SYDNEY — With so much wonder in the air Friday night, from a 21-year-old Londoner’s goal in the sixth minute to an England team that started off looking exhilarating to a buzzy World Cup crowd of 40,439, the last thing anybody at Sydney Football Stadium needed was a reminder of that scourge of women’s soccer gaining more note: knee injuries.
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And then here came a stretcher.
Keira Walsh, no less than the England catalyst according to many of the many soccer savants of England, had buckled onto the grass around the 35th minute after no apparent physical contact.