Matildas a Vine line between pleasure and pain.

Matildas a Vine line between pleasure and pain.

GuyWhoLikesSport

I’m not a religious man.  

I’ve never fully understood it despite having had a Catholic education.  

By the 15th penalty, I was saying Hail Marys like I’m Fredo Corleone.  

 I figured, after Mackenzie Arnold inexplicably took the fifth penalty, the nation would meet the same fate as he did.  

 That Matildas win is perhaps the biggest Australian sporting accomplishment of my lifetime. Granted, I am writing this less than 10 minutes after Cortnee Vine’s penalty careened into the bottom corner, but I don’t think that I’m being hyperbolic.  

 What else is even in the conversation?

Maybe Cathy Freeman at the 2000 Olympics?

Is anything else in the stratosphere? 

Even more than just the fact that it’s a World Cup, we won it in a shootout so epic that it made Titanic look like short indie film.  

 That this one was at home adds a layer to it that, in my view, will make this win impossible to top (until we go ahead and win the semi against the Poms, then win the whole f**king thing). 

 The scenes from the MCG while a game of AFL football was actually happening on the pitch only confirmed it. 

 I wrote that these Matilda’s might be the cure to generations of Australian heartbreak on a square pitch, but they seem to be going beyond that.  

 They’re a unifying force in Australia, with every single person who has a passing interest in sport of any kind making sure they’re at a TV that’s showing a Matildas’ game (so not the MCG screens then).  

 Every single self-respecting Australian who draws breath will be watching the semi. 

One of Bob Hawke's most iconic moments was his response to Australia's America's Cup win - ABC News

Anyone not watching the semi on Wednesday night is a bum. 

The game itself was not excellent but it was compelling.

It was more contest than football game.  

 That has suited every single Australian team since the dawn of time.  

 It felt like both sides were playing with their dominant hand tied behind their backs in an attempt to stop the other side from doing what they do best.  

 The Matildas tried, against type, to hold possession and struggled to get anything of substance happening.  

 More often than not, they played themselves either nowhere or into trouble.  

 The French, on the other hand, were more successful in fashioning chances early and seemed content to try and beat Australia either on the counter or on the turnover. 

 As a result, the contest had no rhythm to it. 

 What makes this Matildas team interesting is that they retain the Australian football pathos, but with better players than the Socceroos have had. 

 Australians have a unique and specific love for the trier above all else. 

 It’s why Mat Leckie is everyone’s favourite Socceroo.  

 We also have a unique disdain for the charismatic player that lacks commitment.  

 There is no sin more cardinal in Australian football than a low work-rate, just ask Daniel Arzani. 

 Players like Katrina Gorry and Caitlin Foord are both full-hearted, but that isn’t all that they are.

They’re extremely talented and creative, with Foord, again and again, making herself space where there was none through sheer work rate.  

 Her run down the wing where she lost and won the ball three times in the space of what felt like half a second typified that.  

 She is a racehorse, but a racehorse who buried the first penalty in a shootout.  

Mary Fowler is the most creative force in the team and, even in a game that was characterised as much by her profligacy as anything, she was excellent in creating chances for herself and others.  

 But, again, she isn’t just creative. She works defensively, she presses and harries when necessary, and, like all these Matildas, has no quit in her.  

 Gorry the maniac gum-chewing destroyer is my favourite, though. She’s Australia’s pre-emptive strike.  

 She snuffs so much out with her positioning and sheer work-rate. She sees the game brilliantly and is able to get to and impact every single contest.  

 But, again, she is just as good going forward. With Raso and Foord needing to be fed, she is the one that Australia consistently turns to from deep to play the diagonal ball that unlocks defences. 

 The Matildas are all extremely talented, more than most Australian football players, but they retain the qualities that Australian football fans cherish. 

 Clearly, this World Cup is not over.  

I still have real concerns about Tony Gustaffson’s capacity. 

 The hubris to have Mackenzie Arnold take the 5th penalty was incomprehensible and felt like a reaction to Herve Renard’s move of swapping keepers in the 118th minute.

If the Matildas had lost, that would have been the story and rightly so.  

 The fact that he went to the Kevin Muscat School of substitutions, where the first and only lesson is “don’t make any”, doesn’t help. 

 I also worry about Van Egmond. As Australia progresses deeper, she seems to get further out of her depth.  

 While she is broad and strong player, she struggles to hold up the ball enough to make up for a searing lack of pace.  

 I hate to be too critical, but when she runs it looks like she is running in quicksand compared to everyone else. 

 I recognise that she is the Kerr replacement, but she doesn’t give enough.  

 I wonder if the Matildas might be better off playing Vine instead of Van Egmond in the next game and shuffling the formation, assuming Kerr still isn’t fit enough to start the game.  

 But none of that matters now.

Not today.  

 Those worries are a bit like the opinions of the small business lobby (glad they’re back after COVID) when it comes to the public holiday if the Tillies win the World Cup.  

 Irrelevant and boring.  

 For today, my twitter (X?) feed is awash with videos from pubs and grounds around the country going ballistic as Vine buried her spot kick.  

https://twitter.com/7Sport/status/1690303327110844417?s=20

 I always refer to the John Aloisi penalty as the biggest “where were you?” sporting moment of my life.  

I’ve just added another one.  

 Keep going Tillies.

Please. 

 

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