WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet |CONTACT
After years and years of build up, the FIFA Women’s World Cup has finally arrived on Australian soil.
The global sporting event is set to kick off this evening, with the excitable nation eagerly awaiting confirmation that it is indeed Tilly Time.
The tournament kicks of in New Zealand at 5pm, before the Matildas take on Ireland in front of a sell-out crowd in Sydney.
Co-hosting with our mates across the dutch, Australia and New Zealand are set to host a month of international football – headlined by the highflying Matildas.
Known as the most universally loved team in Australia, the Matildas currently sit 10th in the world and are expected to be ‘going out tonight, and feeling alright.’
Following wins over heavyweights like Spain, England and Sweden in recent times, expectations are high for the team who seem to be peaking at the right time for a World Cup.
That build up was capped off by a win over World Number 5 France in front of a packed house in Melbourne last week.
That game set a new attendance record for the largest ever crowd for a women’s football team, a record which will last all of 6 days before it’s smashed tonight at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.
Originally set to be played at the SFS, the fixture was moved because of demand, with the additional 20 something thousand tickets selling out in less than an hour.
The bumper crowd will witness the Australian opener against a plucky Irish team who have talked up their chances against our Tillies.
“Good luck to em,” laughed local Matilda’s fan Jillian Horton, who is flying down from Betoota for the historic opener.
“It’s going to be a great mix of experience and youth coming through, with the likes of Cortnee Vine and Clare Hunt joining the certified guns like Kerr, Carps and the Rasdog.”
“Mini pulling strings in the middle with a rampaging Cooney-Cross.”
“We’ve got a pretty much perfectly balanced team heading into this tournament.”
“It’s time.”
“Dunn dunnn naaaa naaaaa”
“Let’s go girls”
