BRISBANE, Australia — Grace Geyoro could not stop tears coming down her cheeks. As she started to speak just a few minutes after France's heartbreaking exit on penalties against Australia in their Women's World Cup quarterfinal, she couldn't hold her emotions in anymore.
On the pitch, the 26-year-old hugged and comforted her teammates after the final whistle. Now, it was her time to let go. So she paused, dried her tears, took a deep breath and tried to make sense of the past 150 minutes or so of her life. «It hurts a lot,» she told ESPN. «That's football, though.
We gave everything. I am so proud of all the girls and of the staff. There is nothing more that I could ask of them. We worked so hard, and today we have a unit.
We need to fight now to do better next time. We had chances, we were aggressive, but we lacked a bit of efficiency in front of goals.» Finally, before leaving with her head down, she added: «The biggest regret is that we lost knowing we gave everything.» — Women's World Cup: Landing page | Schedule | Rosters | News She should hold her head high.