Arsenal forward Foord excited for what’s to come for Australia under Gustavsson | OneFootball

Arsenal forward Caitlin Foord says that she is excited to see what is to come playing for Australia under new head coach Tony Gustavsson.

Gustavsson has been in his role for more than a year but COVID-19 has impacted the amount of time that the Commonwealth Bank Matildas have had to work together.

Arsenal forward Foord was a member of the Australian side which defeated Brazil 3-1 in an international friendly in Parramatta earlier today. The player played 78 minutes of the match as the Commonwealth Bank Matildas returned home for the first time in almost 600 days.

With around 21 months still to go until Australia’s home FIFA Women’s World Cup, Foord says that she is excited to see the Australian team grow until the guidance of head coach Gustavsson.

“We have missed a year of football together due to COVID, that was time that we couldn’t spend with Tony” Foord said when speaking in the post-match press conference. “Obviously, we have only had a short amount of time with him and we can see the improvements that we have already had.

“It is exciting to see that the World Cup is the best part of a couple of years away so we still have so much time together to grow and learn. I think we have a good baseline but we have so much more to give so it’s exciting.”

While Australia netted three goals against Brazil, they were unable to keep a clean sheet and Foord went on to say that shutting out the South American side will be high on the agenda when the two sides meet again on Tuesday.

She said “We came here and we didn’t want to go away with a loss, we actually wanted to keep a clean sheet as well and we didn’t do that tonight.

“Despite the win, we are excited but we are disappointed that we conceded. We want to end these two home games with two wins so now we focus on the next one and hopefully, we put on a good performance but like I said, we want to keep a clean sheet as well.”

Foord will hope to feature for Australia in that second international friendly match against Brazil which takes place at the CommBank Stadium in Parramatta at 10.05am on Tuesday morning.