The third-place play-off is one of the more divisive concepts in world football. What’s the point? Many fans and commentators have asked the same question over the years. The men’s European championship dropped the bronze medal clash in 1980, while the women’s European championship followed suit from the 1995 edition onwards. More recently, the third-place match has dropped off the schedule at the latest editions of the women’s and men’s Asian Cup.
But at every men’s World Cup since the second edition in 1934, and at every women’s World Cup, the losers of the semi-finals meet ahead of the final with the chance to play for a consolation prize.
Some have pointed out the difficulties motivating exhausted players shattered by a last-four exit; others have condemned Fifa for yet another cash-grab – a seemingly meaningless game at the end of a long World Cup with 63 other matches. “It produces a larger TV audience and another way to promote the tournament,” French sports historian Paul Dietschy told Le Monde last year.
Yet, despite those criticisms of the concept, the Matildas are not taking this tournament’s match lightly. The home nation face Sweden on Saturday in Brisbane and they are eager to bounce back quickly from the devastating semi-final loss to England.
“We still have a game to go,” winger Caitlin Foord, among Australia’s standouts at this tournament, said on Thursday. “We don’t want to leave this tournament empty-handed. We think we deserve to go home with something after the tournament we’ve had. So we will leave it all out there Saturday and hopefully end on a high.”
That was the sentiment almost every Matildas player echoed following the heartbreak of Wednesday’s semi-final. Only minutes had passed since the full-time whistle, but already there was a mantra of eyes forward, on to the next match. “We’ve got to regroup, we’ve got to get ready for Sweden,” said Katrina Gorry.
Having come this far – further than any Australian senior national team has gone before – there is a sense the team wants something concrete to show for it. “We want that bronze medal – it’s dangling right in front of us,” Gorry added.
The Matildas have relied heavily on their starting XI during the World Cup, recording the fewest substitute minutes of any team at the tournament. Coach Tony Gustavsson gave no hint he would draw on fresh legs in the Matildas’ final match of the tournament. Foord insisted that any fatigue would be forgotten the minute the team walked out at Brisbane Stadium.
“The moment we step out there, it’s the last one,” Foord said. “No matter if you’re tired or feeling a bit of fatigue, I think that will all go away once we’re out there. We’ll leave it all in that stadium – and hopefully at the end have a smile on our face.
The match on Saturday is not the Matildas’ first third place play-off in recent memory. At the Tokyo Olympics, the team lost to Sweden in the semi-finals and faced the United States in the bronze medal match. It was an entertaining encounter – the Americans were up 2-1 within 21 minutes – but even though a last-minute goal from Emily Gielnik salvaged extra-time, the Matildas ultimately lost 4-3.
“It’s extremely important,” said Foord. “The first thing that came to my mind was the Olympics when we fell short and then we battled for the bronze medal match. Nothing hurt more than losing that game. So I think we have that in the back of our mind going into this game. We deserve to go home with something from this tournament.”
Standing in the team’s way are world No 3-ranked Sweden, hardly an easy opponent. But the Matildas put four unanswered goals past the Swedes in their most recent encounter, in Melbourne late last year.
Gustavsson is also deeply familiar with his foes – both as a countryman, and having faced them on a number of occasions during his time as an assistant with the United States. “For some reason I’ve gotten to learn how to play against Sweden in tournaments,” he said on Friday. “It’s been almost every tournament even when I was part of the US team.”
The third-place game might be an odd relic of Fifa history, a concept abandoned by other tournaments and other sports. But for the Matildas, following a historic run at this home World Cup, it means everything.
“There’s also an opportunity to celebrate together with the fans in this World Cup journey that we’ve all been on,” said Gustavsson. “The support has been amazing, to get one more game – and to get the chance to have a medal game on home soil, for the first time ever in the history of football in this country. It’s just amazing – you can sense the excitement.”
Two years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, while the Matildas were on their run to the third-place match, the Australian men’s basketball team were also beaten in the semi-final. The Boomers have found themselves in that position on a number of occasions, but had never previously managed to win the third-place clash match.
When they finally did so, beating Slovenia, it sparked jubilant celebrations in Tokyo and at home. Fans and players christened the medal not as bronze, but “rose gold”. That seems a fitting description for what is on offer in Brisbane. Not a World Cup final trophy, sure. But victory on Saturday would mean a whole lot for these Matildas and this entire nation.
