Last night, thanks to an organised defence and clinical finishes from Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso, the Matildas held off a strong challenge from Denmark and progressed to the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup.
Injury-plagued superstar Sam Kerr got her first tournament minutes under her belt, coming on for the final 10 minutes. Good news, right? Well, not for the Australians opposed to the Matildas on… sigh… “woke” grounds.
We’re not sure exactly when this started. In the lead-up to this month’s tournament, Andrew Bolt on Sky News dedicated a segment to complaining about the Matildas’ campaign to receive the same prize money as the men’s team for tournament appearances. Bolt obviously wanted only the most informed guest to discuss this apparent “culture war”, and when none of those people answered their phone, he got noted thing-sayer and clump of stuffing attempting to escape a doll Rowan Dean.
“What’s an athlete doing talking about collective bargaining?” Dean incredulously wondered, presumably while not planning on googling the history or present of how Australia’s AFL and cricket teams secured the employment conditions they enjoy.
Then there was the yoga-style stretch from Sky News to connect NSW Premier Chris Minns’ decision to light up the Sydney Opera House green and gold as a tribute to the “woke” Matildas, despite having failed to do anything to mark King Charles’ coronation.
The Xitters (is that what we’re calling them?) quoted in that piece, the kind of people proving that the meaning of a blue tick has been completely inverted now that you have to pay for it, have continued along the same lines, actively hoping the Matildas lose.
Famously, during Mussolini’s reign, the dictator tried to replace pasta, the staple dish for most of Italy, with rice. We suspect trying to turn Australians against a successful sporting team qualifies as a similar misreading of the public you’re trying to convince.
As is so often the case, visceral loathing of women’s sport is just a US culture war corpse that has washed up on our shores and is being prodded by Australia’s right to see if it stirs into life. America’s right has been at war with the US women’s national team for years.
The team, which undermined the whole “go woke go broke” thing by winning the 2019 World Cup, did not accept an invitation to visit the White House after that tournament, and team captain Megan Rapinoe openly criticised then-president Donald Trump.
So when the team managed only a bronze medal at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Trump — an adult man who at one point decided matters of state for the world’s biggest superpower, and may again — put out a statement:
If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of leftist maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would have won the gold medal instead of the bronze. The woman with the purple hair played terribly and spends too much time thinking about radical left politics and not doing her job.
Rapinoe (the “woman with the purple hair”) scored twice in their bronze-medal 4-3 victory against the Matildas. Trump, now via his Truth Social platform, gleefully marked the defending champion’s failure to progress past Sweden, thanks to a missed penalty from Rapinoe:
Many of our players were openly hostile to America — No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA
Former US men’s national player Alexi Lalas and a coterie of dudes who rock joined in the patriotic tradition of being delighted your usually dominant team has lost.
Of course, Australians have never been known to be overly bothered by sports stars’ views or personal lives as long as they keep winning. So as long as the Matildas’ march to the final goes on, it’s unlikely any of the Aldi Trump’s in Australia’s Parliament are going to mine them for culture war fodder.
Could you care any less about what Andrew Bolt et al think about the Matildas? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Rupert strikes again. The woke ball curled into the far right corner – off the head of Peta Credlin – from a Chris Kenny (very) cross.
Hahahaha very clever.
Same tired old vibe……………..
………any NO in a storm.
It seems that Dutton didn’t get the memo from his Dear Leader……………….
…………at least, not judging by his snivelling attempt at leveraging a bit of the Matilda’s vibe in Parliament yesterday.
About as convincing as Attila the Hun spruiking a vegan diet……………..
Chris Kenny is her dog, after all. Hopefully I won’t be sued for using those words in the same sentence!
Well that was depressing, Charlie.
For my part, go Matildas! I clapped and yelled “Yes!” so loudly last night after that first goal, I frightened the life out of the cat. I toned it down for the second one so I didn’t scare him again.
Sorry Charlie, right wing reaction here doesn’t rate compared to that copped by Rapinoe and team, not to mention what Lauren James is no doubt putting up with today. Sadly, negativity towards the Tillies is pretty much confined to some AFL types apparently jealous of the World Game’s reach and popularity.
You mean the insular boofheads who ensured the WWC wouldn’t have any games played at the MCG or Marvel, and thus ensured Melbourne won’t get any games from the quarter-finals onwards?
I’m no sport fan, but I heard somewhere that it’s FIFA that insists their finals are played at exclusively soccer grounds.
Only during the tournament, most of the venues are shared with rugby and rugby league in nornal times.
That’s what I meant, but previous comments seem to be blaming the AFL for not making the grounds available.
Football, men’s, women’s and children’s are seen as existential threats by AFL, cricket and rugby as it is genuinely global and high profile versus other codes’ limited reach and income.
Other codes are scared of football’s messianic, monopolistic visions, it’s coloniser mentality, and willingness to sidle up to and give succour to evil governments and corporations. It’s ruthlessness, really.
Yes, that is what I think of every time my daughter and pals take to the pitch.
Homer: Lisa, girls should play girl’s sports, like jelly wrestling, or foxy boxing.
Rowan Dean: Homer, you’ve got that right.
I’ve often said that Americans don’t get irony. There it was again,with Trump’s lamblast (deliberately made up word) at the USA team. They were beaten by Sweden. Surely there couldn’t be a closer fit with “wokeness’ (as defined by the US RWNJs) than the prevailing social climate of Sweden.
To Trumpistas, “Sweden” is somewhere vaguely behind the Iron Curtain………………..
………..along with everywhere North of the Carolinas.