Matildas coach Joe Montemurro calls first match ‘the perfect game’ regardless of robust moments in Slovenia win | USAEMALL.com

Most Matildas fans would not have left HBF Park on Thursday night overly enthralled with the first showing of the Joe Montemurro era, despite the 3-0 win over Slovenia.

And yet, the new Matildas coach was thrilled with the challenge the world no.38 side provided Australia with, hailing it as “the perfect game” to start his tenure.

Emily Gielnik’s early opener sent Australia on their way before late goals to Holly McNamara and Hayley Raso, but the scoreline flattered Australia, who ceded several gilt-edged chances to Slovenia a better side would have put away.

Some of those opportunities came from defensive mistakes; several more were due to Matildas’ adherence to playing out from the back, retaining possession and keeping the ball on the edge of their box come hell or high water.

But Montemurro was unphased and instead thrilled by how his team continued to invite pressure.

“The intent is important, because we have to put ourselves in positions, especially against a team that played player-on-player, to be comfortable receiving the ball under pressure,” he said.

“We made three or four big errors but I’m not concerned, because it’s the process going forward.

“For me, it was the perfect game, a team that pressured all over the pitch and we have to be comfortable under that pressure, and we have to learn to be that. For me, it was an important exercise.”

Slovenia pressed high and forced turnovers which translated into chances, but not goals as centre-back Clare Hunt, and midfielder Winonah Heatley were all guilty of being caught on the ball in central areas.

“That to me says good things, that sends good signals, because they’re trying to in all costs solve the problems with the ball,” Montemurro said.

“The continuity is not there yet, it’s probably going to take a little bit more time but there were some very good actions that we created.

“The positive thing is a lot of their chances came from our errors trying to play. That’s positive for me and we just polish that stuff up and we’ll be able to play against the top teams.

“The first thing is a belief in mentality, to fix this and say ‘this is the way we need to do things, and this is the reason why we have to do things.’

“That’s my job at the start, to say ‘okay, we are going to be a team that’s going to solve problems with the ball, we are going to be a team that’s going to be proactive.’”

When Australia did break Slovenia’s high press, they looked threatening, particularly Gielnik and Ellie Carpenter’s combination down the right wing, with the Lyon right-back constantly driving into space.

“The solution against a team that plays that way is obviously to overload central areas and rotate through central areas out wide,” Montemurro said.

“It’s something we’ve looked at, we’ve only done it over over two and a half hours of work and now, it’s about continuity.

“When you want to play a game where you’re breaking lines and you’re playing under pressure, you are going to make mistakes, you are going to make errors and I’m demanding this, because for us to be at the top level, we have to be comfortable doing this.”