PARIS OLYMPICS 2024: Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson faces uphill battle to keep his job after Olympics fail

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson is out of contract and faces an uphill battle to keep his job in the wake of the team’s shock early exit from the Olympics.

Australia crashed out of the Paris Games at the end of a group stage where they conceded 10 goals and lost twice, including Thursday morning’s ( AEST) defeat to the United States.

The Matildas sat deep and deployed a low block in an uber-defensive approach centred around the counter-attack in the early stages of their 2-1 loss. It is a tactic likely to come under-fire from many who believes Australia now has enough offensive weapons to express themselves and play the ball.

Gustavsson has also struggled to find a replacement to star striker Sam Kerr, nursing Michelle Heyman through an apparent injury issue this tournament and rolling Caitlin Foord and Mary Fowler through central areas.

He was yellow-carded and appeared frustrated and demonstrative on the touchline against the USA.

It also comes after reports this week claimed players in the camp lacked motivation.

The Swedish boss led the team at the Tokyo Games three years ago and their run through the World Cup at home last year, which supercharged their rise to become one of the country’s favourite sporting teams.

Matildas player Kyah Simon, who was part of the squad for last year’s tournament, said the future of any coach in the role hinged on results.

“TG was on his contract for this cycle, so the cycle is every four years and he was signed basically until that point,” she told Channel 9.

“And like any coach, your job is never secured in sport, whether you are on a contract for four years or not. It is all result-dependent.”

Simon did suggest the early exit could spark the Matildas into action ahead of a fresh Asian and World Cup cycle.

“Obviously I can’t speak in terms of his future within the job, but it never is helpful when you underperform as a team and the team for sure would feel like we have underperformed this tournament,” she said.

“In saying that, sometimes it is a good shift or a gear shift to kick us up the bum or push us on further, so there is good and bad in underperforming. But we will see what the future holds.”

The Matildas endured a nervous wait after their third group game, forced to watch on as Canada — who just days earlier had six points stripped off them over a spying scandal — defeated Colombia to sneak through ahead of Australia.

Canada had last week been caught sending drones up to watch a New Zealand pre-tournament training session and entered their third match with no points to their name.

But the final victory sent them ahead of Australia as the second-best third-place finisher across the pools.