Above: The ParaMatildas celebrate their historic world cup win. Photo: Mark Avellino/Football Australia.
By Genevieve Henry (19/11/24).
The ParaMatildas claimed a historic win today in the IFCPF Women’s World Cup final, making them the first Australian national team to win a football world cup.
The side, ranked the world number one, completed an impressive comeback against the USA to win 6-2, led by goalkeeper and captain Katelyn Smith, who scored an inspirational hattrick.
Smith, the extraordinary leader from Western Australia said, “To come out and score three goals, one from a penalty and two just kicking it long—hoping to find another player, but ending up in the back of the net— is very, very exciting.”
When asked how it felt to lead her country to a first ever World Cup win, Smith gave a humble captain’s response.
“I think it’ll take a little while to sink in. All the girls have leadership qualities in them and there’s not just one player out there who brings something to the team. There’s a lot of us, there’s ten people here, and there’s all the coaching staff who bring the best out of everyone.”
When the ParaMatildas first burst onto the scene two years ago, they immediately showed promise, making it to the final in this very same competition but ultimately falling to the US. But, with time and resources allowed to improve, the team have proved themselves to truly be the best of the best.
Smith said, “the heartbreak two years ago was a tough one. We were only new into it…to make it to the final and lose was a little bit gut-wrenching. But, now we’ve had two quality years together with a lot of the girls and we’ve come a long way. I’m very proud of everyone.”
Coach Kelly Stirton added, “We only had six weeks to prepare (in 2022). Unfortunately, we went down in the final, but after we lost that final, we prepared and we changed tactics. We brought new girls in and boosted the team. Now we’re here and we’ve won a World Cup final.” She added, “I’ve been waiting for this feeling for two years: redemption. We finally got it.”
A stalwart of the past two years and scorer of two goals, Georgia Beikoff, added, “we’ve always had that fire in our belly, but what’s come a long way in the past two years and we’ve worked really hard.”
Stirton claimed, “every one of those girls deserve it and every one of the girls back home deserve it as well. We’ve brought this back home for them. We’ve done this for Australia and we’ve done this for para-athletes in Australia as well.”
Beikoff said, “it’s not just for people with cerebral palsy (CP), it’s for anyone in Australia with a disability. This is all for you and we’re coming home with the gold…it’s absolutely amazing.”
Smith added, “being an advocate for women’s football and younger CP girls coming through, it just shows them that anything is possible and if you put your heart and mind to it you can achieve anything you want to.”
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