Today’s the day — the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final is going down tonight between Australia’s own Matildas and England’s Lionesses in a huge moment for women’s football.
Today’s been declared as “Matildas Day” because the country is so dang excited and backing the girls — something ex-Socceroo player Tim Cahill also wants to celebrate. Great! Right?
Cahill’s idea of celebrating today has included posting a highlights reel of his own football career to Instagram, so you be the judge.
“It’s about the matildas not you mate,” one commenter wrote, which at the time of writing has more than 264 likes.
“Go Tillies, here’s two of my goals,” another joked, racking up more than 140 likes.
“It’s not about you today champ 😂 #ytg,” one added, while another said, “This is as self indulgent as it gets.”
The reel was a repost from FIFA World Cup’s Instagram saying, “Will one of @TheMatildas fire her way into the history books in their FIFAWWC Semi-Final?”, which was posted early Wednesday. Cahill’s repost went up around midday on Wednesday.
I’m not minimising Cahill’s career in the slightest but this is such a huge moment for not only the Matildas but women’s football — and women’s sport — at large.
So to see a man come in and share his own football successes on a day like today feels a touch tone-deaf.
The Matildas are playing the semi-final match tonight at 8pm AEST against England’s Lionesses. Over the weekend, the Matildas had a historic win against France in a nail-biting penalty shootout.
Sorry, Cahill! We can pencil in another date to celebrate men’s sports. Oh wait — that’s every day, isn’t it?
Image Source: Matthew Ashton / Getty Images.
