Beattie Goad talks football, college and the Matildas

June 20, 2022 c_admin Football News, Women Football Comments Off on Beattie Goad talks football, college and the Matildas

After a long season, Beattie Goad talked to The Women’s Game about her football journey, the Matildas and her life experiences so far.

Beattie Goad’s life in football

  • Beattie Goad earned her first senior Matildas cap in 2021.
  • Prior to that she had taken the leap to the U.S college system, with Stanford University, after three season in the W-League.
  • Goad’s career has seen her play in some of the top leagues and against the best players in the world. 

More Australian football news can be found on FTBL.

The Matildas had not played a game in 14 months.  It was Tony Gustavsson’s first game in charge.  Australia were already down a goal against a merciless opponent and to make matters worse in the fifteenth minute Karly Roestbakken was injured.

Into left back stepped Beattie Goad.  While she had left Melbourne City five years earlier as an attacking midfielder, for many Australians this was the first time they had seen her play in half a decade.  

Goad’s impressive performance against Germany was one of the good news stories that day in a the Matildas 5-2 loss.

For those who have follower her career this was not unexpected.  However, for the now 25 year old, even after a strong first season in Germany with SV Meppen the call up was unexpected.

“It was a bit of a surprise for sure,” Goad said to The Women’s Game from her home in Spain.  

“Although I had a good season in Germany. I was playing at left back which was my first real go there.

“I was so excited, and it really meant the world to me.  I had worked so hard for so long. So, it was really nice to put on the green and gold jersey.

“It was just a very cool experience and a lot of hard work culminating in those two games.”

For Goad that journey to the Matildas was one that took had taken five years after leaving Australia.  Back home she had become the youngest player to feature in a W-League Grand Final and was Melbourne Victory’s youngest ever goal scorer, at the time.

After a season with Melbourne City, Goad was offered the chance to play in the famed U.S college system with one of the top schools and soccer teams, Stanford University.  It was a decision that risked her visibility for national team selectors, but one that she grasped.

Life as a college athlete is an experience that Goad cherished, and one she hopes that other young Aussies consider.

“What I got out of that system was so much, and such a holistic experience,” she says of her time at Stanford.

“You’re in an environment where you get to develop your game as a player, but you’re always developing as a person.

“I knew if I stayed in Australia, I would have to split my university time with my soccer time, and I think I would have found a difficulty in that.

“Sometimes you’re two different people in different spheres. Sometimes it’s hard to merge them in Australia, and I also think at some point players have to prioritise one over the other.

“In the US you’re able to play on a team and share values with your team outside of the game.

“Maybe you’re in the same history class as your teammate. It’s really cool to go to soccer practice and then also have these relationships with your teammates outside of soccer. I think that develops you into a more holistic person.”

“Stepping out of your comfort zone, living in a different country, you just grow as a human being. You become more independent.

“There’s so much out there. There’s so much that Australia has to offer but also a lot that the US has to offer.

“Then you have the best of both worlds. I think it just opens your world up.”

Making the connection 

Goad’s world definitely has opened up. Since her time at Stanford, she has played professionally in Germany and Spain. Although she had always wanted to travel, and had spent time as a Young Matilda, the concept of football being a gateway to the world had not occurred to her until she took that first step.

“I definitely did have this view of I wanting to see the world, but I don’t think I made that connection with football early on.

“I spent a lot of the time studying (in high school). Then I spent my spare time a little bit with friends and mostly with soccer.

“At that age, I was so tunnel visioned. I just really wanted to do well in school, and I really wanted to do well in soccer.

“I wanted to travel the world, but I think I was too naïve to connect the three.

“It was not until I considered going to the U.S that I realized I could.

“I didn’t the connect the three until I went to the US. I think my last season at W-League, I was on the team with Aivi (Luik). She was one of the reasons I went to college because she went through the system. I was just following her career as well.

“She’s an idol for me for sure. I think meeting her and talking to her and considering going to the US is when it all clicked for me.”

Goad’s potential was always obvious, she left Australia as a 19 year old skilful attacking midfielder and has developed into a versatile and experienced footballer. She has built a reputation in two World Cup winning countries, Germany and the United States of America, and has spent the last year with Tenerife in Spain, who are among the favourites at next year’s competition.

Tenerife finished fifth in the Primera División, just four points behind third placed Real Madrid.   They also made the Spanish Cup Semi-Final.  Goad enjoyed her time in Spain, but described it as a “mix of things” overall.

“It was very challenging because I didn’t play as much as I did in Germany,’ she reflects.

“The team was also quite different from my team in Germany and my team at Stanford. That was a bit of a difficult transition.

“On the flip side, living in Tenerife has been really awesome.

“The island itself is incredible and there’s so many things to see, to hike. So many beaches to discover.

“Soccer-wise, it was challenging. I grew so much which is a positive out of it all, and I learned a lot more about the left back position because I only played one season at left back in Germany.

“The player that played at left back here in Tenerife was our captain and a very experienced Spanish player. That was really nice to learn off of her and see how she did things.

“Having the opportunity to live in a place like this and play professional soccer is a pretty cool experience.”

One of her biggest challenges was the language barrier. During her stint in Germany, her club SV Meppen organized and funded German lessons. Goad spent four hours a day learning the language and became fluent.

Learning Spanish independently while establishing herself as a footballer proved more difficult.

“That was a struggle for me at the beginning,” she says.

“Trying to figure out if I just let all my German go, I was trying to juggle both. That was challenging, the immediate switch between two languages.

“I thought that I could just do the same thing that I did with my German, that was not the case.”


Copyright ©The Women’s Game All rights reserved.