It was only after the Matildas had beaten Ireland that the media fully realised that Tony Gustavsson and Sam Kerr had been to the casino.
At the press conference following Thursday’s 1-0 World Cup-opening win, a journalist half-asked, half-stated: “So you knew yesterday, when you were sitting here, that Sam was not OK?”
Gustavsson simply replied: “Yep.”
“And both of you had poker faces about that?”
“Yep.”
It was the most revealing window into the Australia head coach’s soul in his tenure to date.
Beneath Gustavsson’s warm, gregarious, even goofy exterior lies the cold, beating heart of a killer. A winner. A gambler. But a calculated one.
To get your hands on trophies at football’s highest level – as he already has with the United States as an assistant to Jill Ellis at the 2019 World Cup – these instincts are not nice to have, they are a prerequisite. As much as Kerr’s injury and the handling of it have triggered some confected, confused outrage, these instincts might help the Matildas go further than they otherwise might at this tournament.
Tony Gustavsson and Sam Kerr give their best poker faces.Credit: Nine
Kerr, as captain, was always going to be the player who would sit next to Gustavsson at the Ireland pre-match press conference, where they both put those poker faces to work. She injured her calf at training that morning after the 15-minute window in which reporters were allowed to watch.
The Matildas could have swapped Kerr for another player, but that would have elicited suspicion from the media as to why the skipper wasn’t there. By forging ahead with the original plan, Gustavsson rolled the dice. He figured if Kerr was sat in front of them, reporters would assume she was ready to go and thus had no reason to ask either of them about her fitness and, therefore, no reason to call their bluff. It meant they didn’t have to lie.
The next morning, with the extent of Kerr’s injury now clear, Gustavsson met with key staff at Football Australia to discuss how they would release the news. They did not want to give Ireland any information they didn’t need to, but nor did they want to dampen the sense of World Cup fever that had enveloped the country before they had to, either.
So, they waited as long as possible and coordinated an Instagram confession from Kerr to drop at practically the same moment as the team sheets were submitted.
Gustavsson also wanted to manage the situation as much as he could. He hates distractions at the best of times, and one at this particular juncture would have been intolerable. This was his first crack at a World Cup as a head coach, the results of which could well determine whether he ever gets another shot.
The 49-year-old’s desire to maintain continuity within the squad, to shield his players from the outside noise and control the narrative when it does get noisy, has been apparent during the build-up to this tournament. The team’s media schedule has been carefully curated and press access restricted – or sometimes entirely denied – at Gustavsson’s behest, and sometimes to the frustration of a federation keen to capitalise on the World Cup buzz.
Before Kerr’s injury, many eyes were on the fitness of Tameka Yallop, who had picked up a knock during the previous week’s friendly win against France.
Each day the media, noting that Yallop was not training with the squad, would ask after her condition. Each day they were greeted with a “she’s fine, she’s on a separate program”. Yallop’s teammates, too, echoed the official message, to the point that her apparent thigh injury became a bigger story than it might have been had the answer been “she has a thigh injury”.
In the end, news of Cathy Freeman’s surprise visit to speak with the team became the bigger story that day, and the day after that came the poker faces. What comes next is unclear.
Gustavsson has repeatedly declined to reveal any further information about the nature or severity of Kerr’s calf injury, and media who asked players about it after the match were interrupted by team officials.
We may well find out nothing until the team sheets are submitted one hour before the third Group B game against Canada kicks off on July 31.
Gustavsson does love a good gamble. Next to no one would have picked him to include Kyah Simon in his final 23-player squad given she is still recovering from an ACL tear. He said the selection was based not on her current fitness, but what she could contribute off the bench later in the tournament.
That punt – if Kerr does not return at all – could yet leave Australia short on attackers right when they need them to open up the defences of Nigeria and Canada and beyond in the knockout stages.
As a gambler, you live and die by your choices – just ask Kenny Rogers. But it’s hard to fault Gustavsson for the other one.
