MELBOURNE, Australia -- How much can you read into a send-off game?
It depends who you ask.
For some, a send-off match is a dangerous, anxiety-inducing, final chance to watch players get injured days from a major tournament. For others, the results are premonitions of what is to come: FIFA World Cup glory or World Cup heartbreak. And somewhere in between is probably the truth.
The Matildas and Tony Gustavsson will take plenty out of their 1-0 victory over France, playing well without being overly dominant.
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Australia have now won five of their past six matches against European opposition -- against whom they've historically struggled -- and four in a row against top-10 teams, keeping clean sheets against Sweden, England and France.
Prematch, Gustavsson was asked what he was hoping to get out of this final warmup, and what fans should expect.
"It will be a good indicator of the starting line-up but also the finishing lineup [for Australia's first World Cup pool match, against Republic of Ireland]," Gustavsson said.
Barring the inclusion of Alanna Kennedy who made her first appearance for the national team since a run of injuries dating back to September 2022 kept her on the sidelines, there were no surprises in what can be argued was the Matildas' strongest starting XI.
"The one thing that will be different is because it's a send-off game, and the last friendly before the World Cup, I'm also going to consider any type of niggles and minutes played -- because it's all about the Ireland game.
"If this was a quarterfinal, I would probably treat game time and players differently. So you will see some adjustments according to that."
Seventeen players took to the pitch for the Matildas including all four of their centre-back options. Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord both played a little over an hour, while Clare Hunt and Hayley Raso played the full 90.
"There's going to be testing some things," Gustavsson also said pregame.
"There's going to be throwing some curveballs out there for oppositions to deal with, come the World Cup, but then also have consistency in what we've done and believe in what we've done for years now."
These tests ranged from playing with five at the back for a portion of the second half, to using Raso, an out-and-out winger, as the central striker.
All in all, each of Gustavsson's stated aims were achieved on the pitch. Off it, the coach had labelled the match as a chance to celebrate with the nation, and a record crowd of 50,629 people made sure that box was ticked, too.
The match was perfect preparation, but at the end of the day it was also just that: Preparation.
"[This game] doesn't mean anything on [July 20], when we're going to play Ireland, because that's tournament mode, that's something different," Gustavsson said postmatch.
"This was preparation. A time to celebrate, see all the fans, connect and unite a nation going into this World Cup. But now, it's business mode. Now, it's time to focus on Ireland.
Just as he did after the victories against Sweden and England, Gustavsson spoke of needing to be humble, of "trying to take the temperature down," of not letting friendly results overly inflate expectations.
The win against France essentially doesn't mean anything but that doesn't mean it means nothing.
Australian fans saw that goals are possible while the team's two most prolific and attacking players -- Kerr and Foord -- are not on the park.
For those who have watched the entirety of the Gustavsson tenure, the growth from where this team was in April 2021 to now is undeniable.
During this spell of positive results, dating back to October 2022, Gustavsson has always made the point to reinforce where this team has come from, and explain the work that has been done since his first games in charge to get the Matildas to where they are now.
He ensures that no one forgets the ugly parts -- the losses and the growing pains were all for a reason -- and knows the wins against England and France likely weren't possible without the losses to Canada and the United States.
Arguably the greatest indicator of this growth requires us to look even further back, to the Matildas' previous World Cup send-off match. Australia entered the 2019 World Cup off the back of a 3-0 defeat to the Netherlands in Eindhoven.
The Matildas, then, were without Laura Brock who would be withdrawn from the squad days later, due to a foot injury, reducing their natural centre-back stocks down to two.
In that match, the Netherlands had a stock-standard free kick, which Australia defended so poorly; the cluster of green shirts didn't look like it was even trying to contain the spread of orange jerseys, and Shanice van de Sanden scored a free header.
The Matildas are now light years away from that moment, on so many different levels.
When Brock went down in 2019, Karly Roestbakken a young left-back, was called in to replace her. An untimely injury to Clare Polkinghorne mid-tournament meant Kennedy was Australia's sole nominal centre-back. Left-back Steph Catley and holding midfielder Aivi Luik were used in a pinch, but their shift to the heart of defence caused other problems further up the park.
Now, Gustavsson has a problem that was inconceivable four years ago .
"I have a lot of starting centre-backs; they give me a headache now," he laughed when asked, after victory against France, which combination to start.
Which pair he does start is almost secondary to the fact that he has choices, including Hunt who played like a 60-game veteran in game six of her international career.
While centre-back was the area of the park that most desperately needed depth, the emergence of Charli Grant, Cortnee Vine, and Kyra Cooney-Cross mean Australia have young players who are ready and at the necessary level across the park.
Mackenzie Arnold's upward trajectory over the past six months means she has all but sewn up the No. 1 goalkeeper spot; in 2019, she was comfortably the second choice.
Even the way in which the Matildas defend has improved, thanks to a return to basics and the influence of Gustavsson's assistant, Jens Fjellström.
All of these positives don't guarantee a win against Ireland in Sydney on July 20. They don't even guarantee a successful World Cup for the Matildas. But the team achieved what they needed to in this send-off game, and they did a pretty good job of satisfying everyone's criteria for what constitutes a successful final game in the process.