Teams go, memories stay

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/06/2015 (4067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After their match ended, the victorious Australians picked black pellets of turf out from their shorts, zipped up their tracksuits and headed, smiling, for the bus.

Of course they looked brighter Friday than they did after Monday’s spunky 3-1 loss to the United States: this time, they’d shut down a feisty Nigerian side 2-0, to earn their first win of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The experience was electric, but now it’s time to move on. Eight days in Winnipeg, now they’re gone.

The memories stay, of course. For the players too, as well as fans — it’s not just folks in the stands who heard that World Cup roar for the first time.

“I thought it was incredible,” said 21-year-old defender Steph Catley, who is making her World Cup debut. “I thought the atmosphere in the stadium, the actual stadium in itself, was amazing. It feels like everyone has an amazing view of the field, and you feel like you can see everyone in the stands as well. It’s nice and close, and it’s intimate and it’s loud.”

The volume at Investors Group Field didn’t rattle the Matildas left-back too much. When she isn’t wearing Australia’s green and yellow, Catley plays with the Portland Thorns, which set a NWSL attendance record last year of almost 20,000 fans.

So, she wasn’t overwhelmed by the sold-out throng in Winnipeg, she said, though it was a far cry from her first pro experiences in the Australian women’s league. “In comparison to home, this is huge,” she said.

It could get bigger. Next, the Australians and Swedes — who fought the U.S. to a scoreless draw in Friday’s evening match — will head to Edmonton, where they’ll settle one of the last two open questions in the tournament’s so called Group of Death. Nigeria and the U.S. will fly to Vancouver to answer the other.

The ride isn’t over for Winnipeg. There are still two more match days here: Monday, Thailand will square off against an elite German side, and China will scrap with New Zealand’s Football Ferns. Tuesday, reigning champion Japan will face an Ecuadorian squad that is getting its feet wet in World Cup competition.

Still, next week won’t be like this one. Ticket sales for the final two match days were slower; and mostly, the small American city that bivouacked here this week will scatter back home, (public service announcement: this would be a bad day to jaunt off to Grand Forks, unless one enjoys long, romantic waits at the border.)

However Winnipeg’s World Cup story ends, the city will record that for a time, especially eight hours on a perfect Friday in summer, its stadium flourished with life.

It was the bald eagle costumes, the chants, the signs in the stands. One of them, which read “FIFA Kiss My AstroTurf,” reportedly didn’t go over well with stadium security. It was how the legion fan club American Outlaws took over the stadium’s north end, roaring rowdy and proud, leading a thunderous chant of “U-S-A” while their athletes still had their warm-up jackets on.

Memorably, that life thrummed from the brassy Nigerian band that played through both of their team’s home matches, including every second of Friday’s losing effort.

The result didn’t dampen their spirits: as the Nigerian women left the pitch, sunlight glaring off their crisp white kits, the Super Falcons turned to give their fans a final wave. In reply, from afar, it looked as if that green cheering section rippled and swayed, arms raised in an ecstatic and thankful ovation.

That Nigerian fan energy was, no doubt, among the most beloved local discoveries of Winnipeg’s slice of the World Cup. Later Friday evening, while the Swedes were deadlocked against the U.S., Winnipegger David Deroche walked by the Nigerian section and spied the Nigerian band’s trumpeter.

“I gotta shake that man’s hand,” he declared, then ducked down to do just that.

Later, the former military man explained why he felt so moved. “The respect of one’s country is a special thing to me,” Deroche said, after paying his respects. “If you can sit and push for wherever country you’re cheering for, it’s a special thing. Everyone deserves their voices, and their voice is music.”

Over and over, other fans did the same, coming up to the Nigerian contingent to shake hands and share the love of the game, and their team.

“We don’t know the next time we’re going to see them (in Canada),” said Eric Patrick, one of eight Nigerian fan club members who made the trip out from Toronto.

“We tried, we did our best. We’re thankful to the Winnipeg crowd, and everybody is here. They gave us the support, and we’re welcome, so we’re home.”

And everyone knows what they say about homes, and how they find themselves following the heart. So maybe that’s a little bit of what Australian striker Kyah Simon felt when she looked up in the stadium and spotted the indigenous Australian flag. Her mom brought to Winnipeg, and made sure it had a chance to hang.

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Simon, who scored both goals against Nigeria, was also the first indigenous woman to score for Australia’s national team; back home, she’s led campaigns to collect soccer boots for indigenous kids. So seeing the flag of her heritage raised so far from home made Simon “super-stoked,” she said.

For that matter, so does the thought the games she played in Winnipeg this week could help lift the sport she loves.

“I think it’s huge for Winnipeg,” Simon said. “Speaking to a lot of locals, they don’t necessarily know a lot about the World Cup; then others, they know a lot about it. It’s two ends of the spectrum.

“Hopefully, a tournament like this will really lift the profile of a city like Winnipeg, and they’ll get on board with women’s football,” the 23-year-old forward continued. “It’s definitely done a lot for the country. I know every time I flick on the TV there’s something about women’s football, which is so great for the sport.”

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.