For the past year,Gustavsson sought to frame the Matildas’ poor results in friendly games as the team being in “preparation mode”. He reiterated the team should be judged after “performance mode” during tournaments.

Following the lacklustre finish to the Asian Cup and an inconsistent Olympics campaign,it became evident there was little difference between the two modes.

Speaking after the defeat to Korea,Gustavsson took responsibility for the team’s plight.

“Criticise me for what I could have done better because that’s what the game is about,” he said. “I’ve been around the game long enough for two decades to know it’s not going to be on me now and I take full ownership of that.

“Obviously,I am going to look at what I could have done differently as well. It’s a little bit too early to say that I could have done differently.”

While the Matildas missed a flurry of clear chances against Korea,they had goalkeeper Lydia Williams to thank for not being on the end of a hiding.

Gustavsson’s performance as coach was slammed by pundit Andy Harper who labelled the tournament as “a disaster” and “a failure” for the Matildas.

“I said that before the tournament anything less than a final is totally unacceptable with this squad,” he said on Ten after the match.

Former Matilda Georgia Yeoman-Dale slammed Gustavsson for being “too reliant on Sam Kerr to score goals”,having previously criticised the selections of the coach during the group stage,suggesting he wasted the opportunity to develop younger players against weaker opponents by fielding a full-strength side against Indonesia - a game Australia won 18-0.

Including the Asian Cup campaign,Gustavsson has won just four competitive games in regular time,beating New Zealand,The Philippines,Indonesia and Thailand - all of whom are ranked below Australia. The Matildas snatched an extra-time victory over Great Britain in the second round of the Olympics.

News,results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday.Sign up for our Sport newsletter.