For women’s sport to benefit after the World Cup, leagues have to show commitment to the product beyond symbolic gesturesWith a successful home Women’s World Cup in the rearview mirror there are hopes other women’s sports may ride the wave of momentum to increased viewership, attendances, funding and, importantly, respect. The nearly 2 million tickets sold across Australia and New Zealand for the tournament are a reminder the audience already exists.The AFLW stood ready to capitalise on this momentum, ramping up its marketing and officially launching the 2023 season as the World Cup ended. The decision to wait for clean air made sense given the Matildas fever that struck the nation saw an estimated 17 million Australians watch the semi-final...
Covering the tournament was a privilege and while we share England’s pain the overall joy of the past month is what counts“Happy birthday!” “Thanks!” Suddenly all I can see is the ceiling, and flashes of blurred movement. Is that wrapping paper? “Thanks mum!” “You’re welcome!” I have no idea what my 10-year-old son is thanking me for. Tournament football can be tough. Is it worth it? Is seven weeks away from your kid really worth it? How many birthdays can I miss?No matter the joy, the adrenaline, the rush, the guilt over feeling guilty when you’re doing a job you love and that others would give up a limb for, those questions still hit you. Regularly. In many ways, doing...
Tournament was more revolution than evolution for its co-hosts and signalled a step change in the reordering of Australia’s priorities for football and women’s sport“Please have your tickets ready, and have a good night,” said the usher through his megaphone outside Sydney’s Stadium Australia before the final. “And go Spain.”For that volunteer, and many millions of Australians, the 2023 World Cup was close to perfect. Perfect, for many, would have been the Australia captain, Sam Kerr – and not Spain’s Olga Carmona – lifting the trophy. But in this country football has been associated with failure, blunder or – worst of all – being ignored. This tournament was something else entirely. Continue reading...
The Lionesses lose the battle of ideas but good things can come of this defeat: new strategies, fresh blood, realistic expectationsWe still love you; come home. Like all good travel romances, perhaps England’s 2023 World Cup was always destined to end in cold tears and bittersweet fragments of memories, the smell of reality wafting through the curtains. There will be no shame in losing to a superior Spain side, no recriminations or burning effigies for a group of players who left every piece of themselves on the Sydney pitch.But regrets? They’ll have a few. Moments that broke the other way, decisions they wish they could take back, and above all the opportunity to create something beautiful and monumental together, for...
Sarina Wiegman’s 3-4-1-2 system carried them to the final but was undone by one moment of miscommunicationOne instance. One rush of over-enthusiasm. One split second of miscommunication. That was enough to see England’s World Cup dreams lie in tatters. It was a moment that caused the holes to appear in the Lionesses’ new-found tactical formation, a system that had been a huge key to their success in Australia but also, on this occasion, led to their downfall.It all happened in a flash with little under half an hour on the clock. Lucy Bronze, a forward-thinking wing-back, surged ahead on an inverted run. Whether she needed to go at that particular moment is a separate debate, with the game firmly in...