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 Womenrsquos World Cup it just compounded the gnawing disappointment that she and her Matildas had fallen one game before the finalFalling 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 titleIn what has been an immense shift in the Australian publicrsquos sporting consciousness nine out of 10 people who watched commercial television on Wednesday night tuned in to see the national womenrsquos soccer teamrsquos 31 loss to England in the semifinalsThat figure mdash an audience reach of 115 million and an average audience of 713 million reported by the freetoair host broadcaster mdash excludes paid streaming and those who gathered at dedicated fan zones where some overexuberant revellers let off flares and in pubs and clubs around the countryldquoWersquove kind of captured the nationrdquo a visibly dejected Kerr said after walking off the pitch ldquoThe support wersquove had has been amazing and wersquoll do everything we can on the weekend to get them a third placerdquoThe 29yearold Kerr has won the golden boot for leading scorer in leagues in Australia the United States and England where shersquos a star for the champion Chelsea team But her World Cup was heavily curtailed by an injury sustained on the eve of the Matildasrsquo opening game on July 20Her left calf muscle became a topic of daily news Down Under even after she returned as a secondhalf substitute in the dramatic penalty shootout win over France in the quarterfinals and finally started a game for the first time in the semifinalShe 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 11 and renewed hope for the MatildasldquoWe just feel really proud that theyrsquove got behind us and wersquove changed the way womenrsquos football is seen in Australiardquo Kerr added ldquoItrsquos been amazing A big thank yourdquoAlso Read The last goodbyeKerr 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 2009At age 15 she went on as a late substitute in a 51 loss to Italy at Canberra Australiarsquos capital where a crowd of 2916 would never have believed the evolution that has occurred She didnrsquot even give her parents much notice that shersquod been selectedIn July and August of 2023 she has had the nationrsquos full attentionMorning news bulletins on Thursday reported the lsquoheartbreakrsquo for the Matildas and daily newspapers across the country once again heavily featured the womenrsquos national team A highprofile sports store in downtown Sydney still had the Matildas jerseys mdash hard to attain in recent weeks mdash on display at full price Therersquoll be no discounting this team for a whileThe 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 mdash significantly larger than the biggest menrsquos games in the Aussie rules Australian Football League and the National Rugby League that so frequently pull the biggest crowdsIt is however unlikely Australiarsquos Saturday bronze playoff against Sweden at Brisbane will match the TV audience of the semifinal but itrsquoll be a decent farewell England plays Spain on Sunday in the final at SydneyAttendance for the first 32team Womenrsquos World Cup has shattered records with FIFA reporting a combined 185 million attendance for the first 62 games at an average 29888 across 10 venues in Australia and New Zealand Thatrsquos 5000 more than the historical average for the tournamentThe number of news pages devoted to the Matildas was unprecedented for womenrsquos sport and for soccer in Australia too And this is home to the longtime No 1 womenrsquos cricket team mdash which pulled a crowd exceeding 86000 for a game against India in 2020 mdash and world champions in netballThe fact that an entire nation almost expected the Matildas to win the title says a lot about the pressure Kerr and her 10thranked team faced on the home turfAustralia had lost all three previous quarterfinals it reached at the Womenrsquos World Cup Only one host the United States had ever won a quarterfinal match at the Womenrsquos World CupSo reaching the semifinals had the feel of a final Tears and emotions poured out of longtime supporters and millions of more recent fans after that dramatic penalty shootout win over France last weekendPolice reported it was vandals who caused a disruption to the train line from Stadium Australia in Sydneyrsquos western suburbs back to the city causing delays of more than 1 12 hours Wednesday for some of the 75000 people who attended the semifinal For some it just prolonged the painFor others it is already time to look to the futureMatildas midfielder Alex Chidiac said the team had created ldquoa legacy thatrsquos going to live on and it obviously has inspired so many peoplerdquoldquoAfter the tournament wersquoll get all that perspective and this will be a lot easier to swallowrdquo she said of the loss ldquoObviously right now itrsquos still very fresh But I think overall a massive achievement wersquove got a whole bunch of passionate fans now which is coolrdquoMary Fowler a 20yearold emerging star for Manchester City who had a breakthrough tournament for Australia will likely be part of that legacyldquoItrsquos always really nice just watching videos and people around the country giving us some loverdquo she said ldquoItrsquos been an unbelievable tournament in that senserdquo