The Gulf of Bothnia, at the top of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, is not so well known in these parts.
On its shores, 400 kilometres north of Stockholm, sits Sundsvall, a city of around 60,000 people.
One of them is Matildas' coach Tony Gustavsson.
In days gone by, Gustavsson played football for IFK Sundsvall before his journey took him to play elsewhere in Sweden.
A move into coaching men's, and then women's, teams saw him jettisoned into the assistant coach's role for the World Cup-winning USA national team, and now he has the top job with the Matildas.
Even so, Gustavsson doesn't rate as Sundsvall's most famous footballer. That title belongs to Kevin Walker, the winner of Swedish Idol in 2013.
Yet, if Gustavsson delivers on an almighty challenge — World Cup victory with the Matildas at home in 2023 — Walker faces the prospect of relegation.
Football historians will tell you the journey to next year's FIFA World Cup started with the pioneering women's teams back in 1921, in an era when it was deemed "medically inappropriate" for women to play the game.
Battles with committees and sports authorities have continued ever since, for funding, prize-money, access to suitable grounds and adequate support.
Despite the challenges, Australia's national women's football team is one of the country's most-loved, and hovers around the top 10 on FIFA's international rankings.
In 2017, the Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) delivered a ground-breaking vision for the Australian women's game, titled "From Grassroots to Greatness: Road-map for Women's Football".
It provided a blueprint for the Australian game that included a bold prediction: If Australia was ever to host a FIFA World Cup, it would be the Women's World Cup. And, if Australia was ever to win a FIFA World Cup, it would be the Matildas that could do it.
Football Australia (FA), the national governing body, cautiously bought in.
Now, having secured the first, it's all-systems-go as FA hopes to realise the second.
The growth of the world game in this country is very much centred on the success of its women. That's where Tony Gustavsson fits in.
His mission, when appointed in September 2020, was two-fold: Take the Matildas as far as they can go in major tournaments while also building a structure for the future of the game. Insiders refer to it as "Legacy '23".
Matching expectations with reality
Much is always expected of the Matildas, perhaps too much.
They have been called world-beaters for years. The high expectations have left casual observers and critics disappointed when victories against lesser nations do not convert to victories against the world's top nations.
It is this pressure of expectation that has been placed on Gustavsson's shoulders, but one he refuses to be crushed by.
"For me, it's the difference between expectations and belief," he told ABC's The Ticket.
"I think we should really believe in this team. That's one of the reasons I took the job: I really, genuinely, believe this team can do amazing things."
The burning question is: How amazing?
Until now, Gustavsson's mission has been part experimental — a description he doesn't like — and part planning.
This week, it moves into full delivery mode with the start of the AFC Women's Asian Cup campaign in India.
Australia first won the Asian Cup in 2010. At football's biggest events more recently, the Matildas finished runners-up to Japan at the 2018 Asian Cup, were beaten by Norway in the round of sixteen at the FIFA 2019 World Cup in France, and had a best-ever Olympic finish of fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Australian players are sprinkled across almost every professional league in the world: captain Sam Kerr at Chelsea, Ellie Carpenter at Lyon, Aivi Luik at Pomigliano, and Clare Polkinghorne at Vittsjo GIK, to name a few.
Individually, their experience is top-shelf.
As a team, though, the oversized expectations on the Matildas have formed because so many friendlies have been played against teams whose talent is dwarfed by the experience of the Matildas.
As a result, when it comes to the big tournaments and encounters with higher-ranked nations, the Australians can struggle.
This was one of the first issues identified by Gustavsson as head coach.
In 2021, under Gustavsson, the Matildas played 13 of 16 friendlies against top 10-ranked nations — more than they had played in the previous decade.
While not always pleasing the critics, nor the players themselves, it gave a true indication of how much still had to be done.
As a generalisation, Australians like underdogs — but they don't like losers.
Before he was a coach, Gustavsson was a school teacher. His tough scheduling against higher-ranked teams such as Germany, USA, Sweden and Netherlands served as a lesson of sorts.
"I did some research before taking this job: We haven't really played enough games against top opponents to prepare for the top games. We need to play those top teams," he said.
"Honestly, I think the players struggled in the beginning when I came on board because there were some tough losses and may they didn't see the big picture, or I didn't explain the big picture well enough for them."
But going into the Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas felt "more prepared than ever … and that's using their words."
A quarter-final win over Great Britain to reach the final four was "a mental hurdle", Gustavsson said.
"I do think that was the real buy-in from the players and they now understand why we need to do what we need to do."
Building foundations for the future
Identifying and blooding new talent has also been key. The previous average of selecting 2.3 new players a year was not sustainable, by any measurement.
In one year, Gustavsson has capped 13 new players.
Aside from their talents on the pitch, there are some core qualities that he looks for in players who want to represent their country.
"Number one is passion," he said.
"You have to have that love for the game. You have to have that fire deep inside yourself and not lose that young player that once fell in love with the game.
"If you don't have that love and passion, you are not able to make those sacrifices — all the travel, all those hours, all those family gatherings, friends, weekends, or whatever it is that you might have to sacrifice.
"Sacrifice is the wrong word, but [the things] you do not have time to do when you do the other things you love. It's at the core of everything.
Getting "one day better" is Gustavsson's public mantra. Privately, it is three words longer: getting one day better in record time.
The Matildas have a lot of catching up to do if they are to beat the big guns in 2023.
There are limited windows to test the team's growth. Between the current Asian Cup and next year's World Cup, the Matildas will only come together in eight camps.
To return to Australia from other points of the globe not only takes time, it takes a toll.
Luckily, though, it's a toll some of the top teams are also willing to take.
Two matches against world number one and reigning World Cup champions USA in November set crowd and ratings records for the Matildas.
"The US was very clear. The reason why they came is they need to learn [to] play the World Cup — the jet lag, the challenge of travelling, learning everything about facilities, food, culture, all those kinds of things. That's how professional they are," Gustavsson said.
"But the interesting thing now is it's not just them that wants to come. We have actually had a lot of requests from [other national] teams that want to come and play us in Australia, which is great for us."
Leading the leaders
Far from being a one-man band, Gustavsson readily credits the staff around him who provide expertise in psychology, well-being, sports science and strength and conditioning.
He also prefers to deal with the players as individuals.
"I look at myself more as a leader than a coach," he said.
"I'm a parent to two kids. I'm a teacher by degree. I'm a football coach. But, at the end of the day, it's leadership.
"It's that challenge of, 'How do I lead that person versus that person?'
"First and foremost, I work with people, and secondly with players, so it's meeting that person where they sit and where they are at that moment.
"I have a quote that I use in my leadership: I'm loving you for who you are but I'm going to treat you for who you can become. They feel they are accepted for who they are but also that I see the potential."
The Matildas have had their ups and downs with coaches in the past. There has been scrutiny over coaching styles and whether coaching men or women requires different strategies.
Maybe it's cultural, maybe it's personal but, for Gustavsson, the question of gender is not so relevant.
"My experience — from being a parent to both a girl and a boy, and being a teacher in a classroom of both girls and boys, and coaching both men and women — it's more for me to make sure that I do everything in my power to meet you as an individual where you are with your personality."
His own teachers have been those closest to him.
"I've had some really strong and powerful women in my life — everything from my grandma to my mum to my older sister — [who] have shown me what good leadership is.
"My mum, for example, has been a [physical education] teacher at the same school for 43 years, working with kids in sports. When we're back in the home-town, I see her meeting 60-year olds who say, 'Hey, this is my old teacher' and how much it means [to them].
"And then my dad has been everything you can imagine in sports from coach to board member, to scout, to goalkeeper — everything. And I've seen how that leadership has inspired people from young age to older age.
Gustavsson oozes positive energy. His image, more by accident than design, is David Bowie-esque.
But one senses, beneath the vibrant exterior, is a person whose ethos to always be "one day better" is applied more stringently to himself than to those around him.
"I've actually trained in the last few years to not be too hard on myself, [because] sometimes I spend too much time reflecting, so I lose some energy," he said.
"But because I'm living by the standards of always getting one day better, and that's what I want to signal to other people, I also need to live by that myself.
"After this recent US game that we played, the first thing I do is not just look at the performance of the player on the park. I ask myself: 'Did we do the right thing in training before the game? Did I do the substitutions at the right time? What could I have done differently?' So I'm doing an in-depth analysis of my own performance.
"I've learned throughout the years that sometimes I can get a bit stuck in that loop and maybe not focus on the next action to get better, so I've trained myself to find the right balance there.
In football, every team has two positions that face the harshest and most constant scrutiny: goalkeeper and coach.
When it comes to the latter, being a coach of a national team can be a thankless task, where wins are credited to the players and losses to the coach. That's a weight Gustavsson must carry, whether he wants to or not.
Why did Gustavsson want the Matildas top job?
It started when he was still an assistant coach with the USA, coming up against the Australian side.
"From the first time that I experienced playing against the Matildas, I sensed there was some kind of 'it' factor with the team," he said.
"At the time, I didn't know what it was. But now I understand: it's that 'never say die' attitude and that passion and how proud they are to represent their country.
"And, if I could be a small part of that, I just felt this is what I need to do right now. This is the exact job that I want with this team in this environment right now in my career.
"It's perfect."
It's a nice note to end on.
But there is one more question: Realistically, what should the Australian public expect when the Matildas play the FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup at home?
"I always come back to results and rankings," he said.
"The natural thing would be a quarter-final, if we look at rankings and results in previous tournaments. But I would twist that word from expect to believe.
"That doesn't mean the players should carry the expectation of winning.
"But let's believe in them, because that's what they deserve."
