It is a moment etched into the minds of almost every Australian football fan. On 22 January 2015, after a disappointing loss to South Korea in the group stages of the Asian Cup, nerves are rising with the Socceroos locked in a sudden-death battle against a Chinese side both resolute in defence and dangerous in transition. As tensions mount, Australia’s talisman Tim Cahill, ostensibly from nowhere, conjures the sublime from the bog of an awful Brisbane pitch – a sumptuous bicycle kick to break the deadlock. The relief is palpable both in the stands and at home, and Australia’s tournament turns.
Yet as football fans around the nation wake next morning, contemplating sore heads and that leaden remorse unique to shoddy late-night food selections, with clear minds 32 aspiring Matildas push their bodies to the limits, focused solely on impressing head coach Alen Stajcic, and surviving the first winnowing of his World Cup hopefuls.
It’s a punishing schedule that morning at the Australian Institute of Sport – as it is for every day of this five-day camp. Two full training sessions, interspersed with hydrotherapy, physio, and tactical walkthroughs. In between modules, young Sydney FC winger and World Cup wannabe Amy Harrison sneaks to the nutrition bar. Not too much respite there, it’s stocked only with carefully balanced health food options.
As Instagram-ed crowd shots and celebration selfies flood her phone, Amy catches only moments of the Socceroos’ Asian Cup success and first major silverware. She’s busy unpacking after a third successive camp in as many weeks, and awaits to see if she’s booked her spot as the squad travels to New Zealand for a seven-day, two-game tour.
“The hardest part is being away from your family so much, and your friends, but you still have your phone, you can talk to them and that,” says Harrison. “You get to a point where you’re just packing, and unpacking your suitcase – that’s where your cupboard is, because you’re just in/out the whole time. But at the same time you’re doing what you want to be doing, you’re doing what you love.”
It’s occurred largely away from the flashbulbs of cameras and the column inches of scribes, but when the Matildas stride into Winnipeg Stadium to face the daunting Team USA on their home continent, these few final steps will be the culmination of one hell of a journey.
From Canberra to Sydney to Auckland to Canberra to Larnaca (Cyprus) to Nicosia (Cyprus) to Larnaca to Paralimni (Cyprus) to Brescia (Italy) to Villach (Austria) to Falkirk (Scotland) to Canberra to Sydney to Vancouver (Canada) and to Winnipeg (Canada). That last trip, itself over 2,000km, is just one leg of a quest that has been six months and thousands of airmiles in the making.
For the players hailing from Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane or Melbourne, it’s an even more arduous equation, with rushed flights scheduled in between camps to snatch a precious day or two at home with parents, pets or loved ones.
Fifty-two days spent in nine separate training camps; at least 15 international or competitive friendly matches, an endless cycle of training, physio, strapping and ice baths; dozens of hours spent washing undies in motel sinks, and a countless string of phone chargers and toothbrushes left littered across several continents.
For Amy, the campaign is cut short as halfway through she receives the dreaded phone call from Stajcic. “I was obviously very disappointed, it was pretty hard to take at the time”, Harrison explains. “It took a long time to heal, I mean obviously I wish I was still [going to the World Cup], but I have the Under-20s to work towards. I’m glad I still have something, otherwise it would have been a lot harder.”
Voted Young Player of the Year in the W-League, 19-year-old Harrison has time on her side and future campaigns on the horizon. But you can imagine well the heartbreak of Sydney team-mate Casey Dumont whose first-ever Matildas appearance ended in the searing pain of a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament; or veteran Kate Gill – the Matildas all-time leading goalscorer – who after six months of fighting injury and fitness to earn one final World Cup guernsey failed to make the final team.
Those periods haunted by pain, both physically and mentally, are well known to one of those that did make the squad; Matildas goalkeeper Lydia Williams. This, her third World Cup campaign, comes off the back of a lengthy and frustrating layoff, following her second spell on the sidelines with that bane of the women’s game in recent years, the torn ACL. She missed the entire W-League season with club Canberra United, and only joined back up with the Matildas in Italy, following an exhaustive series of fitness tests, rehab and pre-hab. Such has been the unrelenting schedule, should she win selection as the Matildas’ first choice goalkeeper come Winnipeg, she will have already had nine games under her belt.
“Most of us have done it for our whole lives”, says Williams, “having camp on camp, you know, not having much of a social life [laughs]. But it’s a sacrifice we make to be the best, and to play against the best teams in the world.”
And while the World Cup may be the pinnacle of the men’s game, for the women, these four weeks are stratospherically beyond comparison. Playing in front of 74,000-plus at the Maracanã for a World Cup final might still be exhilarating for the stars of the German national side, but players like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose or Manuel Neuer play week in-week out in front of packed stadiums in the Bundesliga, in the Champions League or at the European Championship.
For the Matildas – used to crowds just scratching the 1,000-plus mark in the W-League and perhaps 3,000-5,000 for international fixtures – to face the two-times world champion Americans in front of a vociferous, parochial, capacity crowd of 40,000 will be a tale with which to regale the grandkids.
At the 1999 World Cup, the US did not fail to draw less than 50,000 to their games, with more than 90,000 turning out to see them defeat China in the final via a penalty shoot-out. It is a continent absolutely gripped with a fervour and fever for women’s football, and to play before such crowds is a fitting capstone for the sweat, tears and sacrifices made by this Matildas squad.
Standing in their way now is a seeming mission impossible – the mathematically hardest possible draw, consisting of 2011 runners-up USA, Africa’s top-ranked side Nigeria, and world number five Sweden – Australia’s vanquishers at the last tournament.
It’s a cruel equation after six months of unrelenting effort – fail in three games of football, and the pain and perseverance will have all been for nought. That’s not how the sport’s governing body sees it though, with Football Federation Australia adjudging this campaign as pivotal to the future of the women’s game as a whole.
It’s part of the folklore of the men’s game; the chartered flight home from Montevideo in 2005 negotiated by FFA with then sponsors Qantas, that helped give the Socceroos a logistical edge over the leg-weary opponents Uruguay in that most pivotal World Cup playoff second-leg. Similarly, FFA has left few stones unturned in preparation for this Women’s World Cup in Canada, committing an unprecedented $2 million dollars in funding the six-month preparations.
It’s a far cry from the days when women formed their own football association, such was the neglect and disrespect shown by the Australia Soccer Federation; and it’s a campaign that’s been prioritised and extensively planned for, as the head of Community and Women’s Football, Emma Highwood, explains to Guardian Australia.
“This is the best preparation [the Matildas] have ever had, and I think the players acknowledge that. In previous campaigns the girls have been in a part-time program, the key difference here being that they’ve been in a full-time program for the six months, and obviously our investment to ensure that we provide the adequate preparation for [a six-week European tour] has increased.”
Having established a Women’s World Cup working group inside the FFA, Highwood has sought to garner the full support of sponsors from across the organisation, with additional marketing and media support being provided throughout the campaign. It’s part of a wider strategy that hopes to see the success and visibility of the Matildas translate back to the domestic competition, but also support Australia’s chances in the bid for hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup, as part of the Whole of Football Plan presented earlier this month.
It’s a high-stakes investment, given the difficulty of the draw awaiting the Matildas, but Highwood remains confident a young squad can only profit from the exposure. “The fact that we’re playing the US is going to be fantastic for us, because the light’s going to be shone firmly on the Matildas from the beginning of the competition, and we’re confident that we can compete at that level,” she says.
Whether the Matildas deliver success on the pitch – a moment such as Cahill’s to captivate and inspire a legion of new fans and players – the strides made off it embodied in this rigorous preparation speak to a more hopeful future for the women’s game in Australia.
