The semi-final between Australia and England will be shown live on TV2 and Areena on Wednesday at 12:50 p.m. You can find everything about the World Cup: Competition news, talking points, Futistietäjä, program, results and statistics on ‘s World Cup page.
For years, women’s football in Australia was buried so low that it was not the first choice even for all the players of the current national team.
At least that’s the case of Mackenzie Arnold case. He wouldn’t be the first goalkeeper of the team he admired in the World Cup at home if he had gotten what he wanted as a child. However, his mother did not approve of playing rugby, so Arnold ended up becoming a soccer player.
The path was an exception in a country where rugby and Australian rules football dominated the sporting landscape. Football’s place has not been in their company, or even on their buttocks.
– My brother played rugby. There weren’t really any role models in football, like in rugby, Arnold said For OptusSports.
This summer will go down in Australian sports history as the moment when role models began to be found. The Women’s World Cup has fueled an unprecedented soccer frenzy in Australia, and Arnold has played a key role in that.
It was his saves that helped Australia topple mighty France and advance to the top four via a penalty shootout.
Arnold stopped four penalties. Among them, he marched to shoot himself, contrary to his own prior expectations, but shot into the post. It didn’t shuffle the deck, but Arnold regrouped and sealed a historic win in his home state.
– I will remember this evening for the rest of my life. This is the craziest match I’ve ever played when you consider the stakes. It takes a long time to really realize what’s happened, what I’ve done and what this team has accomplished, Arnold raved about the result.
Australian head coach Tony Gustavsson admired the mental edge of his goalkeeper. France head coach Hervé Renard described Arnold as Goliath.
Both accolades were a complete reversal from a year ago. In his two internationals in 2022, Arnold made a clean sheet in an 18–0 win over Indonesia and suffered a 0–7 crushing loss to Spain in a match where Australia were without many of their key players.
– I had almost accepted that I was a three-time goalkeeper, and that as the World Championships approached, there would hardly be many more screen spots. After the loss to Spain I thought it was probably my last chance, he said For the Sydney Morning Herald.
Arnold has spoken openly about his insecurities. The mistakes were left to be dug. When responsibility came, he was afraid of failing and losing his place. Now everything has been different.
“This is all new to me”
There was no doubt about Australia’s budding charm even before the arrival in France. The national team’s games had gathered a bigger audience from game to game. The ticket sales figures for the tournament also speak of the explosive interest already in advance.
By the time of the France match, Channel 7, which broadcasts the World Cup games for free, had decided to move the quarter-final to its main channel nationally and to move its main news broadcast from it. Even in the 21st century, the same channel was said to have bought the TV rights to the Australian Football League to minimize its exposure.
The telecast of the semi-final reached 7.2 million Australians. The match averaged 3.69 million TV viewers, more than any sports broadcast in Australia in the past decade. In 2019, the previous World Cup, the Australian women’s national team had received a record audience of 571,000 spectators for their match.
The “Matildas” national team brand has risen from a huge setback to a hit product encouraged by the whole of Australia. Players who left home far away to become professionals have become celebrities.
Arnold is a model example of that, because he is definitely not the brightest star of the national team. However, in a few matches he has also become a favorite of many.
– I’m not used to seeing my jerseys in the stands because I wasn’t in an important role before. Now I’m recognized in shops and so on, which others are probably used to. This is all new to me. It’s made me realize how big of an impact we have on younger generations, Arnold said as the games progressed.
The legend of the Australian women’s national team officially began in the 1970s, but continued far from the limelight for decades to come. Efforts are being made to develop the country’s women’s league, but the vast majority of players are still minimum-wage semi-professionals. In any case, football is in the dark compared to the most visible sports, and within the sport, the activities of men and boys have been emboldened by limited resources, from coaches to referees.
The development of girl players has long been on the shoulders of too few and concentrated in certain areas. Arnold’s path also reflects that.
No fewer than ten of the 23 players on the Australian competition team come from the state of Queensland, where the top-class Academy has been operating since the 1990s. The Queensland Academy of Sport makes it possible to train 4-5 days a week and play two matches from the age of 13.
Arnold made her first girls team at the age of 14, but as a left wing back. The spot didn’t come off, but there was space on the goal.
At the age of 16, she was recruited to the sports academy and a year later she participated in her first girls’ national team camp as a full-fledged chick.
– I was not allowed to play on the last day of the camp. In practice, they said there was no need to come back. I went back to QAS and my trainer asked what happened. I was really carefree about the whole thing. I thought it was just a football camp, Arnold recalled on the national team’s website.
– I didn’t take it seriously. I came late to meetings, training, everywhere. Then all my friends from the camp left for Thailand. Then I realized that it was a test camp for the national team. It was difficult for me, because when I was young I didn’t dream of playing in the national team.
Arnold’s eyes were opened only by the coaches’ rationalization. You could make a career out of soccer, even if it would be particularly challenging in Australia. Successes at home would, however, open the door to the national team, through which it would be possible to get to Europe, for example.
“I couldn’t stop crying”
Arnold played in Australia until he was 24 before moving to Norway. After one season, he continued to the United States and a year later, in the summer of 2020, to England. There, he still plays for London’s West Ham.
He made his debut in the national team in 2012. However, the games have been few and far between, in the previous four calendar years a total of eight. In two previous World Cups and two Olympics, he had played a total of one match.
So Arnold was not expected to play too much in the World Championships either – before the spring. Injuries to other goalkeepers changed plans and Arnold got his chance. Now there have been more matches this year than in the previous four combined.
The training tournament at the beginning of the year was a breakthrough success for Arnold.
It hasn’t been too long since he was the complete opposite at the bottom. A knee injury had sidelined him for a long time and when the time came to return, it was too soon. Arnold has revealed that he wasn’t really mentally ready to take on the responsibility, but kept his insecurities to himself.
– The snowball grew and in the end I was left out of the Olympic team. That three-month period was the bottom of my career. I thought I can’t do this anymore and I don’t want to experience this again. I couldn’t stop crying, Arnold revealed on the national team’s website.
In February, in his first match, he held off Australia to victory in a practice tournament. In April, he blanked England, in July, in the last preparatory match against France. There were 50,000 spectators – 43,000 more than at the 2019 World Cup warm-up.
Throughout the year, Australia has played 11 matches, of which the opponent has managed to score in only three.
– “Macca” is in the swing of its life. He believes in himself. We always believed in him, but he himself probably lacked that, a defender Clare Polkinghorne said during the tournament.
Arnold has not been shy about signing the message. Others saw the gifts that he himself did not believe.
– I now feel that I am part of the team, and it has nothing to do with the coaches or the players. It’s about my own state of mind. I used to feel like I didn’t belong here, or that I wasn’t good enough. Now that I feel like I belong here, I can play accordingly, he said in June.
You can find everything about the World Cup in football: Competition news, topics, Futistietäjä, program, results and statistics on ‘s World Cup website.