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AAP
AAP
Sport
Glenn Moore

London 'home game' a boost: Gustavsson

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson relished the chance to have five days on the training pitch. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

There's no place like home, Tony Gustavsson would like to make that clear, but sometimes playing 'home' matches away from Australia has its benefits.

With the bulk of the squad based in Europe, notably England and Scandinavia, Australia are playing this international break on the road, and faced South Africa in neutral London on Saturday.

The lack of travel for most players definitely influenced the commanding 4-1 win over Banyana Banyana at Kingsmeadow, said the Matildas coach, primarily because it enabled far more time on the training ground.

"We love playing on home soil in Australia, especially in a World Cup year," said the Swede, "to get that connection with the fans and do it together with the football community back home.

"But from a football preparation standpoint it is massive that we gets these camps in Europe. We had five training days compared to two-and-a-half last time in Australia.

"We have been looking for a solid performance of 90 minutes for some time. This was the most solid for a long time and it definitely has to do with the five days preparation."

After a modest run of results it was a much-needed win but Gustavsson accepts for some supporters it will have come too late.

"If you have made up your mind already about me or the team, it'll be 'yeah, yeah, but [South Africa] had players out, and are ranked 54', and show some disrespect to South Africa, but we knew we were against African champions and a team that had really challenged big teams.

"I think we dominated from minute 1 to 90, so that was an impressive performance. And we had young players. That was the future Matildas out there.

"Internally it'll bring more momentum and I hope people outside have the right perspective on this win."

The best way to convince lingering doubters would be to back it up against a strong Denmark team on Tuesday (Wednesday 0300 ADET), but Gustavsson cautioned this time preparation was against the Matildas.

"Denmark didn't play this weekend. They will have had eight days' training, we have travel and one day's preparation.

"The five days preparation was key for this game, now we have one day and we step on the field against Denmark on their home soil, but the confidence we get from this will help."

At least Sam Kerr, who played less than ten minutes on her home club ground due to illness, should be fit, and perhaps the injury tide is turning for the Matildas.

Gustavsson was able to hand Chloe Logarzo her first international minutes since the 27-year-old suffered the dreaded anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury against Ireland 13 months ago.

The Kansas City Current midfielder came off the bench alongside Kerr in the 83rd minute and team-mate Cortnee Vine said: "She was a massive loss when she was injured and seeing her back on the field is massive. Everyone was giving her cuddles and you could tell how much it means to her."

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