The Women’s Asian Cup is a sequel with a difference. Not bigger, and surely not better than the magnificent 2023 World Cup, when the Matildas entranced Australia during their run to the semi-finals.
But there is enough intrigue in the script – coaching frenemies, unlikely injury comebacks, last hurrahs, footballing minnows and mirrors of multicultural Australia, even fairytale romance – that it will hold the nation’s football community riveted. Whether the continental championship bursts out into a broader cultural phenomenon, however, will be one of the compelling questions of the next three weeks.
