Playing conditions were not so ideal for those in uniform. The spectators were drenched. But, even as the rain muddied the field, no one seemed to care.
The only discontent came as the score ticked over for the other side – and even that was short-lived.
In the colours once worn by the national football team of Afghanistan, girls and women from Sydney and Afghanistan filled both teams in a community football game hosted by Pymble Ladies’ College in Sydney’s North Shore in late March.
Some Afghan girls on the field moved here a handful of years ago. Others just a handful of months ago.
Mona Amini, 17, played on Afghanistan's national football team before she fled to Australia.
“Even now, I can’t say how I got out of that place,” 17-year-old Mona Amini told The Feed.
Until last year, Mona was an attacking midfielder for Afghanistan's national women's team.
A game like this would not be possible in her homeland, with the Taliban banning women from playing sport shortly after its resurgence.
Introduced to the game by her father - who is also a football coach - Mona was one of the youngest players to make the national team.
But her dreams of playing professionally shattered last August when the Taliban regained control in a bloody takeover.
They're days she will never forget. Seven months on, she said she still struggles to find the right words. What she can express, is that she doesn't know how she and her family survived.
"The Taliban [were] next to us and were firing with their weapons, lots of people got killed in front of our eyes, lots of people got injured in front of our eyes," Mona said.
"We were in a situation that I can’t even begin to explain. Our situation was very dire, we even hid inside the drainage canals (near Kabul airport), we even slept down there."
After a day-and-a-half, she made it inside the airport and spent six days in a refugee camp in Dubai before eventually reaching Australia on a humanitarian visa.
As Mona escaped with her family, the majority of the players, team officials and their relatives made the desperate journey together, eventually finding their way to Melbourne, where they train at A-League club Melbourne Victory's facilities and hope to once again represent Afghanistan in international matches.
Zohra Hashemi is one of the volunteers who made the day possible, knowing well what it's like to flee conflict in Afghanistan and settle in a new country, having done it herself in 1998.
Through word of mouth, she united ten newly-arrived girls and women and introduced them to others further along the journey.
Zohra (second from the bottom right) knows the struggle of fleeing conflict in Afghanistan, having done it herself in 1998.
"It was quite overwhelming."
Alongside the game is a fundraiser, with traditional Afghan dress, jewellery and food being sold to raise funds for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country. But mostly, the day is a sign of the ongoing embrace of the Australian community, Zohra said.
"Today's game stem from what we've been through. We wanted to make a difference, bring the girls together and introduce them to the community showing them that, we may look different, but we all feel the same things."
For Mona, it's a reminder that her dream of returning to a football career is again possible.
"Soccer is my life. I want to continue professionally for myself, for my country, for my family, for my hope."
Another player on the field is Farhat Kohistani. The 22-year-old was a network engineer back in Afghanistan before she said goodbye to her family and fled alone after the fall of Kabul.
Farhat, once a network engineer in Afghanistan, said she will pursue journalism to give her people a voice.
She said her experiences and the enduring plight of the women in her homeland had forced her to switch gears, hoping a career in journalism could give her people a voice.
"I will never forget my motherland and that's why I work so hard to be a leader and to change my government's rule, to help my people back in my country," Farhat said.
She said despite the language barriers, empathy has connected the girls and she praised the generous reception of the Australian people.
While she's content and doesn't need much more, Farhat called the moment bittersweet - and said it might stay that way forever.
"Motherland is motherland. I have everything, I don't need anything. I have my things that I need but I really miss my motherland," Farhat said.
"If my country becomes safe, I'm the first person to go back."
Mona echoes the sentiment.
"Girls can't go to school, there's no education for them. People don't know when their next meal will come. They don't know if they will survive today or not."
She said these factors weigh on her mind, and her family's minds, constantly.
"It's hard to settle and be happy knowing that there's an entire country back home that is going through hardship and terror."
