Tony Gustavsson: The school teacher from Sundsvall leading the Matildas to their greatest challenge

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,