A record crowd pointed to a bright future, but the same old problems remain for the Matildas
Almost as soon as it was locked in, Saturday afternoon’s meeting between Australia and the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) was positioned as a celebration of the present and future of Australian women’s football. But in downing the Matildas 3-0 the United States provided another potent reminder to Australian football that, despite the great expectations it holds with a home World Cup on the horizon, the future is never guaranteed.
As 36,109 fans watched on – the highest ever crowd for a women’s football match in Australia – the United States proved quite happy to spoil their hosts’ party, proving to be simply the better team in the moments when it counted; taking advantage of some calamitous errors and naivety in approach to claim a clinical win behind goals from Ashley Hatch, Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan (who made good on her goal of “shutting up” a hostile home crowd).
