Lindsey, Daan and the Matildas (Australia-France quarterfinal WWC 2023)
12 August 2023
Lang Park, Brisbane
As Australia and France kicked off in Brisbane, Lindsey Horan found herself watching from a box in Lang Park stadium, with Danielle van de Donk beside her. The two Lyon teammates had remained behind when their national teammates were eliminated, so that French and Lyon captain Wendie Renard could take them home with her whenever she returned.
Today, however, they were supporting Australia, as Ellie Carpenter of the Matildas was their teammate too (and Daan's girlfriend), and Lindsey definitely wasn't backing Le Sommer, not after Le Sommer had been such a...well, never mind.
Then, too, there was former Matildas captain Lisa de Vanna, keeping an eye on the pair of them as her national teammates battled it out with Renard's squad below.
They tried to focus on the match, wondering how it would all turn out.
"Do you think we can ask Renard to let us stay with the Matildas if France go home?"
De Vanna snorted at Daan's question.
"Ask, yes. Get permission, not bloody likely."
Lisa rolled her eyes. So far, all that had happened were a couple of French attempts on goal, Kadidiatou Diani and Maelle Lakrar. The two were no doubt going to regret their missed shots, but France had kept up possession, much to the consternation of everyone in the box.
Then Katrina Gorry swept in, trying for a strike of her own.
Off target.
It allowed for Eugenie Le Sommer to come back a few minutes later - her strike on target, but unsuccessful. Le Sommer's gaze grew stormy, and Lindsey and Daan exchanged world-weary glances as the French girl fumed down below.
"Oh, here we go again," Lindsey grumbled. "That's going to get her into trouble one of these days."
"Renard will handle her," Lisa said calmly. "Let Le Sommer be her problem."
Gladly, the pair thought. If Renard was focused on their Lyon teammate, she wasn't focused on them. Although of course Renard wasn't focused on them just then. She had a game she hoped to win.
The three in the box hoped she did not. Especially if Lindsey and Daan could get leave to stay with Ellie after.
Nevertheless, the ball was back in French possession. Lakrar got a header, but it went wide of the netting, and Kenza Dali broke free a couple minutes later to try for a goal. It went wide of the post, as did Sakina Karchaoui's attempt after her.
Over half an hour in and France had dominated possession, but had nothing to show for it. Lindsey and Daan could tell how stressed their friends and teammates on both sides of the match were becoming. Le Sommer, in particular, seemed to take it as a personal affront that she hadn't put France on the scoreboard yet.
In the forty-fifth minute, Mary Fowler found the ball back at her feet, and drove hard for a goal, the twenty-year-old Australian youngest doing her best to break the deadlock. The finish was unsuccessful, though, and it was clear she was frustrated.
The match limped slowly to halftime, still painfully scoreless, and Lindsey grimaced. "Poor Fowler. She's going to have a target on her back where Le Sommer's concerned."
Daan nodded grimly. "Hopefully Renard tells her to leave off the kid."
"Let's hope."
Lindsey, Daan, and Lisa were joined in the box, shortly after the halftime whistle, by Steph Catley and Wendie Renard.
The French and Lyon captain gave her charges meaningful looks. "I trust you two have been behaving," she said, keeping to English for the Australians' benefit.
"Yes ma'am," Lindsey said after a pause. "Better than Le Sommer has, anyway."
"That wouldn't take much," Daan muttered.
"Eugenie is my problem, little girls," Renard said firmly. "Don't trouble yourself about her."
"If she hurts Ellie, Alanna, or Sam, she's made herself my problem," Daan said. Renard gave her a sharp look.
"You'll have to get in line, Danielle. She's mine first."
"Yes, ma'am ," Daan replied, with just a touch more sardonicism than was good for her. Renard raised an eyebrow.
"You had best be careful little girl. You know what happens to brats who don't respect their Captains."
Since Daan would very much like Le Sommer to be the one getting that kind of Renard's attention and not her, she shut up.
"Good choice."
Renard turned back to Lisa. "So, I think the martinet might be something Eugenie might be expecting, hmm?"
"No doubt about that," Lisa agreed.
"Could do with a good dose of the slipper, that one," Steph put in.
Lisa cleared her throat lightly. "Mind yourself, Stephanie-Elise. You don't want to find yourself in Eugenie's position."
"No ma'am," Steph said quickly.
"That's better. We don't say things like that about our opponents, even when they are true," Lisa said calmly.
Daan snorted under her breath, and even Renard couldn't quite hide a smirk.
"Never mind, de Vanna. I'll see to Eugenie, you have my word."
"Indeed." Lisa gave Renard a measured look. "Perhaps you'd like something a little more...special than the slipper for her."
"What exactly did you have in mind, de Vanna?" Renard asked after a pause.
She watched as Lisa reached into her bag. The slipper - a sturdy plimsoll, with a well-worn sole - came out first, of course, but after that she pulled out two more implements for Renard's perusal, both leather.
One was a short strap, somewhere in betwen a strap and a paddle in length, iwhich the wielder could use with their penitent bent over their lap if desired.
The second was a leather strap that was doubled over and split down the middle - a tawse.
Steph scrambled backward the second she laid eyes on it. "Fuck's sake, Lisa, what did you go and get one of those for?"
"Kim thought it might be effective." Lisa paused. "I think she had Caitlin in mind, but if just looking at it affects you like that--"
"It should do wonders for Eugenie. Then I will take that for her," Renard decided with a nod.
"Would you like the slipper for your other girls, if needed?" Lisa inquired.
Renard nodded her thanks and traded the two implements for her martinet. "Ellie, at least, knows this one."
Lisa nodded. "Well, let's hope she doesn't require its attention, but I suppose we'll see. Thank you, Renard."
"You're welcome, de Vanna."
With the implements settled, Renard and Catley tucked them away and headed back down to their respective locker rooms to rejoin their teams. Lindsey and Daan returned to their seats by the window.
For the first ten minutes or so of the second half, nothing notable happened.
Then, in the fifty-fifth minute, Sam Kerr came off the Australian bench for Emily van Egmond. France was in possession of the ball, and Le Sommer was just enough distracted (by the crowd's cheers, she would insist) that her shot finished off target. The French forward looked distinctly displeased by Kerr's arrival, ready to blame her mistake entirely on the Australian captain.
The ball flew to Australia's Hayley Raso, who tried putting it past Pauline Peyrand-Magnin. The French keeper saved it, however. The block sent it right to Alanna Kennedy, who tried for a header, but was off target.
Alanna whirled away with a scowl, wanting nothing more than to run to Mummy Sam and hope Sam could make it all better. In the middle of the quarterfinal wasn't the time for that though, she reminded herself sternly.
It wasn't too long before Mary Fowler found herself a second chance to try for a goal. The French keeper saved it easily, though, and Lindsey winced in sympathy. It was easy to see the Australian youngest was getting even more frustrated than she had been - probably feeling guilt and shame that such a successful young star as she'd been touted to be wasn't making a difference for the host nation on home soil.
Four minutes later, in the sixty-fourth minute, France made their first substitution - Vicki Becho on for Sandie Toletti.
Vicki was Lindsey and Daan's - and Ellie's - Lyon teammate, and they were all wondering how she would affect the match now.
"We still want Australia to win," Daan checked with Lindsey, who nodded.
"Oh, definitely," she agreed. "Though I hope Vicki has a good time playing." She was France's youngest, and Lindsey couldn't help feeling a bit protective.
For the next twelve minutes, both teams were under pressure, battling back and forth. Then, Eugenie Le Sommer took a high kick to the face from Katrina Gorry's boot in the seventy-sixth minute, and went down on the ground.
The referee called for a halt as medical attention was given, but failed to call for a foul, much less a card, much to the shock of the crowd.
"I know she's Le Sommer," Lindsey said slowly, "but Gorry kicked her in the face."
Daan nodded grimly. "That should have been at least a yellow card," she said, grimacing, because the number of times she'd got away with things that should have been yellow carded and weren't, she felt like a hypocrite.
In the end, a corner kick was awarded, but Eugenie, nursing a bloody nose, wasn't permitted to take it. She was allowed back in at the seventy-ninth minute, the bleeding stopped, after having words with the sideline officials about the lack of call. Luckily for her, she stopped before saying anything she might regret later.
A few minutes later, another French player was down; Sakina Karchaoui, swiped in the ankle by Caitlin Foord's boot. Again, there was no card, and Lindsey sputtered.
"The fuck is wrong with this ref?"
"Sleeping, looks like," Daan rolled her eyes. "Steph's gonna have her work cut out for her, that's for damn sure."
"I thought you two were supporting Australia?" Lisa de Vanna asked lightly, and Lindsey wheeled around. "I want them to win, I don't want them to kill our friends in the process."
"Fair enough," Lisa agreed. "The physicality is getting a bit rougher than usual, that's for sure."
Karchaoui was back on her feet, but she was visibly hurting, and both Lindsey and Daan felt bad for her. Caitlin might not have been carded, somehow, but she was still going to be in an enormous amount of trouble for that one.
Ellie Carpenter made an attempt on goal which swung wide of the post, and was near enough to see when Kyra Cooney-Cross and Katrina Gorry tried to keep the ball from the still visibly injured Sakina Karchaoui. Kyra practically body-slammed her in an attempt to get it away, and the ref's yellow card this time was not surprising, as Karchaoui writhed in pain on the pitch.
The most surprising thing was that it hadn't happened already.
Ellie darted away, burying herself in Sam's side, and Daan sighed.
"It's alright Ellie," she murmured, "I know you didn't do it." She knew Ellie couldn't hear her from up in the box, but all the same.
Then Selma Bacha and Elisa De Almeida’s attempts on goal for France both fell short, the latter's header a spectacular miss. Lindsey shook her head. "Still scoreless and we're...what now?"
"Hundred minutes or so," Daan sighed.
The ball had fallen back into Australian possession - Alanna Kennedy's, to be specific, and Daan watched intently as Alanna headed the ball toward Mackenzie Arnold, to try and keep it out of French possession.
Wendie Renard pulled on Alanna's jersey, getting too rough with her there in the box, and it was this, perhaps, that sent Alanna's shot past Mackenzie instead of directly to the keeper's hands.
It would have been an own goal, credited as a goal for France - if Renard hadn't literally pulled Alanna up short.
Because of the French captain's actions, she was called foul and the goal disallowed. They remained scoreless as the match climbed past the hundred minute mark.
Cortnee Vine was subbed on for Hayley Raso, the Australian coming on in the hundred and fourth minute and almost immediately trying to get a goal. It went off target, though, giving Vicki Becho the chance to take it the other direction for France. She missed the net, as did Kenza Dali - still deadlocked.
In the hundred and eleventh minute, Eugenie Le Sommer and Alanna Kennedy collided, both going down hard and requiring the match to be paused for medical attention to be given. Le Sommer was grimacing with pain, and they were led off the pitch to be checked for concussion protocol, though just a couple minutes later, both Eugenie and Alanna were permitted to return.
“Sam’s going to kill Le Sommer.”
“I’m going to kill Le Sommer.” Daan growled, and Lindsey put a restraining hand on her knee.
“Better let Renard do it.”
Tameka Yallop replaced Kyra Cooney-Cross in the 116th minute, and Lindsey snorted under her breath. “Good idea, don’t want Kyra gunning for Le Sommer too.”
Selma Bacha tried for a goal, but finished wide, and Vicki Becho’s attempt was saved. The French coach seemed to feel it was time for one more very late substitution - surprisingly, substituting his goalkeeper, taking Peyraud-Magnin off in favor of Solene Durand.
Then, too, he took Elisa De Almeida out for Eve Perisset.
In the very last minute of stoppage time before penalties, Eugenie tried an attempt on goal, but Mackenzie Arnold saved it, stopping Le Sommer. She’d held France scoreless, and now penalties would decide all.
“I need a fucking drink,” Daan grumbled. Lindsey grimaced, feeling sick. Penalties were how her World Cup had ended. Now this.
For their own sanity, both girls turned away from the window, returning to sit at the table. They let Lisa watch for them, and took to The Athletic’s livestream on their phones to ‘see’ what was going on - watching the shootout itself was too stressful.
Luckily Noah Murray’s coverage of the match had been thorough and he wasn’t done yet.
Selma Bacha steps up and ARNOLD SAVES! It's a weak penalty to the keeper's right!
No goal yet!
Penalties: France 0-1 Australia
Caitlin Foord emphatically SLAMS it into the bottom left corner of the goal, past the penalty specialist.
Penalties: France 1-1 Australia
Kadidiatou Diani that is sensational. Arnold forced to watch the ball as Diani rolls it into the bottom left corner.
Penalties: France 1-1 Australia
Catley may have scored a penalty against Ireland but she isn't scoring one today!
Australia advantage gone
“Well, that’s going to suck for Steph,” Lindsey groaned, shaking her head. She knew all too well what it looked like when a captain missed her penalty shot.
Penalties: France 2-1 Australia
Renard sends the goalkeeper the wrong way! Lovely penalty!
All penalties have gone to the keeper's right/the goal's left.
Penalties: France 2-2 Australia
Did anyone really expect Sam Kerr to miss? She squeezes her penalty past Durant, going low and central-right. A hard spot to get down to.
Penalties: France 3-2 Australia
Le Sommer with such confidence! Arnold tried to fake her out but Le Sommer keeps her resolve to dispatch her penalty.
“Well, confidence is practically Eugenie’s middle name,” Lindsey muttered.
“Actually her middle names are Anne Claudine,” Daan offered helpfully, getting an eyeroll from her American teammate.
Penalties: France 3-3 Australia
Mary Fowler may have missed a few chances in the game but she wasn't missing that! BANG into the bottom left corner.
“Good job, kid,” Lindsey smiled in relief. “She reminds me of AT, you know?”
Daan nodded. “Yeah, unsurprising. That’s how Ellie seems to think of her, too.”
Penalties: France 3-3 Australia
Brought on to take a penalty but Eve Perisset has MISSED! Arnold gets a finger on the penalty low in the bottom left corner and tips it onto the post.
Australia can win with their next penalty
THE GOALKEEPER MISSES
Penalties: France 3-3 Australia
SHE COULD HAVE WON THE SHOOTOUT!!! ARNOLD TOOK THE PENALTY AND SHE WALLOPED IT AGAINST THE POST! NOBODY CAN BELIEVE IT!
THE SHOOTOUT CONTINUES.
“Damn it,” Daan grumbled. “Arnold’s not going to be happy about that.”
SHOULD HAVE SAVED IT!
Penalties: France 4-3 Australia
Grace Geyoro's penalty is really poor, Arnold gets a hand to it but it's not enough to keep it out. France escape one there.
“She let it mess her up,” Lindsey sighed. “Well, it’s not every keeper who can score a goal.”
Daan smiled slightly. “Don’t say that in front of Kerr and Catley. Or Arnold, for that matter.”
“I wouldn’t,” Lindsey protested.
She had to score!
Penalties: France 4-4 Australia
And Clare Hunt did! JUST! The ball made an emphatic contact with Durand but somehow found its way in.
Keeper will be disappointed, especially as a penalty specialist.
Penalties: France 5-4 Australia
Hearts in mouths! Karchaoui's penalty CANES against the bar but bounces over the line. MASSIVE.
Penalties: France 5-5 Australia
So composed by Yallop, that's what you get with experience. Sudden death rumbles on.
Lakrar converts
Penalties: France 6-5 Australia
She may have missed an open goal from three yards but she's scored her penalty from 12! Well taken down the middle, cool as you like.
OFF THE POST
Penalties: France 6-6 Australia
Ellie Carpenter! The drama is sensational! In off the goalkeeper's right post. RELIEF the feeling in the stadium.
Daan jumped to her feet, screaming, and ran back to the window as Sam and Alanna, and the other Matildas mobbed Ellie below.They were beaming, and Lindsey couldn’t blame them. She stayed at the window with Daan, buoyed by Ellie’s success. “Please let this go right…”
Penalties: France 6-6 Australia
From hero to zero and back to hero, Arnold saves Dali's penalty!
VAR STRIKES IT OFF
She was off her line! The penalty will be retaken!
Penalties: France 6-6 Australia
ARNOLD SAVES THE PENALTY AGAIN! REMARKABLE!
Australia can win with their next penalty
“There you go,” Lindsey had been startled by the VAR decision and retake, but thankfully it had still gone Arnold and Australia’s way. “That’s how you do it. She should talk to Alyssa sometime.”
“Or Sari,” Daan countered. Lindsey nodded.
Penalties: France 6-6 Australia
CLARE HUNT HAS HER PENALTY SAVED BY DURAND!
WE WILL CONTINUE!!!
Penalties: France 6-6 Australia
I CAN HARDLY TYPE! BECHO SENDS THE KEEPER THE WRONG WAY BUT HER PEN HITS THE POST!!!
Australia can win with their next penalty
AUSTRALIA WIN THE SHOOTOUT
Penalties: France 6-7 Australia
CORTNEE VINE SENDS AUSTRALIA INTO THE FINAL FOUR!!!!!!!
Cortnee Vine’s goal had rocketed the Matildas past France into the semifinals. If anyone had any right to be arrogant, Lindsey reflected, it was probably her. Still, she had a bad feeling about the Australian’s arrogant stride as she rejoined her teammates below them.
“I guess…” Lindsey paused. “Now what do we do?”
“I beg Renard to let us stay with Ellie?” Daan suggested.
“You can try,” Lindsey said doubtfully. “Only I doubt the Headmistress will be in the mood for granting favours.”
“We’ll see.”
Lindsey and Daan followed Lisa from the box, heading down toward the locker rooms. When they met Renard in the tunnel, and Daan petitioned her, to Daan’s surprise, Renard said yes.
To Daan staying behind, at least.
“Only because it’s Ellie,” she said firmly. “I expect you two back in Lyon as soon as Ellie’s finished here. Do you understand?”
“Yes ma’am,” Daan said, gratitude washing through her. “What about Lindsey?”
“Her family have arranged to meet her in Lyon, with Ferguson,” Renard reminded them, mentioning Lindsey’s beloved dog. “She’s coming with me.”
Lindsey grimaced. “Yes ma’am.”
“Good girls.”
Lindsey and Daan clung to the rare praise - they knew they wouldn’t be getting much of it from Renard. They hugged briefly, and parted ways, Daan heading to the Matildas’ side to find Ellie for the celebration, and Lindsey reluctantly following Renard.