Sally Shipard on those wins in China

Matildas Star, Sally Shipard writes for Football in the Capital every week. This week she reports on playing for Australia in front of 52,000 fans in China...and she won!

Hi Guys,

We have just arrived back from China and what a very successful tour it turned out to be. We played 2 internationals in 7 days. Both of the matches were played at the new Olympic Stadium which was very impressive.

Our games against China were the first sporting event the stadium had experienced.

The conditions in Tianjin were hot and the humidity was very high. As a result our games did not start till 8pm.

The first game on Thursday night was a ‘closed match’. So no spectators were present, this didn’t bother the girls though, we were up 2 nil by half time. China came back in the second half to make the game 2-2. We managed to score in the dying minutes and secure our first winJ

In our second game on the Sunday we also won 3-1. The playing surface was great, so we really had nothing to complain about. (Probably the only negative about the matches was the bias referring, but I won’t get into thatJ).

Before the game had kicked-off, 40 000 tickets had already been sold. Considering the stadium only accommodated 60 000, we all knew that the stadiums maximum capacity may be reached.

The atmosphere was incredible, although we didn’t hear much from the crowd as we were leading for the majority of the game.

The preparation we have had over the past week and a half will only benefit our World Cup Campaign. We experienced playing in front of a crowd of 52,000 which consisted of about 20 Australians.

We know what to expect in terms of food, accommodation, weather and most importantly the lifestyle we will lead for the month during competition.

The other nations, especially the European nations are not familiar with Asia. I think America is even taking over their own chef and resources.

We will certainly be using this ‘familiarisation’ to our advantage.

We are at home till the 1st of September. Long enough to complete a couple of uni exams, work and most importantly keep up with my training regime. We are in Sydney till the 5th of September for one last camp before we fly out to take on the world...

Stay tuned...

Sal.