AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Eden Park had been waiting to explode despite zero evidence that the chance would ever come.
It filled Thursday night for a Women’s World Cup opener dampened by a deadly morning shooting, looming rain and 20-mile-per-hour biting winds.
It filled to see a team that had never won a World Cup game, a team dotted with borderline semi-professionals, against a one-time champ dotted with UEFA Champions League winners.
And a little after 8 p.m. local time, against all odds, it exploded.
It exploded after Katie Bowen clipped a ball out toward the right sideline and after the Football Ferns, as they’re known, went back-to-front in six remarkable, rehearsed touches.