"I'm so excited. I'm now starting to think about what it will be like to be a player at a homeworld cup, it is just surreal," Matildas defender Steph Catley said while watching the live-streamed announcement from Zurich, Switzerland. "It's giving me goosebumps."
Goalkeeper Lydia Williams told ABC News Breakfast, “We've had to slog it out pretty tough over the last five or six years and to get this amazing result, I think, is just incredible, not only for women's football and our team, but for football in Australia.”
She added, "The fact that it's so multicultural, there are so many different people that play the game, I think it's just going to grow football in Australia and New Zealand to have the next generation coming through.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also weighed in on the exciting news, tweeting: “For the first time in history, Australians and New Zealanders will be able to experience a global football tournament, right here on home soil. How Good!"