It's well known that the Matildas spend a lot of time in airports.
Travel is part and parcel of what they do, crossing oceans and time zones in order to play football for Australia. And as anyone who has travelled knows, airports are strange places. Time doesn't really feel real. A beer for breakfast and a coffee for dinner both make sense. You can walk past someone in their pyjamas and another person in a suit and neither look out of place.
Airports are liminal spaces. The physical embodiment of transition. They are the in between of where you've come from and where you are going. That's where the Matildas are right now.
With Tom Sermanni at the helm in an interim capacity -- with no intentions of taking the job full-time -- and the next major tournament over a year away, the destination is clear, the journey just hasn't properly started yet.
It makes dissecting and analysing the national team's two friendly matches in the past week difficult. How much can actually be taken from the Matildas' 1-1 draw with Switzerland last Friday? What has been gleaned from Monday's 2-1 victory over Germany? What should've been reasonably expected from this window with all the considerations? What difference does it make to the longer-term project?
In the short-term, there is undeniably value in getting the team back in the winner's circle and restoring some confidence.
"The thing we talked about going into this game was that we wanted to see the Matildas, wanted to see a team that looked like what we want the Matildas to be, and what we feel the Matildas are about," was the way Sermanni explained it post-match.
"Hopefully this gives us the confidence and the impetus to go forward from here and really start to.
"We're looking at this as the start of our preparation for the Asian Cup. So hopefully this is a great foundation to start from now."
The problem with this is, Sermanni won't be the coach leading the team at the Asian Cup. And while he expects to be in charge of the friendlies against Brazil and Chinese Taipei on home soil to end the year, the task of preparing this team for the 2026 Asian Cup isn't really his. It would be unreasonable to expect someone in charge of potentially only six games to make the necessary adjustments and introductions the Matildas need to win the Asian Cup at home.
This latest Tom Sermanni Interlude™, as opposed to a full-blown era, is the airport, not the destination. And no one goes to the airport to go to the airport.
That's not to say that while the team is waiting, it isn't worth celebrating the little wins. If we focus on the results alone, they were the equivalent of opening up a window and letting some fresh air in to clear the mustiness of the Olympics out.
"This win's huge. I think it restores confidence in individual players, and confidence in the team, and it brings that belief back," Sermanni said.
Daniela Galic and Winonah Heatley both earned their national team debuts. Kyra Cooney-Cross made her 50th appearance for the Matildas and marked it with a spectacular goal -- her first at international level -- and Clare Hunt followed suit with her debut goal in green-and-gold. The win against Germany was Australia's first in 19 years and second victory in seven meetings between the two nations.
Caitlin Foord was stellar across both games and Sermanni was full of praise for the Arsenal forward, saying she can play "anywhere" and was asked to do so due to availability and different formations across the 180 minutes. Mary Fowler looked much better against Germany, and her combination with Foord was a high point, while down the other end Mackenzie Arnold came up with some clutch saves.
But as ever, it's worth remembering the task ahead for whoever ends up in charge of this team. The new coach will still need to tighten things up defensively, find new strikers and get them integrated into the team, and figure out a way to limit the midfield getting overrun. They will need to orchestrate the regeneration of the Matildas -- the biggest task of all -- and embed systems that allow the team to break down block defences as well as be the block defence, scoring quickly on the counter.
For now, the Matildas are in an airport limbo. No longer where they were but not yet at their next destination.