Matildas Create Australian Footballing History
The Westfield Matildas are into the quarter finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015™ courtesy of a historic and exhilarating 1-0 win over Brazil in Moncton earlier today.
An 80th minute strike from substitute Kyah Simon was enough to see a senior Australian national football team win a knockout match at a World Cup for the first time.
Simon’s goal was her third of the tournament, the celebrations after she pounced on the follow up when Brazilian keeper Luciana could only parry away Lisa De Vanna’s initial shot outdone by the jubilant scenes at the final whistle as the Westfield Matildas knocked out the seventh ranked team in the world.
There were outstanding performances right across the field for the Matildas, Elise Kellond-Knight continued her stellar form while Caitlin Foord reproduced a display not dissimilar to the one she made against Brazil as a 16 year old at the last World Cup four years ago.
Westfield Matildas goalkeeper Lydia Williams was another on the top of her game as she made some crucial saves throughout, the pick of them coming just before the half hour mark as she managed to tip a cracking shot headed for the top corner from the outstanding Formiga over the bar.
In what he described as his greatest moment in football, Head Coach Alen Stajcic could not have been prouder of his team.
“We’re all super proud and so excited, I think exhilarating is the word for such a victory against a big powerful football nation but there is still more to come,” Stajcic said.
“We’re really happy today and we’ll celebrate tonight but then it’s back to work tomorrow because we know we’ve got another potential world champion in our next round.”
“I can’t really express how proud we are of how they perform and how they carry out their tasks. The effort, the execution, the spirit, it has just been brilliant.
“There have been a lot of sacrifices in the last five months and I guess it pays off on days like this.”
The Westfield Matildas will now await the winner of Japan and the Netherlands to see who they will meet in the last eight, with Australia’s quarter final to be played on Saturday 27 June at 2.00pm local time in Edmonton.
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