It's been three years since Tony Gustavsson's last tilt at an Olympic medal. So what have he and his team learned from the last time they tried?
Exactly three years ago this week, in a conference room inside their COVID-sealed hotel in the Japanese district of Chofu, Tony Gustavsson delivered the match day minus-one briefing ahead of his first ever tournament as head coach of the Matildas .
From implementing a new footballing philosophy to familiarising himself with his players and staff, analysing their group-stage opponents and their prospective knock-out ones, to squeezing every available minute out of training on the pitch, he was desperate to get them as ready as possible for the first big test of his leadership.
"But the fact that this is the fourth tournament, and the core group is still here, I definitely feel that the sense of readiness is there already before it starts, because the foundation has already been built. "I've learned a lot about myself. I've definitely learned that I love this team tremendously; I love working with this team, and I think a lot of people here bring out the best in me and give me the opportunity to be Tony as much as I want Mary to be Mary or Vine to be Vine and Kyra to be Kyra.
Gustavsson is obsessed with the "one percenters" that he says can make all the difference between another fourth-placed finish and a medal.He thinks and plans and strategises everything.
"What do you do when you mentally fatigue? What do you do when you're at a potential hurdle — like we were at the quarter-final of the Olympics last time — and it's the first time we need to break through that mental hurdle? That deciding moment can be a fraction of a second long: a wrong decision here, a lack of concentration there. The Matildas' progress in major tournaments has been shaped by plenty of moments like those."For me, belief comes from confidence, and confidence comes from preparation," he said.
"And the other thing is being very clear on our values. Who are we? Who are you? Be Mary, be Kyra, be Mini, by Alanna, be Macca. Creating that safe space is massive from a leadership perspective, and I've spent a lot of time with my staff to create the safest space possible. And while that pressure has continued to mount, the feeling and culture that he and his colleagues have tried to maintain internally has remained steady.
Gustavsson has become a big believer in self-care, and now builds activities into his days that keep his mind and body balanced. And when he beams his match-day minus one briefing up onto the projector screen sometime today, he'll do so knowing he's come just as far as the players in front of him have, with just six games standing between them and gold.
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