England have the last laugh

Sam Kerr and Australia have long exceeded whatever should naturally be expected and, when the dust settles, they will know the same was true in Sydney. As she looked up at the Stadium Australia crowd for the last time at this Womens World Cup, it just compounded the gnawing disappointment that she and her Matildas had fallen one game before the final. Falling short will sting but the past three weeks have served only to enhance an already unimpeachable legacy. The World Cup has seen few strikers such as Kerr; it has seen Australia reach their first semifinal in team history; it has never seen a player harness the collective spirit and footballing knowhow of the Matildas and lead it closer to the elusive title. In what has been an immense shift in the Australian publics sporting consciousness, nine out of 10 people who watched commercial television on Wednesday night tuned in to see the national womens soccer teams 3-1 loss to England in the semifinals. That figure an audience reach of 11.5 million and an average audience of 7.13 million reported by the free-to-air host broadcaster excludes paid streaming, and those who gathered at dedicated fan zones, where some over-exuberant revellers let off flares, and in pubs and clubs around the country. Weve kind of captured the nation, a visibly dejected Kerr said after walking off the pitch. The support weve had has been amazing and well do everything we can on the weekend to get them a third place. The 29-year-old Kerr has won the golden boot for leading scorer in leagues in Australia, the United States and England, where shes a star for the champion Chelsea team. But her World Cup was heavily curtailed by an injury sustained on the eve of the Matildas opening game on July 20. Her left calf muscle became a topic of daily news Down Under, even after she returned as a second-half substitute in the dramatic penalty shootout win over France in the quarterfinals and, finally, started a game for the first time in the semifinal. She was chopped down by defenders twice in the opening 10 minutes and had a relatively subdued first half, but brought the game to life with her stunning solo goal in the 63rd minute that levelled the score at 1-1 and renewed hope for the Matildas. We just feel really proud that theyve got behind us and weve changed the way womens football is seen in Australia, Kerr added. Its been amazing. A big thank you. Also Read: The last goodbye! Kerr, who converted to soccer from Aussie rules as a teenager because she was no longer allowed to play in boys leagues, has seen a phenomenal transformation in the game since she made her international debut in 2009. At age 15, she went on as a late substitute in a 5-1 loss to Italy at Canberra, Australias capital, where a crowd of 2,916 would never have believed the evolution that has occurred. She didnt even give her parents much notice that shed been selected. In July and August of 2023, she has had the nations full attention. Morning news bulletins on Thursday reported the ‘heartbreak for the Matildas, and daily newspapers across the country once again heavily featured the womens national team. A high-profile sports store in downtown Sydney still had the Matildas jerseys hard to attain in recent weeks on display at full price. Therell be no discounting this team for a while. The domestic TV audience reported that the quarterfinal win was the biggest in Australia for any event since the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Hard to believe, right? The semifinal broadcast was even bigger significantly larger than the biggest mens games in the Aussie rules Australian Football League and the National Rugby League that so frequently pull the biggest crowds. It is, however, unlikely Australias Saturday bronze playoff against Sweden at Brisbane will match the TV audience of the semifinal, but itll be a decent farewell. England plays Spain on Sunday in the final at Sydney. Attendance for the first 32-team Womens World Cup has shattered records, with FIFA reporting a combined 1.85 million attendance for the first 62 games at an average 29,888 across 10 venues in Australia and New Zealand. Thats 5,000 more than the historical average for the tournament. The number of news pages devoted to the Matildas was unprecedented for womens sport and for soccer in Australia, too. And this is home to the long-time No. 1 womens cricket team which pulled a crowd exceeding 86,000 for a game against India in 2020 and world champions in netball. The fact that an entire nation almost expected the Matildas to win the title says a lot about the pressure Kerr and her 10th-ranked team faced on the home turf. Australia had lost all three previous quarterfinals it reached at the Womens World Cup. Only one host, the United States, had ever won a quarterfinal match at the Womens World Cup. So reaching the semifinals had the feel of a final. Tears and emotions poured out of long-time supporters and millions of more recent fans after that dramatic penalty shootout win over France last weekend. Police reported it was vandals who caused a disruption to the train line from Stadium Australia in Sydneys western suburbs back to the city, causing delays of more than 1 1/2 hours Wednesday for some of the 75,000 people who attended the semifinal. For some, it just prolonged the pain. For others, it is already time to look to the future. Matildas midfielder Alex Chidiac said the team had created a legacy thats going to live on and it obviously has inspired so many people. After the tournament, well get all that perspective and this will be a lot easier to swallow, she said of the loss. Obviously right now, its still very fresh. But I think overall (a) massive achievement. . . . weve got a whole bunch of passionate fans now, which is cool. Mary Fowler, a 20-year-old emerging star for Manchester City who had a breakthrough tournament for Australia, will likely be part of that legacy. Its always really nice, just watching videos and people around the country giving us some love, she said. Its been an unbelievable tournament in that sense.

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England have the last laugh

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