Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson says sorry after disastrous Olympics opener

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson is suddenly in damage control.

Gustavsson was stunned by his team’s underwhelming — if not embarrassing —3-0 defeat against Germany in their Olympics opener.

The Matildas — who were fourth both in the Tokyo Games and last year’s World Cup — now have a showdown with Zambia in Nice on Monday morning (3am AEST).

Zambia was also beaten 3-0 in their opener against the US, and the Matildas must win (or at least draw and hope results go their way) to keep their hopes of making the quarterfinals alive. They play their final pool game against the US on Thursday.

“I just want to say I’m so sorry to let down the fans back home that put their alarms on at 3am in the morning to get up and support us,” Gustavsson said after the Marseilles defeat. “It’s just amazing to see the support back home and I know we disappointed a lot of people.

“Please set the alarm for the next game as well because the players feed off the support they get.

Before the tournament Gustavsson was talking a big game. The Matildas flew in to France on a private jet and Gustavsson talked about rolling out the red carpet for his high-profile stars.

But when push came to shove against Germany, several of those stars went missing.

“Listen, you know what?The one thing I know about this team is that when they’re backed against a corner and there’s a lot of s... thrown at them with curve balls and different ways, a loss three-nil, or baggage going missing … they never use these things as excuses,” he said.

“I want to be very real on that. I think we needed that as a wake-up call to say, ‘OK, now we’re in it’. Hopefully that was the rusty performance we hopefully needed to get out of the system.

Steph Catley, who overcame injury fears to lead the team, conceded rhe performance had not been up to their normal standard on a sweltering evening. “We’ve got two more games and we’ve got to turn it around quickly,” she said.

“I think at times we were on top and we let two set-pieces affect the game in a very negative way.”

To suggest her side had been on top for spells felt like stretching credulity as they barely created a worthwhile chance, with their best approach work scuppered by one poor pass or cross.

Analyst and former Socceroo Robbie Slater questioned the side’s prep.

“If the Matildas weren’t ready, why didn’t they play a second warm-up game against New Zealand, as was originally planned, and not just the one match against Canada?,” Slater wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

“They had a lengthy preparation camp in the Spanish resort city of Marbella where their every need was catered for, even to the ridiculous point of having their training gear correctly folded.”

Meanwhile, The Canadian Olympic Committee has dumped head coach Bev Priestman following her suspension by Canada Soccer over a drone spying scandal.

The Canadian women’s squad will be led by assistant coach Andy Spence for the remainder of the Paris games, the COC said.

Canada had sent home analyst Joseph Lombardi, who received an eight-month suspended jail term in a French court, and assistant coach Jasmine Mander after they used a drone to watch New Zealand training sessions over the past week.

The reigning Olympic gold medallist defeated the Kiwis 2-1 in their opening game.