Former Matildas coach Tom Sermanni sees positives for Australia despite thumping by USA Australia's mens national football team has struggled in recent times, and the Matildas continued the theme, beaten by the number one ranked side in the world, the United States. TOM Sermanni insists there are positive signs for the Matildas, despite watching his US side put four goals past his former charges in San Antonio on Monday (EDT). Ten months after he completed nine years of service to the Australian women's national team, Sermanni's US side - the No1 ranked team in the world - confirmed their credentials thanks to goals from Lauren Holiday, Carli Lloyd, Abby Wambach and Christen Press. But after a "strange" experience coaching against his old team, Sermanni said the scoreline didn't reflect the balance of the game. "Four-nil sounds like a stroll, but it certainly wasn't," Sermanni said. It was a difficult game and at times Australia caused us major problems on the break. There's a real cutting edge about the Matildas which is an encouraging sign going forward. It's a talented team, just very young. Five of them played for clubs in the US this year, which will help their development a lot. Just by playing with top-class American professionals, it's far more revealing to them than anything a coach might say. Surprisingly Sermanni said he had felt less pressure in taking over the best team in the world at the start of the year than he would at a lesser side. Tom Sermanni poses for a photo as new coach of the USA. AP Photo/M. Spencer Green "The US side is physically mature, full of seasoned professionals," he said. That made the switch relatively straight forward, not to mention the depth of talent. I use the analogy of there being more pressure taking over West Ham than Manchester United - when you have a pool of good players who are used to winning, it's a good position to be in. But it was a strange feeling, being on the opposite bench against a side where I probably gave debuts to 90 per cent of the players, it was quite a realisation of how things have changed.