Two days, two games. We call this game, "The game that was supposed to have been Canada." But it was not Canada, it was Australia. Oh well, I can cheer for a team named after a female kangaroo!
I had been doing some catch up with past and present Wired Tigers (Michael Cahill and Mick Graham) and one of them had inside info on the Aussie team -- in theory, Kerr had not been spotted at all, so the theory was that she was really injured and out for the tournament. So, imagine my surprise seeing Kerr on the bench, suited up. I figured it was a psych out, but no -- she actually played the last ten minutes -- the crowd went completely wild! But, I get ahead of myself.
This game was at Olympic Stadium, the largest venue I've been to this trip so attendance was almost twice that of any other match (it was something like 73,000). The Olympic stadium is located a bit outside the city but boasts a large grounds and is really quite beautiful.
Unsurprisingly, the stadium was heavily pro-Australia, and I had decided to become Aussie fans, since it would be particularly exciting to see the home team win. We had great sets around the 18-yard line in the front row of the upper tier.
The game started with the two teams looking pretty equally matched. An early dangerous play from Denmark leaves the Australia crowd speechless, but slowly. It took about 10-15 minutes for Australia to settle in; during that time, things looked a bit shakey for the home team, and Denmark appeared the stronger team. But slowly, everyone settled in and by roughly the 25-minute mark, the tides shifted. It became clear that Australia was just a touch ahead of the Danish. They were a bit crisper in their passing, a bit quicker to the ball, and slowly they started dominating the game. And sure enough, in the 27th minute, Caitlin Foord moves onto a perfectly placed through ball from Fowler and drills it into the net. Australia 1-0!
Denmark came back fighting! They dominate possession, but the Australian back line holds strong and we go into halftime with the 1-goal lead by Australia.
During this excitement, the England/Nigeria match finishes -- after a scoreless 120 minutes, the game went to PKs, which England won 4-2. But the bigger news was the mind-boggling move by Lauren James who literally walked on top of a Nigerian player who was laying on the ground. I didn't see that game since I was in transit, but like every other soccer fan on the planet I've watched the replay multiple times and for the life of me, I cannot imagine what she was thinking. The 2-game suspension seems entirely justified.
Anyway, back to Australia/Denmark. Neither team made any changes at the half. Much like the beginning of the match, it takes several minutes for both teams to settle into their rhythm. The Australian defense continues to play well and shutdown all Danish forays into the final third, but we aren't seeing a lot of threatening action from the Mathildas. And then finally, around minute 70, a 3-4 pass sequence finds Raso placing the ball into the net -- Australia 2-0!
With the game nicely in hand, around minute 80, in comes Sam Kerr to a loud and adoring crowd! Kerr is active and gets off a dangerous shot or two, but to my eye, this looks like a bit of a tentative move to see whether she'll be ready for quarter final action. And, indeed, as the clock winds down and the five extra minutes end, it's still Australia 2-0 -- into the quarter final!
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