In the early hours of this Thursday, the World Cup kicked off in Oceania. With over 75,000 in attendance, Australia beat Ireland 1-0. In the opening match, New Zealand overtook Norway for that country’s highest-attended football game (42,137).
The ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off on Thursday morning, which has an unprecedented two organizers (Australia and New Zealand) and the participation of 32 teams. The host teams celebrated in the opening matches, both with a large presence of spectators in the stands.
On the first day, several attendance records were broken. The duel that opened the World Cup was New Zealand win 1-0 over Norway one of the candidates. Auckland’s Eden Park hosted 42,137 spectators, a figure which implies a historic record for a football match in this country. It surpasses the previous bar of 37,034 set in Russia’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers between New Zealand men’s team and Peru.
The only goal of the engagement was transformed by Hannah Wilkinson, in the 48th minute. The duel lasted for hours. after a shooting in downtown Auckland, which shocked the country and changed, in part, the start of the World Cup. A minute of silence was observed before the opening match.
Then came the triumph of Australia, also for the minimum count, over the Republic of Ireland. The duel was played in the Stadium Australia in Sydney, with the attendance of 75,784 spectators. It was well over the previous mark of 50,629 for a Matildas game at home against France six days ago.
In addition, the presence at the match between the Australians and the Irish it was the third highest of a Women’s World Cup in 24 years, behind those registered at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and Giants Stadium in New York/New Jersey, USA in 1999.
The Oceanics, who represent the Asian confederation, prevailed despite the absence of his great figure: striker Sam Kerr. The Chelsea player has been ruled out due to a calf condition which also puts her in doubt for the upcoming games. “Of course to lose a player like Sam, probably the best in the world, and for her as a person we were totally devastated,” said Steph Catley, Australia’s winning penalty scorer.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
