Former Matildas star Amy Duggan has urged the Illawarra's football fans to make the most of a rare chance as the countdown continues until the FIFA Women's World Cup gets under way on Australian soil.
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Less than 50 days remains until the Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand, but the campaign to host the sport's biggest women's tournament has been years in the making.
It's the first time the Cup has ever been held down under.
Duggan, who is a Football Australia board member and Optus Sport presenter, said it was a great opportunity for the women's game.
"To have the Women's World Cup on home soil is a pinch yourself moment, and it's going to be one of those moments in history that we look back on and say 'where where you when it happened?'. And I just can't wait," the Wollongong resident told the Mercury.
"I think (the Matildas) opening game against Ireland is going to be a moment in history and smash crowd records across Australia. And there are other great games coming to Sydney, tickets are like hen's teeth for the England versus Denmark game for example.
"There is so much going on and we are Australia's largest community sport, and we're trying to reach 50/50 gender parity in the near future. We have 400,000 female participants in this game with new programs aiming at unlocking the potential for women and girls right across the sport.
"Hopefully the Cup can bring the attention to football and put it on the world stage. It's going to be a spectacle of the best players and teams in the world, and our Matildas will feature heavily in it. But it's also about leaving a legacy for the sport."
Duggan (nee Taylor) played 27 games for the Matildas in the late 1990s to mid-2000s, which was highlighted by being part of the Australian squad for the 1999 World Cup in the US.
She said it would have been "almost unimaginable" during her playing career to have the chance to play at the Cup on home soil.
"I can't even imagine what it would like to run out and play for Australia in front of a packed-out stadium at a home World Cup," she said.
"It's almost unimaginable to me because the crowds when I played weren't that big. But it is like a dream come true for every former Matilda to see our game, generation after generation, going forward in leaps and bounds and getting to the point where we're at a real tipping point around the world where women's football is front and centre.
"We're selling out stadiums, our players are professional and it's a legitimate career choice for young girls coming through the code now, which it wasn't when I was there. And my heart just bursts for pride for where the game is heading."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
