“This is the level of international women’s football.”

Head coach Colleen Bell had a reality check after her side’s 0-2 defeat to Colombia in their FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia-New Zealand 2023 Group H opener at Sydney Football Stadium on Friday (25 June).

Speaking at the official post-match press conference, Bell said: “The quality of our players is much better than what we showed today, we were slow to think and slow to make decisions. “We had some good chances in the first half and it was unfortunate that we conceded the penalty,” he said. “If it was our mistake that led to the penalty, it was a clear situation where the Colombian defence’s mistake on Ji So-yeon could have been a penalty as well,” he added.

“We created two or three chances in the first half, but we couldn’t get the decisive goal. “We created two or three chances in the first half, but we didn’t get the decisive goal, so I don’t think we played very well,” he said, admitting that Colombia were much better in attack, ball possession, etc. “It was not good, especially when we conceded the penalty and then the second goal. There’s always a crisis after a mistake, and we shouldn’t have conceded so easily.”

Looking ahead to the second leg against Morocco, Bell has taken heart. “Now we have to play Morocco. I watched the Germany-Morocco game yesterday and the federation’s technical director Michael Muller was there. We’ll see what we need to focus on. We learnt a lesson today. We need to think and make decisions faster and push harder physically. We need to play with more intensity. It remains to be seen how we will play and what formation we will go with.”

He added: “It was my first World Cup match in my life. I loved the atmosphere, the crowd and the volunteers. Losing today is part of football. We can’t sag too much. We have to keep moving forward.” “In my 30-plus years of coaching and playing football since I was a kid, that’s the message. “I’ve been coaching for more than 30 years and I’ve been playing football since I was a kid, and that’s the message: ‘You have to keep moving forward.’ Maybe I’ll get up again in two hours,” he said, clearly intent on shaking off the ordeal.카지노

He also made a point of saying. “Watching the World Cup games, it’s an insight to learn and get a feel for the overall physicality, the speed of the players in the World Cup, what’s the norm and what’s the standard in the World Cup. But it’s different when you’re playing against them. Experience matters. This is the World Cup. This is the level of international women’s football. This is the reality. We don’t live in a dreamland. This is the world of football. We have to think about how we can improve, how we can go further, how we can put today’s game behind us and prepare for the next one. We have to keep fighting and keep winning,” he concluded.