Matildas mania grips Australia as womens team captures hearts of World Cup host

SYDNEY — Nothing could compete with the Matildas. 

Meetings were canceled. Other sporting events were rescheduled. Pubs stocked up, and viewing centers across the capital set up massive screens for the Matildas-obsessed masses. 

When the Australian women’s national team, the Matildas, as they’re nicknamed here, took to the pitch Wednesday night (6 a.m. Wednesday ET) for their first World Cup semifinal against England, the country came to a screeching halt in front of its TVs. (Unless, of course, you were one of the lucky 80,000 fans packed into Stadium Australia in Sydney, one of the nine cities in Australia and New Zealand where the 2023 matches are being played.) 

Hours before the match, fans dressed in the team’s green and gold were already gathering at the stadium, as well as at Tumbalong Park, where it was shown free on giant screens.

“It is putting these incredible women on center stage for them to, you know, play the best game of their lives,” Rayali Banerjee said outside the stadium before the match Wednesday.

Advancing out of the Women’s World Cup group stage sent a jolt through the sports-centric Australian psyche. And when the team fought past France in the longest penalty shootout in World Cup history, men’s or women’s, the entire country dared to dream. 

The Matildas were unable to ride that wave of popular enthusiasm to victory, losing 3-1 to England in a tense match. But their legacy will surely endure.

“No national team has fused hopes and dreams so magically as the Matildas,” the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed Wednesday before the match against England. 

Another Australian broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, changed its masthead to the “Tillygraph” as a nod to the team and included a shiny “Go Matildas” poster in every edition earlier this week. 

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