FIFA Women’s World Cup: Channel 7 ratings smash Channel 9 thanks to Matildas World Cup win
Channel 7 have won the latest round of TV ratings war with Channel 9 after the Matildas’ 4-0 annihilation of Canada beat the final day of the Ashes by an enormous margin.
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The Matildas have smashed Australia’s Ashes cricketers in the battle of the Monday night TV ratings.
Australia’s stunning 4-0 FIFA Women’s World Cup victory over Canada rated 2.3 million on Channel Seven, the Matildas’ biggest audience of the tournament so far.
It was an almost three times larger TV viewership than the cricketers in London at The Oval.
Channel Nine’s numbers were 896,000 for the fifth and final Test of the Ashes series.
With the interest created from the Matildas’ win, Channel Seven is expecting even bigger audiences over the remainder of the tournament now that the team has reached the round of 16.
KERR’S MESSAGE THAT INSPIRED MATILDAS ROUT
Triumphant Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has revealed the pre-match message from injured captain Sam Kerr which helped inspire Australia’s 4-0 World Cup demolition of Canada.
Despite making herself available in the days before the must-win match, Kerr watched the entire game from the bench as a brace from Hayley Raso and goals from Mary Fowler and Steph Catley sealed top spot in Group B.
It became clear Kerr was still dealing with a calf problem when she did not warm up with her teammates.
Gustavsson said post-match Kerr had only been made available for limited minutes and was only going to be used if the Matildas were desperate.
It was clear by the 58th minute, when Mary Fowler bundled home off the post to put the Matildas 3-0 ahead, that a Kerr salvage mission would not be required.
“One of the words Sam said to the team was, ‘make sure you win without me so that I can get another week to train and recover and get healthy’,” Gustavsson said.
“And the team responded and said ‘yes we will. You sit on the bench tonight and we’ll wait for you’.”
Gustavsson praised his team’s ability to prise open the Canadian defence without the “best striker in the world”.
Whether Kerr is available to start the round of 16 tie remains unclear, but Australia does not play again until August 7.
“I know this sounds maybe weird to say...it felt almost like even before the game, the players were so convinced to do it without that we kind of said, ‘let’s just focus on that first’ and then we go to that option if need be,” Gustavsson said.
“Then there was a plan together with her and the (medical) team how she could warm up and what could be an alternative.
“But I also want to be clear, just because Sam wasn’t on the park, doesn’t mean she wasn’t in the team tonight. The way she reads the team and what she gives to the team off the field as well, not just in the locker room, or on the buses, but at the hotel, in the meetings, that is massive leadership.”
Gustavsson said Kerr and the Matildas’ medicos ultimately decided to limit her minutes had she been required in the final group match.
“We agreed together to say, ‘if we can win us the week for her to not risk her to reinjure herself, we’re going to try to protect her and try to win without her’. That was always the aim. If we would have been in a situation where we would have needed her, she was willing to take that risk and come on. But she was also very clear, ‘let’s not get to that point’. And we didn’t. I think we’re all happy about that.”
Fowler started up front in Kerr’s absence, but was moved into a No.10 role after half-time with great success as veteran Emily van Egmond led the line.
Kerr is yet to feature at the World Cup and her presence would provide a huge boost ahead of a round of 16 match which is likely to be against China or Denmark.
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Originally published as FIFA Women’s World Cup: Channel 7 ratings smash Channel 9 thanks to Matildas World Cup win
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