AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Eden Park had been waiting to explode despite zero evidence that the chance would ever come.
It filled Thursday night for a Women’s World Cup opener dampened by a deadly morning shooting, looming rain and 20-mile-per-hour biting winds.
It filled to see a team that had never won a World Cup game, a team dotted with borderline semi-professionals, against a one-time champ dotted with UEFA Champions League winners.
And a little after 8 p.m. local time, against all odds, it exploded.
It exploded after Katie Bowen clipped a ball out toward the right sideline and after the Football Ferns, as they’re known, went back-to-front in six remarkable, rehearsed touches. It exploded when Hannah Wilkinson slapped the sixth touch into the back of Norway’s net.
It exploded again when New Zealand sealed a 1-0 win over Norway, as players streamed onto the field in ecstatic relief, and perhaps disbelief.
Tears soon filled their eyes, and they weren’t easily explainable tears, because, as captain Ali Riley said: “I have so many amazing things to cry about.”
They’d paraded into Eden Park, the famed hub of New Zealand sport, to play a game that their country had never really taken to. There were fears that the stadium wouldn’t be full, that ticket sales had been slow, that the first World Cup Down Under might open with a dud.
Tragedy muddled those fears when a gunman killed two in downtown Auckland on Thursday morning. “We were all shocked,” midfielder Betsy Hassett said. “Didn’t know, maybe our game would be canceled.”
But it went on. Hours before kickoff, fans trickled in. They shoved aside any residual shock and braved a blustery chill. Some came to watch a sport they’d never seen live before. In total, 42,137 of them showed up, the largest soccer crowd in the nation’s history, regardless of team or gender. And they created an organic buzz that defined the night.
Their collective voice crescendoed at random intervals. They inched forward, then out of their seats. They’d feed on one another’s excitement. And the players fed on their noise.
“It made such a difference,” Wilkinson said. “It made all of the difference for us.”
“We knew it would be loud,” defender C.J. Bott said. “But I have never experienced anything like that.”
It — noise, newfound passion — invigorated them and fueled belief.
On paper, they had very little reason to believe. They had only scored in two of their nine 2023 games, whereas Norway had Ada Hegerberg, a Ballon d’Or winner; and Caroline Graham Hansen, one of the world’s top wingers; and Ingrid Syrstad Engen, her Barcelona teammate; and Frida Maanum, a stalwart Arsenal midfielder; and Guro Reiten and Maren Mjelde, from English champions Chelsea.
But New Zealand had something bigger. “Because it wasn’t just about winning a game,” Riley said. “It was about inspiring our entire country.”
They — the players and 40,000-plus backing them — pounced on the Norwegians and shook them. They didn’t surprise anybody. “We knew they were going to go out there and be aggressive,” Reiten said of New Zealand. “We knew exactly how they wanted to play. But still …” — she paused to shake her head — “… so poor. I’m very disappointed.”
Norway was rattled. And New Zealand players could tell.
They started strong and ascended.
They matched Graham Hansen and Maanum.
Ria Percival, the Kiwi midfielder who last year suffered the worst ACL tear her surgeon had ever seen and who was told she might never play again, was immense.
Rebekah Stott, a defender who overcame Hodgkin lymphoma, threw her body at Hegerberg to block a shot and muffle one of Norway’s best chances.
They had no business hanging with Norway. They had no business believing. But they had a simple source, one that Hassett referenced when asked postgame why she’d entered Thursday night with so much confidence.
“First game, home, super amazing crowd,” she said. “I mean, why not?”
They looked around and saw former teammates, saw friends and family, saw pois twirling and a human wave circling the stadium. They’d never seen anything like this. They’d never seen anything remotely close. They couldn’t have possibly expected it. But New Zealand, the team and the country, against all odds, delivered.
