CommBank Matildas forward Caitlin Foord reflected on wearing the captain’s armband in her 150th appearance for the national team on Tuesday evening.
Foord is the sixth player in history to reach that milestone and marked the occasion with a goal in the team’s 3-1 victory over Mexico in Sydney.
She was typically understated when asked about what the moment meant.
“It's really special when you look at it that way – there’s been so many players to play for the Matildas, and only six of us have reached so many caps,” she said.
One of the players who recently reached a milestone was Ellie Carpenter, playing for the 100th time on Saturday evening. Foord reflected on being able to reach these moments with long-time teammates.
“There’s going to be a few more coming as well, from that group of us players that have been around for a long time,” she said.
“It’s nice to get that reward for how much we've given to our country, and get the rewards with being a selected to reach so many caps.
“To reach 100 is obviously huge, and for myself, 150 as well. It’s nice to enjoy these moments together, and celebrate them, which we have during this series.”
She became the 37th player to captain the Matildas when she led the team out of the tunnel.
“It's special to put the armband on,” she expressed.
“It's not something that I love to do, to be fair. That's not really me - I like to lead in other ways. On a special occasion, though, that's what we do. So I just enjoyed the moment, and did the best I could.”
Foord scored the third goal in a back-and-forth match.
“I'm always pleased to get on the scoresheet as part of my job as a forward. Any goal for the national team is special, so I was happy to see it go in the back of the net.”
In terms of the game itself, she said that the team learned from the defeat on Saturday and will take a lot of lessons from the window.
“We've always been good at bouncing back when we have a defeat, but I think we need to turn into that team that dominates and continues to win,” she said.
“We’re disappointed with the first game, but it was nice to bounce back, and we need to keep this momentum going into the World Cup, and get a good feeling going into the World Cup as well.
“We just created it a lot more tonight. We were a bit more calm in the front third as well. We had a lot of chances, and I think it could have been more. In saying that, when we lost the ball, they did counter us a few times, and we need to tighten that up. We can still take a lot of learnings from this as well.”
Now, she will be able to have a well-earned rest after her WSL season with Arsenal has concluded.
“I just gave my boots away - won't be seeing them for a while!” she joked.
“I'll switch off for a few weeks. It’s been nice now to switch off. Obviously, my focus was here to get through these two games, but now I'm going to enjoy that time, and then get back in the preseason.”