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Elastic Australia show different face in Olympic football draw with USA

<span>Photograph: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images

As the camera slowly panned across the Matildas’ starting line-up in the Kashima Stadium tunnel on Tuesday night, it lingered, almost knowingly, on the face of a player who was not supposed to be there.

Five minutes before Australia and the USA walked out for the final game of Group G, 18-year-old striker Mary Fowler was told by head coach Tony Gustavsson that she would be making her starting debut for Australia.

Related: USA and Australia reach Olympic knockout stages after stalemate

She had received a handful of minutes towards the end of the previous two games against New Zealand and Sweden, but this would be the first time she would sing the national anthem from the field instead of on the sideline.

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It was, according to Gustavsson, a last-minute change after planned starting winger Caitlin Foord complained of a leg niggle in the warm-up. Instead of throwing the team off its game-plan, though – which has happened in the past due, in part, to Australia’s wider lack of squad depth – it instead showed that this Matildas team has already begun to embrace the flexibility and adaptability Gustavsson has preached since the start.

When speaking to media afterwards, he drew upon a Charles Darwin quote that he used in his opening press conference after formally beginning his role in January: “’It’s not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

“That’s something we talked about for months and months now,” he said. “Whether that’s weather circumstances, Covid protocols, cancelled trainings or a player getting injured in warm-up.

“This team has shown tremendous adaptability. No matter who’s on the park, it’s a very clear identity on how we want to play. No matter if it’s a late, second call where we need to do a change like this, every player is ready to execute the game plan.”

Identity is never fixed. It twists and shifts depending on who is looking. And over the course of Australia’s three group games in Tokyo, they have shown three different faces of the more complex, elastic identity they are developing underneath.

Against an under-prepared New Zealand, it was the Matildas of old: the rollicking, attack-minded, gut-busting style that characterised their emergence onto the global stage in 2017. Against Sweden, it was a more measured and thoughtful display: a deliberate reigning-in of that youthful enthusiasm, but still with the vulnerability and self-consciousness that comes with making naïve mistakes. And against the USA, a team who appear to be experiencing an identity crisis of their own, it was a performance of maturity and patience; of knowing they did not need to risk it all and therefore choosing not to.

While fans across social media were not particularly thrilled by Australia grinding out a 0-0 draw, it is important to remember the layers of context this team is navigating. Firstly, the US women’s national team are reigning world champions. All but two of the players they started against Australia won the 2019 Women’s World Cup, including Gold and Bronze Ball winners Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. They were also flying high after a 6-1 demolition of New Zealand on Saturday.

Related: The USWNT at the Olympics so far: listless, passive and in danger of an early exit

Secondly, tournament football requires different things of teams at different moments. Having come into Tokyo as one of the most under-prepared sides – with just five friendlies available to familiarise themselves with a new coach and a new system – Australia were already starting at a disadvantage against Sweden and the USA, each of whom had far lengthier and less turbulent preparation periods together. That the Matildas were able to perform positively against both, including securing a 0-0 draw against the side ranked first in the world, is impressive.

Finally, the ladder positions of both sides coming into Tuesday’s game was such that neither of them necessarily needed to take anything from the game to secure their passage to the quarter-final. This perhaps explains why the USA, who typically like to dominate possession, allowed the Matildas to have so much of the ball. Twice as much, in fact: the final stats show Australia had 65% possession to the USA’s 34%, with 596 passes versus 322.

That is not to say the game was entirely forgettable: there were flashes of drama at either end of the pitch, such as Alex Morgan’s headed goal chalked off by VAR and Fowler hitting the crossbar, but ultimately, this was a game that both sides needed to manage themselves through – not provide entertainment in. And for a team whose identity has been largely one-dimensional over the past few years, this multi-faceted approach to the Olympics is showing this Matildas squad is maturing.