Just over two months after the World Cup, The Matildas are back in action. Impetus’ Ben Gilby, who spent a month back in Australia for the tournament, reflects on a period which combined strong emotional ties with the women’s game in the city of Perth to never-to-be-forgotten experiences (27/10/23).
Above: The scene at Stadium Australia as England faced Colombia in the quarter-finals. Photo: Ben Gilby.
Australia. It is the country that introduced me to women’s football back in 2008. It is the country that I identify with and love passionately despite living 9,000 miles away and only getting there once a year.
More specifically than that – Perth was the city that introduced me to women’s football. A city where I have family and deep friendships. A city that, in 2023, hosted World Cup matches in the stadium that I saw my first-ever women’s match in. This was personal. Not “just” a World Cup to attend, but a World Cup in the location of my introduction to the women’s game. The emotional and personal links were on a whole other level.
Arriving back in Western Australia a few days into the tournament, Perth, a city where Australian Rules Football reigns supreme, there was something very different in the air. World Cup banners were everywhere, and Forrest Place public square in the heart of the shopping area was transformed into a fan zone.
Matchday one for me in the tournament was Canada against the Republic of Ireland. The location, HBF Park, was one with that extensive personal connection. On 7th December 2008, it was the location for my first ever women’s match as Perth Glory took on Queensland Roar (now Brisbane Roar) in the opening season of the W-League (now A-League Women). That game will stay with me for several reasons – not just the fact that it saw eight goals (Roar won 5-3) – but for the presence of a 15-year-old striker.
That 15-year-old was Sam Kerr. I first came across the name earlier that year at an AFL match (Australian Rules) where Sam’s big brother Daniel, was performing for my team West Coast Eagles. Fans behind me mentioned that “Daniel’s little sister has just signed for Perth Glory.” Fair enough. Yet further discussion around my family dinner table that night revealed something a bit extra.
Daniel’s little sister grew up 20 minutes up the road from that very dinner table at which I was sitting. Sam was a local. She knew the same streets, shops, and areas that my family knew. This was personal, and that match between Perth Glory and Queensland Roar was the beginning of a long period following closely the career of “the local kid” who went global.
To make things even more special, Kerr scored one of Glory’s three goals that day in December 2008. Now, in July 2023, the World Cup was coming to the very same stadium.
The game started with a bang. Ireland, who were stubborn and physical opponents for The Matildas in the opening game of the tournament in Australia, hit the front with a typical piece of Katie McCabe magic. The Arsenal star hit a stunning Olimpico from the right-hand side at the famous Shed End of the stadium.
The Irish fans, who were just enjoying one long party all night long, despite the incessant torrential rain, were superb and turned Perth green. Whilst, eventually it was not to be for them as an extremely unconvincing Canada came back to win, it was a thrilling night.
If the Irish fans created an incredible atmosphere, that was nothing compared to what was to follow. Jamaica, missing Khadija Shaw due to suspension were next up in Perth against Panama. Musical instruments, drums, non-stop singing, and swaying meant there was as much action in the stands as there was on the pitch. Allyson Swaby’s winner just before the hour mark set Jamaica on the way to what was going to be a historic tournament for them.
After a slightly lower-key clash in the stands between Denmark and Haiti, which saw the Danes produce a less-than-impressive performance in defeating an exciting Haiti side 2-0, with superstar Pernille Harder on the scoresheet, came one of the most unexpected experiences of the tournament.
Perth’s final World Cup game – Morocco against Colombia. Both teams were having a superb tournament and went into the match with a chance to make the last sixteen. My cousin, one of three generations of my family to live around Perth, has a Colombian partner, and we were all going to the match together. Our expectation was that he would be the only Colombian in the stadium. As far as we knew, there were only a handful of Colombians living in Perth. Whilst that may be true, we reckoned without a huge influx of travelling fans.
It was like HBF Park had been transported to Bogata for the night. Of the 17,342 fans inside the stadium, easily 12,000 were in Colombian colours. There were flags, music, dancing, jumping, choreographed movement, and swaying in the stands. It was a thrilling taste of what it’s like to watch a match in South America, whilst still being in Perth.
The experience had everything – the Colombian fans, and Morocco creating history on the pitch with a 1-0 win that put them into the last sixteen along with the South Americans as Germany incredibly crashed out. What a night.
What a way to end Perth’s World Cup. It was a period of four games in nine days that had so much. It had been an experience that I had shared with family and some of my closest footballing friends from Western Australia. Everyone else I knew attending the tournament from England, the USA, New Zealand, and Australia were staying on the east coast for the duration of the event. That had made this time in Perth personal. I was able to experience the emotion of the World Cup being at the stadium that shared my first women’s football match just under 15 years previously with the people who mean so much to me in that part of the world. It was personal.
After a further week in Perth with family and friends, it was time to join the rest of the World Cup experience on the east coast. I would spend the remainder of the tournament in Sydney. The first time I had visited the city since 2012.
Sydney is a huge culture shock after being in Perth. It is almost like another country. Perth is laid back, it’s very slow and relaxing. Sydney is bustling, big, and fast-paced. It took a while to get back used to that again.
Yet Sydney would provide another crop of experiences of a different sort. Sydney had The Matildas.
Australia had made their way to a record-equalling quarter-final of the tournament. Whilst their last eight tie against France was being played just over 900km away in Brisbane, The Matildas were everywhere. Their shirt sales were already way ahead of those sold by the Socceroos during the previous year’s men’s World Cup. Posters were all over the streets, Matildas flags were flying from the many building sites around Sydney. They were on all the news bulletins.
For over 14 years, I had followed the fortunes of The Matildas, since “local girl Sam” made her debut for them. Getting up at ungodly hours to watch them play, roaring them on, waking up the neighbours (and occasionally upsetting them when they heard me cheering as they defeated Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics), they were my team. Now they were everyone‘s team, and how good was that?
We had access to the Matildas’ post-match media chats during the tournament as a site and they were the biggest ticket in town. I would be at Stadium Australia on the evening of their Quarter-Final with France – and it was being shown on a series of big screens around the 80,000 venue for ticket holders of the last eight game between England and Colombia later that night.
The scenes in Cathy Freeman Park outside the stadium that evening were something that is very hard to describe if you didn’t experience it. It was an evening where over 50,000 people came together as one. 50,000 people in green and gold who went through the biggest number of twists and turns that it is possible for anyone to experience at a football match.
Chances came and went all night and there was an air of predictability that it went to penalties. What happened next was one of the most incredible sequences of events that I have ever experienced watching football. An experience that I cannot possibly see that can ever be beaten in terms of sheer drama and changes of emotion.
A penalty shoot-out that went on. And on. It was all about Mackenzie Arnold. Twists, turns, saves, shock penalty takers (Arnold stepping up to take the potential match-winning kick anyone?), and then the West Ham keeper producing a sensational display saving five kicks from four players.
Then, with the scores locked at 6-6 and the tenth round of kicks, upstepped Cortnee Vine. The Sydney FC attacker just had to score to put Australia into their first-ever World Cup semi-final. And she did. And boy what happened next…
Have you ever stood with 50,000 people in a park watching the most dramatic football match of the year before? Can you imagine what happens when such a long penalty shoot-out finally comes to a conclusion? Over two and a half hours of pent-up emotions finally exploded as the fans got the outcome they craved. Our Matildas had done it. And, the whole of Sydney heard the roar. In fact, I suspect my English family and friends thousands of miles away heard the roar…
Then the whole 50,000 crowd realised that the game had gone on for so long, there was now only 15 minutes until the actual match we all had tickets for (England v Colombia) kicked off. That number of people were never going to get into the stadium for kick-off. The national anthems and opening minutes of the game were played in a strange atmosphere of a half-empty stadium with tens of thousands patiently queuing to get inside singing loudly about the Matildas. Having gone through an emotional wringer watching Tony Gustavsson’s team, there was absolutely nothing left inside me. I just got a beer and sat in my seat and stared at the game.
That brought about a World Cup semi-final at Stadium Australia between Australia and England. The country that has my heart against the country in which I was born and live. I had the hottest ticket in town, and, as I always do when attending Matildas v Lionesses games, I had as much green and gold on as possible.
The day before the game brought about another unexpected development. My status as “that bloke in England who is obsessed about/writes about (delete as appropriate) Australian women’s football”, led to contact by BBC Radio Norfolk asking to record an interview with me by Zoom from Sydney to go out on air talking about the match.
Moving onto the events surrounding the game itself, it was a night that provided a series of lifelong memories. From arrival at Stadium Australia was the eagerly awaited meet-up of all the Impetus team that were at the tournament. Given the fact that we were from four different nations, it was an opportunity that we knew would never be repeated. This is a hugely talented group of writers, photographers, and TikTok content creators who work so hard as volunteers in their spare time to make our site what it is. Despite the whole group of 70 of us being based around the globe, we make a big thing about being the ImpetusFamily. It was exactly that on the night. It felt like we’d all known each other in person for life. It was fun, it was friendly, it was women’s football.
The match itself was one of action, disappointment, sheer exhilaration, and then accepted disappointment. Inside the stadium, the anticipation was off the scale. There was a mass of green and gold across Stadium Australia. England started in an unusual physically aggressive notion. The yellow cards built up and so did the volume of support for the hosts.
There was a greater nous and experience in the way England were playing. This was their third successive World Cup semi-final, and they had won the European Championships just over 12 months previously. It was not a surprise when they took the lead.
Then cometh the hour, cometh the “local girl Sam.” Receiving the ball, Kerr raced relentlessly towards the goal at the end of the stadium I was at. As England continued to back off her, I turned to the person next to me and shouted “She’s gonna score! She’s gonna score!” Sure enough, she did. And how! The East Fremantle-born hero let fly with an absolute rocket that flew past Mary Earps and into the net. I have never heard noise like it in any stadium anywhere in the world as 80,000 people went absolutely crazy. It was insane.
For about five minutes it looked as if The Matildas might just do it. Kerr missed a crucial opportunity, and that was it. The greater big-game experience of the Lionesses kicked in and they ran out deserved 3-1 winners. What a ride though. What an experience.
Talking of rides…the journey on the train back to Sydney from the stadium was an epic one. Due to vandalism on a signal box, trains were held stationary for 90 minutes between stations. As the clock ticked closer to midnight, a group of Brazilian fans who were in the same carriage as me struck up conversation – we had a great time – and it definitely made the long journey back feel a lot quicker, as something that should have taken just over half an hour took nearer two and a quarter hours.
So to the World Cup Final itself. Around the city during the day, the predominant national shirt in evidence apart from Matildas ones were those of the USWNT – not surprisingly given their powerful record in the tournament. Yet their early exit – in quite dramatic style by Sweden – had meant that they would not see their side in action this time.
There were no such travel travails this time. To avoid any risk of train chaos that marred the semi-final, the Sydney Trains authorities had brought in extra staff and engineers in a bid to prevent a repeat.
Stadium Australia was, not surprisingly nowhere near as buzzy or as energetic as it was for the semi-final, but there was a huge sense of pride in the tournament that the nation had hosted.
For the game itself and the aftermath – so much has been written by so many. From a personal perspective in the stadium, Spain were masterful and England, quite honestly couldn’t cope with it.
The disgraceful scenes at the presentation were not immediately obvious in the stadium from so far back and relying on the big screen. General consensus around me was “who the hell is that guy?” Within moments of arriving back in my hotel room, his identity would become painfully apparent.
It was a month of memories. A month of making connections and my relationship with the women’s game coming full circle. Perth, the city of my heart, Australia, the country that means everything to me did it again. I’ll be back in August 2024. No World Cup action, but plenty of NPLW WA games to see!
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