Aussies go for broke against China
(FIFAworldcup.com)
Updated: 2003-09-25 14:52

Keep the emotions in check. Play better position football and do not turn over possession. Finish every chance. Those are the crucial points Australia coach Adrian Santrac is drilling into his players as they prepare for their second match at the FIFA Women’s World Cup USA 2003.

Australia opened their account on Sunday against Russia and are still trying to digest the result. Despite controlling the play for long stretches and creating numerous scoring opportunities, the Matildas lost to Russia 1-2 on a last-minute goal. Now, the Aussies must take on China in an unenviable position.

“We must take three points from them,” said vice captain Sacha Wainwright. “We’re looking at the Russia game as a lost opportunity. We could have gone into this game with three points. Now, we’re in a position that we must win.”

It is not where head coach Adrian Santrac wanted his team to be going into their second match.

“We knew the first game of the World Cup would be critical to the rest of the tournament,” Santrac said. “To be honest, losing to Russia was never a consideration. We expected to go into the China game with three point. Now, we have to change our plans and we don’t have the time to do that fully.”

Santrac said while the Matildas did do many things well against Russia, they allowed their own emotions to get the better of them. Santrac said as Australia took control of the match, “we pushed up with too many players. The adrenaline took over as they saw the win before them and they didn’t stop to think about what Russia were doing.”

Against China, a rush of emotion or anxiety could erase any chance for the Matildas to reach the quarterfinals. The cure for that, Santrac said, was for his players “to leave their emotions off the pitch.”

“We’ve been trying to teach our players that emotions in sport are your enemy,” Santrac said. “There are highs and lows. When you are in one of the troughs, you can’t play at your best. When you are on an emotional high, you may play your best for half a game or a whole game, but it passes. We want to have consistency in all our matches.”

The loss to Russia pointed out several deficiencies Santrac said he is working to correct. The biggest was the Matildas tendency to turn the ball over in the middle of the park.

“Their second goal came when we turned the ball in midfield,” Santrac said. “Russia actually had three or four breaks off our turnovers. So we need to improve on our possession and use better judgment when we have the ball.”

Midfielder Tal Karp said keeping possession was part of an overall improvement the Matildas had to make.

“We’ve got to keep our structure and improve our teamwork,” she said. “We’ve also got to keep a great shape and keep them from racing through us.”

Australia’s defence took a blow in the Russia match when vice captain Sacha Wainwright tore a muscle in her thigh. Santrac said he still was not sure who would replace the 32-year-old lawyer-turned-footballer.

“There’s a decision to be made,” Santrac said. “You don’t want to lose a player like Sacha. She missed the 1999 World Cup with a knee reconstruction and she’s worked particularly hard to get back to where she can compete and succeed at this level and then this happens. It’s extremely disappointing but we will go on.”

The Australians do have the strength of familiarity working for them. Australia played China twice last month and did well despite having the bulk of their players at less than full strength. Karp said her side’s knowledge of the Chinese could benefit them in the match.

“We certainly know a lot about them, so they shouldn’t be able to surprise us,” Karp said. “At the same time, it works both ways. They know a lot about us, so it’s pretty even.”

In the end, Santrac said beating China would all come to down to “basic football.”

“We’ve got to prevent them from scoring on us while we score on them,” he said. “It really does all come down to that. One point from this game won’t be enough in my opinion. I just don’t think four points will get us through to the quarterfinals. We have to go out and win against China and we’ll do that by scoring more goals than they do.”