‘If you had one shot to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?’ – Eminem.
Did you ever catch rapper Eminem in the movie ‘8 Mile’? A classic tale of a struggling rapper trying to break barriers and achieve his dreams. The banger from the soundtrack was ‘Lose Yourself’, which has been used on countless sporting fire-up montages in the ensuing 24 years.
On Saturday night, the Matildas' golden generation gets its golden opportunity. It's an Eminem moment. The Australian team will be chock full of name-brand stars against a Japanese side based on systemic excellence.
Star player Ellie Carpenter summed up the vibe at the final press conference before the game. “When can I say I’ll have another final in Australia… never, probably, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.”
The Matildas are awake to the reality that hosting a World Cup and an Asian Cup back-to-back is rare. They are alive to the fact that this is their chance. You only had to watch Sam Kerr telling teammates she was “f***ed” after a lion-hearted performance against China to understand the group is putting everything on the line physically and emotionally.
Has football more broadly nailed the brief?
The head of the Local Organising Committee for the tournament is ex-Tillies player Sarah Walsh. In the face of some benign and generic questions about the tournament’s success to this point, the former striker showed she can find the target.
Flanked by a rainbow coloured horse mascot called Naara and star musician G Flip, Walsh rattled through figures that tell a compelling story of tournament success before taking aim at those who have noted soft ticket sales for a team that previously drew fan connection and crowds to rival Taylor Swift.
“If the Matildas are constantly measured by the success of only having full stadiums, it’s really dangerous because that’s not applied to men’s sport. It never is and it never has been.” Walsh noted, as the mascot clapped along like a lurid political staffer during an election speech from a government minister in a marginal seat.
Andrew Dillon, Todd Greenberg and Peter V’landys might have some thoughts on those claims from Walsh.
Two things can be true. This tournament has had greater success than any other Asian Cup… anywhere. That is to be applauded. When the headline act (Matildas) drew 44k fans to the tournament opener in Perth, followed by crowds of 16k and 35k for the respective quarters and semis in the same city, it’s also reasonable to ask why. Why, as the tournament reached its crescendo, punters were opting out. This is a team that sold out sixteen straight home games, often during a period where the on field showing was poor. It stands to reason that winning big games should increase interest. To make that point isn’t to fear the change brought on by the Tillies as argued by Walsh.
At the time of writing, officials told me there were fewer than a thousand tickets left for sale at the Stadium Australia final. The capacity for the game is actually only 71k, FIFA related advertising cancels out the space for 11k seats.
Only 65k are on sale to the general public, with another 6k allocated to corporate hospitality, which I’m told has been undersold. We’re looking at a crowd of closer to 60k than 80k.
I just wonder when football no longer has a major tournament to look forward to, can the sport say it’s taken its golden moment to leverage the golden generation? Did they capture it or just let it slip?
