Game is helter skelter. Excellent entertainment.

Great headed goal by Italy.

Packed stadium. Eden Park.

Finally the kiwis get out to see a match.

First hiding coming up between Germany and Morocco.

Germans 4 blot at the 63rd.

Football Australia is thrilled to announce that as of this morning, ticket sales have exceeded 1.5 million for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™, establishing a new benchmark for any FIFA Women's World Cup™ event.

Brazil's third. Holy shit. What a goal.

Germany were at their clinical best abet with some luck, then later Brazil brought jogo bonito back with some of their delightful football especially their 3rd goal which was pure joy one of the best goals you would see in a while in all of football.  

went last night to the Germany game, I have to say it’s utterly refreshing going to the games and 

a - seeing people just enjoying the game and not acting like dicks

b - players actually playing football and not trying to con the ref or whinge every two minutes 

I always thought the WWC would be successful but to see 40k at Eden park the other night in NZ not involving them and 40k in Sydney for the France Jamaica game in 9 degree rainy weather has been even better than I thought it would be.

Just goes to show there's a massive appetite for football in Australia if they can get it right.

52 000 sell out at Suncorp Saturday night for France Brazil. Awesome.

Good article here.  https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/07/24/the-womens-world-cup-will-succeed-in-spite-of-mainstream-media-not-because-of-it/

Awesome.

I dont want to be a wet blanket but there really wasn't any doubt the Women's World Cup would be a success.... was there? We do major tournaments rather well down here and everyone wants to be involved in the latest thing to sweep through town, whether that's the Matilda's, Taylor Swift tickets or to see the Oppenheimer movie... 
Its what happens in the weeks/months after the final that really makes a difference no?

Yowser..... agreed.    Some of the women's game is a little clunky in skill but Brazil were a joy to watch..... 

Can’t find a appropriate thread thought I’ll dump this here 
https://apple.news/AZfqJZZG8ShSotV8H-LUZFQ

Sth Korea Columbia.

Stadium pretty full. Loads of yellow Columbian shirts everywhere.

After praising the goalkeeping yesterday South Korean howler. Columbia 2 up.

Philippines 1 - NZ nil currently at 55m mark.

Want to see Staj do well but also want to see New Zealand progress.

Great atmosphere. I reckon if it’s nice weather Sunday it will go off. Looking forward to having a pre game dance with the latinas 🕺😅

That 2nd half was nuts. NZ just pumped Philippines in the second half but couldn't score. I reckon they were 90% of the time in their half.

Hit the post, disallowed goal for offside, last ditch save by the keeper in injury time. 

Thanks mate. Done. Can’t believe Channel 7 are showing fuck all. Happily pay $25 to watch the tourney. Channel AFL, give yourself a hand job with a steel wool. 

Group A very exciting now 

The FIFA table shows New Zealand above Philipines even though head to head the later should be on top. Is this correct? I thought that the head to head counted for all competitions. Means that the Philipines would almost certainly need to beat Norway to advance. A tough assignment. 

Amazing that after 18 games in the WWC only the Sweden v South Africa game (result 2-1) has seen both teams score.

Good to hear.

It is an amazing stat!

25K on a working midday in Sydney with Colombia vs South Korea yesterday, I dont want to hear that Australia is not a football nation because the passion is there if its to be leveraged by the suits.

Attendances for a one month tournament are fantastic but Qatar also sold out most matches last year and this year's Qatar Stars league is played in a much less noisy environment... I cant find attendance stats but doesn't look like they are a football nation either..... 

If all the mums and kids who watched Colombia v South Korea on a school day turn up to watch a Sydney FC women's league match in 3 months then yes... fantastic but sadly I dont think they will. 

 

I guess the big difference is the games are being sold out with locals attending, not people flying in from everywhere 

Obviously, there is a novelty factor etc and lots of people won't go to a game again, but it does show there could be an appetite 

A big take out for me is how much football doesn't need these ultra groups to generate interest - however when suit clowns want to make football family friendly they just ruin it

The advantage Australia has is there's masses of immigrants from everywhere. That's why the Asian cup was so successful here. Iraq, Iran was a 28k sell out in Canberra. Imagine if that game was played in Thailand. There'd be 3 blokes and a dog.

Yeah absolutely... It does help though that we have such a large ex-pat population from some of these nations and I'm sure a small but significant amount of fans are from their respective countries and flew down for the tournament....  I hope/pray you are right though.... the appetite for football does seem to be growing but does it translate to interest in the domestic game? I guess we'll soon see?

100% Maybe for football to be successful in Australia we need a club that represents these Iraqi-Australians ....... or any other migrant group really ... hint hint lol

Fowler out with concussion for Nigeria game