Gorry thrilling fans here and Down Under

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This article was published 09/06/2015 (4083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT was a trial by fire, sort of, a young Australian making her World Cup debut against a firestorm of roars and a U.S. team that always cranks the heat.

That’s not how Katrina Gorry thought about it, though. Before, during and after Australia’s opening loss to the Americans, the star midfielder stayed composed.

“In our heads, we just take away the stands and it’s a match we’ve played over and over,” Gorry said, on her way out of the stadium on Monday night. “We’ve been soaking in every hour of every day. Today was pretty exciting, preparing for such a big match, but stepping on that field it was just like another match.”

And yet, the moment was more than just a match for Gorry, all of 22 years old, and a World Cup athlete now after joining her national team three years ago. Which means it is the first World Cup for her family, too — and no ocean could have stopped the core of the Gorry family from watching her take the pitch in Winnipeg.

Theirs is a big, blended family, one that spilled into nine children in total. They have great big Christmas gatherings. They all rally behind her.

So there they were on Monday, couldn’t miss ’em, yellow jerseys proud and bright in a sea of American stripes. Five of Gorry’s family members made the 26-hour flight from their home in Brisbane, to the heart of Canada. And while they waited for the evening game to start, they basked in the wonder of it all.

“It’s very emotional,” her mother Linda Gorry said, blinking back the tears. “The whole family sticks together, and it’s actually inspired a lot of the younger children as well. It’s following her dream, and we’ve all been able to support her. It’s good to see her following her dreams and making it.”

After all, they still remember the teensy 10-year-old girl who once turned turned to her stepmother, Michelle, and said “one day, I’m going to play for the Matildas.” It seemed like such a long shot, then. Gorry always excelled on the pitch, Linda said, but she was also small: today, “Mini” is not a whisker over 5-1. When she’s matched against players such as 5-11 American striker Abby Wambach, as she was on Monday night, the size difference is striking.

Somehow, Gorry learned to make that work to her advantage. It’s the little things that make her game stand out: the nimble skill with which she outworks her opponents, the battles she puts up for turf — and often wins. She is a spitfire on the pitch, and she can kick, with 11 international goals in 31 games.

On Monday night, it was how she slipped between a dribbling teammate and an American defender who was trying to chase her down. Dances like that prompted fans back home in Australia to tweet sentiments such as, “Katrina Gorry is a joy to watch,” and though she was sometimes quiet on Monday night… she was.

To reach these heights was never easy. There’s very little money in women’s soccer in Australia, so even though Gorry is the reigning Asian Football Confederation’s player of the year, she still lives at home and works full time at a coffee shop to make ends meet. On the other hand, her talented brother, 17-year-old Lachlan, could soon sign a pro contract in Australia; if he does, he will immediately make more than she does in the sport.

And maybe that’s where family becomes that much more important, to help build a more solid foundation on which to launch her goals. In Winnipeg, though, they will mostly offer distant support: the Gorrys will barely get to see Katrina, as she descends deeper into the World Cup bubble. They were able to see her for about 30 minutes Sunday night, and hoped to steal a few more after Monday’s game, that’s all.

That’s fine with them. By now, they know the drill. “You just don’t get to spend time with them,” Linda said. “You just are there, they know you’re there, and I think she loves it that she knows that the family is here.”

Yes, she did. “It’s so exciting to have such a supportive family,” Gorry said, and smiled. “They travel with me pretty much everywhere, so I’m pretty lucky I’d say.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.