With everything on the line, and every reason to look away, the Matildas instead leaned in to help to help out a young fan
The players lined up in the tunnel, each hand in hand with an adoring young fan by their side. Sounds of their excited chatter and the buzz of 80,000 fans just a few feet above blurred together. Cameras popped, speakers boomed, and I could barely hear my own thoughts.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is the biggest women’s sporting event in history, so those of us lucky enough to work at the coal face know it’s going to be a big show. The stakes were crystal clear for the host nation on this particular night in Melbourne: win, and move on to the knockout stages as planned; lose, and the story ends in ways that will leave permanent stains on career and character alike.
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