Photo: Noe Llamas/SPP.
The Australia women’s national team started this year as they ended the last: Winning, and winning well. They are currently enjoying their longest win streak since 2017, with the 3-2 victory over Spain last Sunday the highlight of this seven-game run. They blew their visitors away inside a frenetic first half, three goals scored and a Sam Kerr header chalked off wrongly for offside. Spain could barely catch their breath.
Beyond the results, these are the kind of displays Matildas fans have been desperate for. For a while, the team had not looked anything like what an Australia team should look like. At times, they didn’t look like a team full stop, more a loose collection of players out of position, in systems that didn’t work. Head coach Tony Gustavsson, brought in to lead the team through its home FIFA Women’s World Cup, was struggling to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Now, with just months to go before the tournament starts, the situation could not look or feel more different. The…
