Matildas' Asian Cup exit is the moment of reckoning Australian football has been waiting for

Tony Gustavsson sits alone at the post-match press conference table in Pune. He's hunched, his chest caved in, his elbows resting heavily on the table in front of him.

He's usually joined by one of his players: his captain Sam Kerr, his vice-captain Steph Catley or a stand-out performer from the earlier match. But not today.

The camera used to record the Women's Asian Cup debriefs sits several metres back from the chairs and microphones, making the people who sit there look smaller than they are.

Gustavsson appears smaller still. He gazes out from over his white mask with weary, distant eyes. It's half an hour after the Matildas have been knocked out of the quarterfinal by South Korea and he knows what happens next.

«I've been around long enough, for two decades, to know that it's going to be on me now,» he says calmly.

«And that's fair. It's OK. That's what it should be in this business.

»I take full ownership of the result tonight. I'm happy [for people] to criticise me, which I think is fair, but I also hope they do that by looking at the performances as well, so it's a fair criticism.

«Am I the person for the job? It's not my job to say. What I can promise is that I've been around long enough to come back from a situation like this and learn from it and do better. And that's what I'm going to do, if I get the chance to do it.»

He hasn't checked the headlines or the comment threads but he knows what this means.

And there is no denying it: this has been a failure on every metric, by every standard and expectation. It's the first time Australia have been knocked out at this stage of the Asian Cup; a title that Gustavsson, his players, and Football Australia said they wanted to win.

And it's true: they did want it. But wanting and