Five Football-Loving Ways to Get Into the Women's World Cup Spirit Around Brisbane

Can't make it to a Women's World Cup match, but still want to enjoy the football frenzy? Try soccer ball-shaped pastries and riverside brews.
Sarah Ward
Published on August 09, 2023

Five Football-Loving Ways to Get Into the Women's World Cup Spirit Around Brisbane

Can't make it to a Women's World Cup match, but still want to enjoy the football frenzy? Try soccer ball-shaped pastries and riverside brews.

Sorry AFL, NRL and all other types of kicking a ball around. Football fever is sweeping through Brisbane right now, and soccer is the main focus. When the Matildas are competing in the 2023 Women's World Cup and smashing it — topping their group, making it to the Round of 16 and now lined up for a quarter-final showdown against France — no other form of sport really counts.

Brisbane has been playing host to games, too, but not everyone can make it along. Missed out on a match ticket, but still want to enjoy the football frenzy? Try soccer ball-shaped pastries, riverside brews and chicken salt-flavoured chicken wings. They're all on our list of ways to get into the Women's World Cup spirit around Brisbane, no matter which team you're cheering for, how you feel about Sam Kerr's calf and how tense you get watching penalty shootouts.

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  • 5

    For the entire duration of the Women’s World Cup, South Bank has the become home to the Brisbane/Meaanjin leg of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 FIFA Fan Festival. On the lineup at the Riverside Green until Sunday, August 20: live tunes, having a kick yourself, bites and brews, and also watching every single Women’s World Cup game live and for free.

    Here, you can head down every day that there’s a match to watch, and also soak in the Women’s World Cup festivities. However Sam Kerr and company fare, and whether or not they end up lifting the coveted cup, their matches are gracing South Bank’s big screen — as is every other game in the tournament. Also on offer: daily sets with DJs and other artists, acoustic sunset sessions, a game pitch where you can try to bend it like whichever soccer player takes your fancy, food ranging from Mediterranean barbecue to Japanese, and and bars.

    Image: IQRemix via Wikimedia Commons.

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  • 4

    The fact that Australia is hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup is mighty sweet news. That matches are happening right here in Brisbane? That’s even sweeter. The Matildas winning the whole thing would be the sweetest outcome of all — but, whatever happens on the turf, Emporium Hotel South Bank has a few sweet tricks of its own. The towering hotel and its bars and eateries love celebrating an occasion, so of course the whole lot is going all-in for this football extravaganza. You’ve got two places to head to until Sunday, August 20: up to the The Terrace 21 storeys up for drinks, and to French patisserie Belle Epoque downstairs for dessert.

    Grab a limited-edition Matilda cocktail for $26 and you’ll be sipping Aussie rum, passionfruit, vanilla and saffron in a coconut-dipped glass. Or, with the Cold Irish Coffee for the same price, you’ll enjoy Jameson whisky with Mr Black coffee liqueur, plus honey, muscovado sugar, filtered coffee and cream. And, Belle Epoque has created a macadamia chocolate caramel tart that looks like a soccer ball. The $12 treat features a chocolate ball shell, grass made out of green fondant, and salted caramel and milk chocolate cremeux as a filling.

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  • 3

    Thirty-two teams. 64 matches. One huge month of football. That’s the Women’s World Cup equation for 2023, with the soccer frenzy taking over Australia and New Zealand. Suncorp Stadium — or Brisbane Stadium as the Milton venue has been renamed for the occasion — is hosting games, but tickets are unsurprisingly proving popular. So, you might want to watch the Matildas and every other national squad that’s made the cut at Howard Smith Wharves, in the resident waterside brewery’s barrel hall.

    For the latter, Felons is your go-to until Sunday, August 20 — and it’s showing every single game live on the big screen. Even better, the beer-loving spot is plastering its Women’s World Cup coverage across its rivergarden. Sitting under the Story Bridge, drinking brews, eating snacks, getting warm by the sun or the heaters, watching the world’s top women’s soccer players do their best: now that’s something to say cheers to.

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  • 2

    When a venue is called Winghaus, it’s obvious what’s on the menu. This chain doesn’t just love chicken pieces, however; it also adores sport. So, with for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, of course it’s doing something special. On offer: games on the big screens, plus slivers of chook with inventive flavours based on the competing soccer squads.

    Head to the brand’s sites — including its Brisbane CBD joint and in Bowen Hills — until Sunday, August 20 for the Winghaus Women’s World Cup. Here, you’ll feast your way through the football frenzy with chicken salt, maple bacon, salsa brava and curry ketchup wings, plus chimichurri, Korean barbecue, and Manuka honey and lemon. Ten countries are represented, also spanning the US, Germany, England, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, China and Spain. Prefer a vegetarian version? Cauliflower wings are on the menu as well — and, either way, you’ll pay $16–19 for ten pieces, $29–32 for 20, $59–62 for 50 and $109–112 for 100.

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  • 1

    There are plenty of ways to embrace football fever in Brisbane during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which is being held right here in Australia — and also across the ditch — for the first time ever. The simplest: hitting up one of the pubs and bars around the city that are getting into the soccer spirit.

    One such spot: Archive Beer Boutique, which is pouring its usual array of brews and popping the world’s best football players on its screens seven days a week. You’ll find key matches showing, and you can request others. We’re betting that the Matildas are featuring heavily. Wearing green and gold is obviously up to you. If you want to try to pair dishes from Archive’s street food and pub favourite-heavy menu with the teams playing, that’s up to you as well.

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