Foord focus

For the third time in the match Marta, the reigning five time World Ployer of the

Year, had been stripped of the ball only to turn and see the 16-yearold number 9 jersey accelerating past her and streaming down the pitch.

A contorted expression of frustration and a very Latin shrug followed the vocal

complaints and hand gestures of her Brazilian teammates in front. of the 25,000 plus crowd at Monchengladbach's Borussia-Park.

It hos already become a port of the folklore of Caitlin Faord; that moment when the wunderkind went up against the living legend.

"Walking out, I sort of knew I was about to toke on one of the best attackers in the world," Foord remembers of the instant she introduced herself on the world stage. "I was so young ond, like a lot of things, it didn't bother me. There wos just excitement for the whole experience."

In only her fifth appearance in the green and gold, the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was just onotherwas another surreal moment in what hod already been o rapid ascent in women's football.

"I remember going into the change rooms before and just seeing the nerves on the faces of oil the older girls," she recalls. "Lisa (De Vanna], she was o wreck. $,he wos super nervous. Looking over at players like Heather [Garriock] and Melissa [Barbieri] ond seeing how they were reacting, I was thinking 'Oh shit. What hove I got myself into?"'

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Originally written for FourFourTwo Australia