Most people tuning in to Thursday’s match from Montpellier could walk away having enjoyed the most entertaining game of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Brazil scored twice early, Australia responded before halftime and put two more on the board before the final whistle. Even without the context around Australia, Brazil, the changing landscape of the women’s international soccer landscape, or the impact the result would have on the competition’s Group C, the match was a great advertisement for the tournament, seeing our expectation’s pendulum arc back than forth over the span of two hours.
For those of us that live in the women’s soccer space, though, the game was mentally exhausting, precisely because all that context mattered so much.