W-League: Alanna Kennedy puts Rio penalty heartbreak behind her

Sport has a unique knack of healing the very people it has wounded.

Melbourne Victory’s Natasha Dowie, left, and Melbourne City’s Stephanie Catley play some head tennis at the official launch of the W-League 2016/17 season. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Sport has a unique knack of healing the very people it has wounded.

Alanna Kennedy’s missed penalty ended Australia’s Olympic soccer campaign in Rio and produced a reaction as heartbreaking as anything you might have witnessed at the Games. But she dusted herself off and ventured to the US, where she won the National Women’s Soccer League with the Western New York Flash. It came courtesy of a penalty shootout that ended with raucous celebrations rather than trembling commiserations.

Sport, eh? It gives. It takes. You lose a penalty shootout. You win your next one. Sport knocked the wind out of Kennedy’s sails in Rio. The goal from there? The goal for any self-respecting athlete. Resilience. Persistence. Sport looks kindly on both, eventually.

Kennedy was in a Sydney FC shirt yesterday for the launch of the W-League, where every mention of the Olympics was an attempt to bask in the significant achievement of the Matildas reaching the quarter-finals, but still left an awkward silence as everyone in attendance, including Kennedy and six other Matildas in the front row, pondered what might have been if Australia had snuck past Brazil instead of being pipped 7-6 after two hours of regulation time, extra time and the penalty shootout that night at Belo Horizonte.

“We only had a couple of days together as a team after the quarter-final,” Kennedy told The Australian. “We went to Rio and then we had to get back to our overseas clubs. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend too much time together to lean on each other and deal with it. You just want to be around your family and the girls you’ve spent so much time with and been through so many ups and downs with.

“I think everyone has put that behind us and hopefully the wounds really have healed a little bit. It was so chaotic after the match. My family were in the crowd but I didn’t even get to see them after the game.”

The W-League begins on Saturday when Brisbane Roar host Sydney FC at Spencer Park, pitting Kennedy against her Matildas co-captain Clare Polkinghorne. For the first time, the nine-team competition is being televised by ESPN in the US.

Polkinghorne has not played a match since the demoralising Olympic quarter-final in August, while Kennedy successfully chased the round ball around another part of the world.

“I really wanted to see my family but I didn’t get to,” Kennedy said of the aftermath to the loss in Brazil.

“That was difficult. But we have our own little family in the team, so that was good. We were all there for each other. It was good and bad to leave pretty quickly and play again in America. I don’t know that we got to deal with it together but at least there was another goal to keep us occupied and work towards. I think that probably helped. For me, that was in the US and we ended up winning the championship.

“You look back on the Olympics and even walking onto the pitch for that game, 60,000 people in the crowd, an incredible atmosphere, we knew we had to cherish every moment because we didn’t know when our tournament was going to end. Knowing how hard it was to get to the Olympics in the first place, it was important that we soaked up every minute.”

There ended up being a lot of minutes. It was an incredible game. The Matildas fought until the controversial death. Brazil had 58 per cent of the ball. The Marta-inspired hosts had 10 shots at goal to Australia’s three.

Katrina Gorry’s fifth spot kick could have won it. It was saved by Brazilian goalkeeper Barbara. At 12.42am, Kennedy speared the ball low and left. Barbara had broken the rules by moving forward off her line, she saved the shot with an outstretched left hand and it was Games over for the Matildas

“It was a harsh ending but we definitely did appreciate the position we were in,” Kennedy said. “Being in Brazil, such a great footballing country for an Olympics, it was a really special thing for our sport and we appreciated it.”

Asked if the memory of the penalty shootout lingered and whether sleepless nights had followed, Kennedy, who would have been next on the spot for the Western New York Flash if required, replied: “Yeah, of course. I think it’s something we’ll never forget and even more so, on a personal level, I’ll never forget what happened. But we move forward and hopefully we’ll be there in four years time, in a similar position with a similar team.

“We’re a young team so the good thing is we have a really good core to build around.

“There’s always the chance that we will get another chance.”