Statistics show a large majority of Matildas and Socceroos games are staged in New South Wales but context is needed to understand whyLast week, Matildas’ coach Tony Gustavsson cut a customarily jovial figure as he helped announce February’s Cup of Nations. The Swede had good reason to be convivial; the mini-tournament provides a chance to continue momentum from a successful November international window with a group-stage simulation against Spain, Jamaica and Czechia across Sydney, Gosford and Newcastle.The New South Wales slant of the host cities is clear, and has been met with predictable reactions. In the wake of furious backlash to the Australian Professional Leagues’s sale of hosting rights for the next three A-Leagues grand finals to Sydney, Football Australia’s...
The forward’s magical second goal against Manchester United was a snapshot of her incredible ability and beliefAbout four years ago, as the 2017-18 Ashes reached Perth, someone organised a game of football between the travelling English media and their West Australian counterparts. We assembled on some nondescript piece of suburban scrubland, the standard was extremely mixed and after Michael Vaughan slotted home the winning penalty we all retired to the bar for the most important business of the day.As we sat there with our schooners, a local women’s team was heading out to train on the pitch we had just vacated. One of them was incredible. She had feet like hands. She had a head like a foot. She had...
In the dark comedy of the Matildas’ last-gasp victory against New Zealand, uncomfortable truths emergedUnless one is fortunate enough to be among that pure group of supporters whose mood is governed entirely by their team winning or losing, in the same binary way that the tides are dictated by the moon, then at some point watching the Matildas clash with New Zealand, all you could do was laugh.It wasn’t humorous in the traditional sense. There were no slapstick collisions or misunderstandings. Lydia Williams didn’t decide to take advantage of the almost complete absence of threat to her goal by giving the crowd at the north Queensland stadium 15 minutes of stand up. Instead, it was amusing in the most perfect,...
The Matildas pushed Sweden to their limits in the semi-final and expectation is rising after their extended run in TokyoTony Gustavsson bristles as he hunches over the post-match microphone. It was the same microphone behind which, 24 hours earlier, the Matildas head coach sat beaming while previewing Australia’s historic semi-final against Sweden. But now, after his side’s 1-0 defeat by the Rio silver medallists, it is a wonder the metal does not melt in the white-hot reactor of his voice.An Australian journalist asks the delicate question: did you tell the players they should be proud of what they have achieved here in Tokyo? Gustavsson stares, unblinking, as though offended by the journalist’s use of past tense. “I didn’t say they...