CEO Heather Reid writes from China

Capital Football's CEO Heather Reid sent this report through from The Matilda's Supporters camp in Hangzhou, China

Tuesday night - a rather weary but quietly happy group of Australian supporters (family, friends and general assortment of football fans) finally arrived at the Ramada Motel in Hangzhou around 11.00pm after a long day's travel.

People like Andy Munoz, Caitlin's dad, had been travelling since the night before as they'd made their way to Sydney for the flights on the 11th.

Wednesday morning - met some of the other fans at breakfast and talked about the Matildas and their chances of beating Ghana. We all predicted a win. I went to the bank to change money and then had a very relaxing, but toe-curling Chinese body and foot massage.

afternoon/evening - Lunch with Lyn Ferguson (Alicia's mum) and then I was off to the stadium to get my media accreditation, check the FIFA website and see the starting list for the game.

Bumped into the guy who's doing a docu on the Matildas for SBS and then headed out to check out what was then a relatively empty stadium - albeit for the thousands of volunteers, security people and police!

I spotted a lone figure who was holding a green and gold Australia scarf and wearing a green shirt so made my way from east stand to west to see who it was.

Low and behold it was Bess from SA.

Before long, the spectators started to move into the stadium. This included the Queensland women's open team who are travelling around China, going to the Matildas games, and playing friendly games v local teams.

I introduced Bess to Raeanne Dower - one of Queensland's most profilic representatives and now a coach and she kindly offered to look after Bess with the rest of the Qld contingent.

The Matildas family group were taking their seats on the far side of the ground (where no doubt some of you saw them on telly?) so I went to join them. Two groups of Aussie fans on opposite sides of the stadium making up about 50 people in a crowd that exceeded 25,000 by the end of the game. Oh, and there was the Lisa de Vanna fan club behind us. They quickly marshalled some extra local support and had the crowd doing the Oi Oi Oi thing before too long!

Kick off was a great moment for the the mums and dads and significant others (making up a group of about 25) who were there to support the Matildas. Andy Munoz was his usual 'reserved' self and said he was thrilled to be able to see Caitlin play for the first time in an international match overseas.

He was even more thrilled to know she'd be in the starting team. Mrs Ferguson declared that Collette McCallum was her favourite player and I agreed that she is indeed a great player with a great future.

All of us, including the Gill's, Small's, Polkinghorn's, McShea's, Walsh's and other Aussies sang as loud as we could when the anthem was played. Then, kick off!

Hopefully you all watched the game so I don't need to elaborate too much on how the game unfolded. Suffice to say the early shots from the Aussies, and the speed of Walsh, indicated we were in for a very attacking game.

Ghana gave us a scare in the 5th minute but it wasn't long before Walsh scored and more opportunities opened up. I said to Andy that there'd be at least another two or three goals in the game and was a little disappointed to go into the half-time break with only one goal - but pleased that the excellent defence had kept Ghana scoreless.

The substitution of de Vanna for Munoz at half-time didn't really faze Andy that much. He though Caitlin had slowed in the second part of the first half and we were all keen to see how 'lolly-legs' De Vanna would weave her magic.

She didn't disappoint us as she tormented the Ghana defence and finally scored from a Walsh cross to make it 2-0 just after ten minutes into the half. Another ten minutes or so later and Heather Garriock scored a great header to make it 3-0.

Never underestimate the opposition and particularly when you've got the best sixteen teams from FIFA's five regions at the world cup. Ghana had previously drawn with and beaten Australia and they threatened to score many times last night.

After the Garriock goal, they retaliated quickly to make it 3-1. De Vanna got her second and Australia's fourth in the 80th minute and despite Ghana going close again and the Aussies either missing good chances or having shots saved, the final result was 4-1 to Australia.

We were all aware of the historic moment for the national women's team - the first win in ten games over four editions of the FIFA World Cup.

Kerry Walsh, Sarah's mum was in tears, the McShea's were beaming and Andy was as proud as the rest of us to have witnessed such a great game - even though he was distracted by the constant SMS messages he was getting from people at home saying 'we can see you on the telly' and 'we waved to you ... when you waved to us" ... ah, the joy of the moment!

And in case you were wondering what the fuss was about with Sarah Walsh ripping at the back of her shirt - the Aussies were using GPS tracking devices - not recording or transmitting devices - so the sports scientists can assess how much running they did and over what speeds etc.

Gotta love technology.

Canberra folk might remember Collette McCallum who worked for Capital Football last year as our league assistant when she was at the AIS. Well, she was named by the FIFA technical committee as 'player of the match'in her first senior world cup game.

Of course, Mrs Ferguson and I wholeheartedly supported the decision. Tom Sermanni (coach) was full of praise for the confidence and good football that the Matildas displayed.

He said Ghana may have had more possession but the Matildas were more dangerous. The difference between the 2003 and 2007 squads centred on players who were "more mature and had better possession on the ball".

He said the move to bring de Vanna on after half-time was aimed at bringing in more speed to add to Sarah Walsh's pace, and his decision paid off - for once (according to Tom).

The players and fans were obviously elated with the win but they are bruised and a bit beaten up. There's no news on Joey Peters and her knee injury and of course a handfull who picked up yellow cards will need to be careful in the next game v Norway.

The Canadians also look tough after they gave the Vikings a fright last night in the second match in Hangzhou and why wouldn't they when they've got the former Norwegian national coach, Evan Pelurud in charge.

No game is easy at this level but at least the Aussies have had a great start and scored a great bag of goals to boot.

Thursday - now in Shanghai and I'm off to watch England v Germany tomorrow night - can't wait to see the World Champions again and the England women for the first time.

Then it's back to Hangzhou for the Aussie assault on the Norwegian Vikings.

And just in case you're worried - I'm meeting Austrade and the Shanghai Football Association tomorrow to promote and talk-up that other great international event - the Kanga Cup.

It's busy (read, chaotic) on the streets, warm and grey - but very friendly and joyous under the 'beautiful game, beautiful goals' banner.

Cheers until later in the week.

Heather