French absurdism: How much meaning can Matildas draw from friendly win?
By Vince Rugari
French philosopher Albert Camus believed life is meaningless. It is not known if French coach Herve Renard shares this absurdist view of the universe, though it wouldn’t surprise. But he does appear to feel the same way about friendlies.
A week before the FIFA Women’s World Cup began, Les Bleues lost 1-0 to the Matildas in a warm-up match. How much that result tells us about Saturday night’s quarter-final between the two teams, and how much stock can be drawn from it, entirely depends on who you ask.
Australia’s Mary Fowler scores a goal against France in their pre-World Cup friendly.Credit: Getty
Renard has essentially dismissed it out of hand. In fact, if it was up to him, it never would have happened in the first place.
“I will be very honest with you,” he said after France’s 4-0 win over Morocco on Monday night in the round of 16.
“I didn’t decide to play this game. If it was me, we would not be playing against Australia before the competition. We just arrived four days [before], the players didn’t sleep very well to play this game. We were not at 100 per cent.”
Added midfielder Kenza Dali: “When we played this game, we were still in preparation ... it’s going to be a completely different game.”
France coach Herve Renard has moved on from last month’s friendly loss to Australia.Credit: Getty
Inside Camp Matilda, they are mining it for all it’s worth.
While Tony Gustavsson’s side received no points for the victory, secured via a second-half goal from Mary Fowler in front of 50,629 people at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, they received a few other things of value: confidence from another prized win over a top-five European nation, the feeling of knowing they have already beaten a side they knew they could cross paths with in the World Cup knockout phase, and game footage that their coaching staff are poring over for tactical insights, along with all of France’s subsequent outings.
“I think it definitely helps,” winger Cortnee Vine said.
“Obviously in the bigger scheme [of things] – it was a friendly at the end of the day – but for us, we learnt a lot from that game – and now we have images of us versing them in our formation, and what we can improve on. [That is] is going to help us prepare for this game tremendously.
Cortnee Vine battles France’s Maelle Lakrar for the ball.Credit: AP
“We look inwards before we look outwards. I think we’ll be going back and analysing our own game against them and just picking apart what we can expose.
“We do know we can win [against them] – but I feel like when we play our way, I feel like we can beat anyone.”
Of course, a lot has changed during the past month. After the trials and tribulations of Group B, the Matildas are a much better side than they were back then.
Absorbing the initial shock of Sam Kerr’s injury on tournament eve and a disappointing loss to Nigeria, they adjusted accordingly, and now have the luxury of welcoming arguably the world’s best player back into a front third that is currently firing on all cylinders – while in defence, they have kept consecutive clean sheets against two highly regarded teams.
France have improved, too. They had a slow start to the World Cup, drawing 0-0 with Jamaica in their first match, but then beat Brazil 2-1 in a thriller at Suncorp Stadium – where they’ll return for Saturday’s clash – and have put a total of 10 goals past their last two opponents, Panama and Morocco.
While they know their next challenge will be much more difficult – Renard said that they will have to be at “more than 100 per cent” to beat the Matildas – they also know the unique pressures of host nation status, and how quickly the support of a home crowd can turn.
Four years ago, France fell 2-1 to the United States in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup, the expectation of more than 45,000 fans in Paris too much for them to bear.
“We know exactly what we’re in for,” Renard said.
“The host country, we know that that can be a good or bad thing. This is what the French team went through in 2019. It can be hugely disappointing as it was for France when they were knocked out.
“We’re hoping to put Australia through exactly what France went through.”
Renard has only been in the job since March, when he was parachuted into the French national team as a replacement for Corinne Diacre, who was sacked after a player revolt. Best known for steering Saudi Arabia to a famous win over eventual champions Argentina at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, the 54-year-old has made an almost immediate impact, with the world No.5 side back to their imposing best.
Against Morocco, the game was as good as dead within the space of eight first-half minutes as Kadidiatou Diani, Kenza Dali and Eugenie Le Sommer all hit the back of the net.
Australia’s Sam Kerr and France’s Wendie Renard compete for the ball.Credit: Getty
“France are obviously a world-class team. They have very good individual players and they’re quite fast themselves,” said Vine.
“They commit forward quite a lot – they have fullbacks that are really aggressive, and really good one-on-one dribblers, but I think for us, we can expose them on the counter.”
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