It’s been reported that the Matildas have been pushed through some pretty hectic training sessions over the past week, and deliberately come into this game with heavy legs to mimic what the Olympics will be like with just three days in between matches.
So aside from some tired bodies, what else can we expect to see from the team? Here’s what Tony G said yesterday:
“Canada is different than the US and Germany, but there are some similarities as well, in terms of player profile, physicality, aggressiveness, speed in behind the back lines.
“What does it look like when we attack? What does it look like when we lose the ball, and how can we stop the opposition’s transition game? Because we will face a lot of pace and transition in behind our backline. So that’s something we definitely want to work on.
“Another thing we want to look at [is] we’ve tried to develop our build-up, our passing, especially from all the way back from Macca [Arnold], and that means teams have come at us at times… pressed us high.
“We think two out of three group stages are going to press us very, very high. So that’s something we’re going to look at as well: how can we handle that high pressure and aggressive pressure that we think Canada will apply at times in the game?”
