Soccer, or football as it is properly called, is something of a quiet achiever in this country and the quiet achiever in this realm is the highly successful women’s team the Matildas.
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So the announcement yesterday that this world class team will play one of the first international competitions this city has ever hosted will get more than a few soccer fans excited. Moreover while Qatar played a friendly against Bahrain last year, neither of those male sides have the attraction of a peak national team playing off against old rival New Zealand. This is an event that promises to excite a much wider audience.
The well-deserved plaudits of the Socceroos when they make such breakthrough achievements as winning the Asia Cup mean they tend to dominate the headlines. But this worthiness should not obscure we have one of the best women’s sides in the world, with significant world cup success to its credit and more than an outside chance of making a grab for gold in another soccer-mad country; Rio at this year’s Olympics. The fact the Matildas will spend their last five days in Australia in Ballarat before jetting off to take on this quest says a lot for the advocacy of the local soccer community and how comfortable the team feels with the facilities. We can only hope Ballarat puts on the welcome they rightly deserve.
But the dismissive notion that this is just another sporting team should not be countenanced unless one also takes a look at how important these elements of sport are to the broader well-being of the community. Elite sport drives passion and passion drives involvement. Whether this is a role in a local club or direct participation these things all spell good news for a city that has struggled with its own health issues.
What is equally apparent is soccer as a sport is on the rise. Whether driven by ethnic shifts in our social make-up or the parental fear of more dangerous games, soccer has undergone a twenty year explosion in Australia. It began in the suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney and has clearly spread to the regions including Ballarat. For many of theses reason it is also an ideal fit for girls and the growth in girl’s soccer has gone hand in hand with this more general uptake.
But on a local level, the uptake and enthusiasm behind our key teams was instrumental in supporting and developing the first class facilities at Morshead Park. This is a chance to celebrate that and the enthusiasm of a city for elite sport with a new landmark in what Ballarat is capable of hosting.