In 1988, FIFA organised the first ever Women's Invitational Tournament to test-run a Women's World Cup. 35 years on, the Matildas who were there reflect on how far the game has come.
abc.net.au/news/australias-matildas-helped-launch-first-womens-world-cup/102154770Janine Riddington and Carol Vinson are standing across from each other on the half-way line of Jiangmen Stadium in southern China.The two Australian strikers are dressed in emerald green jerseys and matching shorts; the dark fabric soaking up the scorching sun. The thick, smoggy air wraps around their bodies, making it hard to breathe, to talk, to move, to think.
The two Matildas bounce nervously around on their toes as they steal small glances down the other end of the field. In fact, the first took place almost two decades earlier, when Italy hosted the Martini & Rossi Cup in 1970, featuring women's teams from seven countries. At FIFA's Annual Congress in Mexico City, the same year that the 13th edition of the men's World Cup was being staged in the country, Wille delivered a speech to a ballroom of more than 100 male football officials calling for a FIFA-organised Women's World Cup.
Much to her surprise, majority of the men in the room agreed with both her ideas. And so the foundations for the pilot Women's World Cup in 1988 — effectively a test-run for an official Women's World Cup — were laid, with China volunteering to host after the growing success of the women's tournaments in Taiwan.It's not known how the nations were selected for 1988, but for the first time there was a representative from every confederation under FIFA's umbrella .
"Finding out that we were going to represent Australia in this pilot World Cup was a massive deal," Riddington, now in her 50s, says. Players paid around $850 each to cover domestic airfares and equipment which, for some of them, was equivalent to three weeks' worth of pay.
Bizarrely, the Australian team were given heavy, fleece-lined tracksuits to wear for the tour, despite it taking place at the height of China's summer. Unsurprisingly, they sweated through them immediately, so only wore them for official photos. "Going to China was completely out of our comfort zone, particularly when you're talking about food, language. But you're with a group of people that you trust implicitly, so you stick very close to them.
"Lining up against them, all we had was what we were. We had our years of training that stacked up against their years of training.Because theirs was the first game of the tournament, both teams had to skip the official opening ceremony, which was an all-out affair. "It probably said 0-0 in reality, but in my mind, when I looked up there, what I visualised was a win to us.
"We played two strikers. I was always on the right and Riddo was on the left, but we'd do diagonal runs for each other. I played a bit more like Bobby Firmino, come back and get the ball, and Riddo would always stay up.Brazil were a formidable opponent, but the Australians never gave up. For the first 15 minutes, both teams were trying to shake off the travel cobwebs; move the ball around, prod and probe each others' defensive lines. Brazil had immaculate ball control, passing it around at ease, creating dangerous openings and angles. The Matildas realised quite quickly that their only major chances would come on the counter-attack.
"Carol and I knew each other inside and out; that play was just natural instinct for us. And then the finish is what the finish is. Did John Doyle put that idea in my head or not? I still don't know."Brazil came at them like a stampede, registering shot after shot after shot. The Matildas packed themselves deep, throwing themselves in front of every ball. So overwhelming was the Brazilian attack that Australia had just one more chance later in the second half which came to nothing.
"I didn't know nobody had won against a South American side. I didn't know no male or female had scored against a South American team, ever, until that point. The Matildas travelled to Guangzhou for the game, walking out onto the smooth grass of the giant Tianhe Stadium in front of 30,000 screaming fans scrambling for autographs from China's players.
"The way they'd switch the ball, crossing it from one side to the other in a single pass, was amazing. They'd change the point of attack within seconds. It was something we'd never come up against.Australia lost 7-0 to hosts China in the 1988 quarter-finals in front of 40,000 people. There are a couple of things Riddington and Vinson have kept as mementos from the tournament that started it all: photos, programmes, tourist knick-knacks.
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