"It was a terribly mistimed challenge I genuinely thought I could get the ball, but looking back, I was at least a yard or two away from it," she says. That's when it happens. The moment described by some as 'the worst tackle in women's football history'.Īs Bai attempts the pass, Ferguson slides in with her left boot, colliding with the defender's lower standing leg with such force that it sends her spinning head-first into the grass. The left-back takes a stride towards it, shaping her body to pass the ball to her team-mate upfield. She wants to make her mark do something special that she will be remembered for forever.Īnother 30 seconds pass, and a Chinese midfielder pokes the ball backwards towards Bai. It feels like the eyes of the entire world are on her. She glimpses herself on the stadium's huge screen which showed ads for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Coca-Cola during the warm-ups. The noise of the crowd swells around her the incessant, rhythmic beating of drums from somewhere in the stands pounding in her ears. The first minute is a flurry of panicked passes as both teams feel each other out.Ī nervous touch from Tann is almost pounced upon by a rushing Chinese attacker, but the centre-back slides in and clears the ball upfield just in time.įerguson, playing on the right wing, stretches out a leg to block a long pass from her opposing defender, Bai Lei. "So I had in my head: I need to try and get stuck in and win the ball. "And Brown was telling us before the game: we've got to impose ourselves on them physically, we've got to get stuck in, break up their play, get in their faces.
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