with coach Tony Gustavsson) after the game,” defender Ellie Carpenter said.

“We wanted to park that performance.

“We obviously wanted to learn what went wrong. We did that review straight after the game so we could get that out of our system, turn the page and full focus for Monday.

“You can’t be dwelling on those performances because that just takes up mental drainage from the game.”

Carpenter said the players had all taken responsibility for the loss.

“We’re not going to point fingers, we’re not going to blame people,” she said.

“We all need to be better. We all need to take accountability of that game. We all have, we’ve learned from that and things happen – it’s football.”