The exciting first game of Matildas vrs England. The Australian’s report, courtesy Will Swanton, told a sad story. Here goes a brief example of the Australian, P 1 and P 7 on Thursday 17 August.
‘The Matildas skipper was felled twice by brutal tackles in the opening phases. She had a one-on-one scoring chance with England’s goalkeeper Mary Earps but not enough room to deposit the ball in the net. She copped a ball to the face because she was being held by a defender. It was a rugged, physical battle with constant borderline tackles, stray elbows, arm-gathering, time wasting and shirt-pulling. The Matildas were outmuscled as much as played.’
Why did the experts running the show not give the local team an equal go? Or should blatant equality in brutal behaviour be the rule? The Aussie team should ask the experts which is their preference. Or the wonderful Aussie team will not be so gentle next time.
Enough grizzling, but it really is annoying when a viewer perceives that one team looks playing reasonably and the other is pushing plenty of nasty plays without any help from the ‘experts’ allowing one team to cheat.
Now to better things. The games in Australia and New Zealand were well proceeded and that will be applauded except for the friends of ‘experts’ in the first brutal performance with the English team. Enough! I hear you cry.
Sam Kerr produced a superb goal running for most of the way to her goal, kicking the goal through three opposition players and the goalie. That made one goal each but that was the end of it with two more English goals.
Cheers for the Aussie's first goal, after that of the English who sadly won. We'll be back in the next show.
