Gifts the Matildas gave us will linger

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The joyride is over, but the glow will long remain. For a keepsake, Australia have Sam Kerr’s wondrous long-range goal, as good as any in this World Cup. But another chance for Kerr from pointblank range went begging. Somehow, the Matildas rose and fell in this tournament with their talismanic captain.

There were tears. There were always going to be tears. But once the hurt subsides, and it will, the prevailing sentiment ought to be not disappointment in failing so near to the grail, but pride in getting so close. The passage of time will demonstrate the immensity of that feat.

Credit where it is due: England beat nearly 80,000 Australians in Australia. No English sportsperson has done that since Jonny Wilkinson in 2003. The Lionesses were good for their 3-1 win; good luck to them. In this six-month running carnival of Australia-England sport, England had to win one.

Women’s World Cup: The agony and the ecstasy in Sydney.Credit: Wires

Kerr’s name on the team sheet was a good start before the start. In the first half, she looked like she needed the run she has barely had in this tournament. How that was to change.

Play by play, the first half unfolded pretty much as predicted. After nervy early exchanges, England had most of the ball. This was not a surprise; it’s how Australia had played the tournament, daring their opponents to come at them and leave room for counter-attacks.

It came unstuck. On the edge of the six-yard box, a half-chance fell to Manchester United’s Ella Toone, and she coolly drove it across Mackenzie Arnold and into the net. It was an expert piece of party-pooping. Who did she think she was? Stuart Broad?

Australia had not previously conceded the first goal of any match in this tournament. Now they had a new mountain to climb. But in Kerr, they did have Sir Edmund Hillary.

The Matildas had faced two threats in this semi-final, England and fatigue. Coach Tony Gustavsson had been sparing with his substitutions throughout the tournament, and a fear widely held even among old players was that the starting XI had played too many minutes, the bench players too few. Did it tell? It looked so.

Sam Kerr scores a stunning goal for the Matildas.Credit: Wires

In the second half, necessity became the mother of invention, desperation a co-parent. The Matildas took their turn on the ball, But England would not be shaken. For seven minutes, the scores were level. Australia’s goal was no more than a distant idea until Kerr, beating two defenders and then the goalkeeper from 30 metres, turned into a stunning fact.

Now weariness told. Neither of two perhaps jaded defenders nor goalkeeper Arnold were decisive enough when tracking a speculative ball out of England’s half and Lauren Hemp jabbed it home. It was a goal that should not have been scored but now can never be answered.

England’s Lauren Hemp scores their second goal.Credit: AP

Australia threw themselves forward and might have had two more goals from Kerr and one Cortnee Vine. With more matchplay in her legs, would Kerr have scored again? It’s an unanswerable question now. But another goal against them on the counter-attack was always possible and Alessia Russo made it certain.

England also confronted two opponents, the Matildas and the maniacally partisan crowd. England had experienced that sort of wind beneath its wings in the Euros final at Wembley last year, and it buoyed them to victory. Now it was Australia who looked to levitate, but could not. Physically, they were barely able to lift their feet out of the ground, let alone glide over it.

So a campaign like no other ends. With growing affection, hardening into obsession, we’ve watched the Matildas, but spare a thought for what it’s been like to be one.

How must it have felt to be playing in the certain knowledge that as far as such a thing is possible, the whole country’s eyes are upon you? Tens of thousands in the stadiums, many millions on television – possibly more millions than have ever tuned into an Australian sporting team; the tally men will tell us on Thursday morning?

How hard must that have been for the Matildas to compute, and how coolly did they handle it?

Homes, pubs, clubs, live sites, remote sites, any sort of sight. Those who have always loved the game, those who have always loved games but not particularly this one, those who have only just learned to love games, even those who don’t love games, but have been swept up in this mission and by these admirable missionaries.

They might not have known the off-side rule, but they knew which side they were on. “I am invested,” former Matildas captain Melissa Barbieri’s make-up artist told her. “And I don’t even like sport.” At that point, it’s clear that this is not merely an upwelling of support for a sporting team; it’s a movement.

How must all this have sat with footballers who when not at a World Cup in some cases do their stuff in front of a few hundred, and who not so long ago were barely paid and not long before had to pay to play, but who now looked around and saw not only heaving stadiums and milling masses in public places, but their own images on billboards and trams and in foyers and at the top of news bulletins and in every social media space between?

In this time of tightly woven electronic connection at least, they could hardly have ignored it, even if they wanted.

As we marvelled at the Matildas, perhaps we were also marvelling at ourselves, and as we grieve for them, we will grieve with them, and we will recover together, too. It’s been all about the Matildas, but they’ve they made it about us, and the virtuous circle grew day on day. At a time when in public discourse the most commonly heard epithet is “divides the country”, we were united.

Dare it be said, we spoke with one voice, and it’s still a surprise to half of us that it was in a higher pitch than ever before. It will fall a few decibels now, but long may it linger. Long may this uplift last.

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