CEO Heather Reid, "This was all so annoying!"

Capital Football CEO Heather Reid missed the Canada game in China, due to the postponement. Heather's back in town and sent this update on her World Cup journey. Thanks Heather.

Hello again Eamonn

I'm now home in Canberra where the sun is shining, the
sky is blue and we're in for some great grand finals
in the PL competitions today at McKellar. And of
course we'll all be watching SBS at 10.00pm as the
Matildas take on Brazil in this historic quarter final
clash of the WWA.


The last hour postponement of the scheduled game
against Canada on Wednesday in Chengdu meant that many
members of the Matildas family touring group, as well
as we (including me and hundreds of others from
Australia and Canada) just simply couldn't change our
arrangements to fly later than our scheduled Thursday
flights. Qantas required at least 24 hours notice in
order to get alternative flights and changes just
couldn't be arranged in time. This was all so
annoying but completely out of our control. I felt
sorry for not only our group but the thousands of
others involved in the game who were also
inconvenienced - including a young volunteer who had
to stay an extra day in Chengdu when he'd been
expecting to go home and study for his final year
exams. At least those who were able to stay in
Chengdu would have seen the game - for me I had to
wait until getting home to see it again, and again, on
video.

Andy Munoz left Chengdu on Thursday at 1.00pm and I
left at 4.00pm along with Katie Gill's mum, dad and
brother. We'd hoped to be able to catch the game on
telly at Hong Kong airport but there was only rugby on
the big screens. We got the news via SMS from Katie
that we'd drawn 2-2 with Canada and there was quite a
scene of jubilation at the arrival lounge as we jumped
up and down, hootin and a hollerin.

I went as fast as I could to the Qantas lounge to
check the FIFA website for all the details on the
game. It was clear that the game was a nail-biter and
that the Matildas had left their charge until the
last minutes again (as they did against Norway). No
matter, we were through to the quarter finals and
likely to face Brazil. I absorbed as much info as I
could from the FIFA website and then checked the
nearpost.blog and Australian newspapers for other
stories. With copies of the media clippings I was
happy to then get on my flight home to Canberra via
Sydney.

After the news on Wednesday about the postponed game,
I went to the Stadium Media Centre in Chengdu to
see/hear what was really going on. A journalist from
AP and a broadcaster from Canada both told me that
Australian and Canadian as well as China FA officials
had requested all last round games to be played at the
same time, ie. Thursday. China FA was especially
concerned about making sure their game v NZ was played
at the same time as the crucial Brazil v Denmark game.
Both China and Denmark were on 3 points and both
needed to win to qualify for the quarters. As it
transpired Brazil beat Denmark and China beat the
Kiwis meaning that Brazil finished first in group D
(and hence played Australia) and China finished second
(and they play Norway). Denmark was on its way home
along with Sweden, Argentina, Japan, NZ, Nigeria,
Ghana and Canada.

On Friday after landing in Canberra, I headed to the
Capital Football office to catch up with staff on
what's been happening locally over the past two weeks
and to get all the details on arrangements for the JL
presentation day at Hawker and the grand finals in the
men's divisions and the Premier League games today.
Expecting to only spend about 20 minutes there, I
ended up staying a couple of hours as we had so much
to share on international, local and national football
(seems I'm really struggling in the A-League tipping
competition).

Yesterday was a beautiful Canberra spring day and
Ioved being back with my dedicated and wonderful CF
staff and volunteers for the celebration at Hawker. I
also presented the men's Div. 2 trophy to UC as they
beat ANU. In the Div 1 final, White Eagles ran away
in the second half to defeat Cooma 3-1.
Congratulations to all teams and to others in the
men's finals.

We've got a full agenda today with grand finals in
men's PL 18s, Pathway and Premier leagues as well as
the Women's PL. Hopefully there'll be a big crowd at
McKellar to support the teams - and no doubt
Belconnen United will have geat numbers as they've
made three grand finals !

And then, we'll be in for the world cup game at
10.00pm. Looks like Germany had a comfortable game v
DPR Korea beating them 3-0, and USA defeated England
3-0 in the other game. So, two semi final places are
now sealed and if the Matildas beat Brazil then we'll
be up against the might of USA - winners of the first
World Cup and Olympic Gold medallists.

The media coverage has been terrific in some areas.
Finally the Matildas are being recognised on the front
pages of newspapers, The coverage is for their
football skills and not for things like nude calendars
or toothpaste commercials for Japan television, or
allegations of financial misdealings or
misappropration of funds, or for relationship issues
between a coach and a player. This is about world
class football at it's best - bring it on and go the
Matildas!

Heather