Afghanistan women's national soccer team playing in exile: 'The heart that is still beating'

Sufficiently fluent in English, Mursal's transition to Australia hasn't faced the barriers that some of her non-English-speaking teammates have confronted, but that doesn't mean it's been smooth sailing. Her family remains in Afghanistan as she begins a new life in Australia -- a common source of fear and anxiety for many members of the team -- and so matchdays and training sessions have become incredibly important; she can join her "second family" and partake in what she calls one of her "loves."

"When you don't have your first family, you have your second family," Mursal told ESPN at the offices of Professional Footballers Australia, who are offering the players education and vocational support as newly minted members of the player's union. "In a foreign country, where you don't know anyone, you have your second family -- and that's my teammates, Khalida and all of those [who] have supported us to come here and are still supporting us to improve.

"When the Taliban were trying to take over Afghanistan, we stopped playing soccer because our lives were in danger. Our coach told us we can't play anymore and the federation said there were many dangers. So we stopped playing.

"After such a long time, eight or nine months, we were able to play soccer again. We were able to feel the ground again. It was amazing. For me, it felt like after such a long time you are meeting your love again. It was like this."

Mursal and her defensive partners were eventually rewarded for their efforts in battening down the hatches as the AWT began to wrest control of the game from Buffalo. A breakthrough to make it 1-0 came after a quarter of an hour, and attacker Manozh doubled the advantage just three minutes later when she pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the area.

Tall, pacey and with her hair kept short, Manozh cuts an easily recognisable and intimidating figure at the front of the AWT attack; she's just as capable of bursting behind her opponents with pace as she is shrugging off their defensive attention with her physical profile. This is matched with a keen eye for goal, and she is one of the team's leading scorers.

Like Mursal, Manozh has her soccer favourites. A Manchester United supporter, her favourite player is Cristiano Ronaldo, whose signature leaping celebration she has made her own, emulating it when she scored her second goal of the game just before half-time.

She has been playing soccer in an organised fashion for only four years, meaning she's yet to properly scratch the surface of her potential, but she has loved and watched the game since she was six years old. Outside soccer, she is adjusting to a Melbourne environment she describes as "f------ cold," studying to improve her English and working multiple jobs -- an example of the many hats that refugees must wear as they lay down roots in the aftermath of their forced relocations.

For her, soccer offers not just a place to be with her teammates but also ambition -- a desire to go as far as she can. A newer favourite player of her's, found via a prolific Instagram habit, is Victory ALW striker, and potential future teammate, Maja Markovski.

"Maybe after this season or next season, we could go to another team -- or even join Melbourne Victory," she said. "Because we can do anything in soccer."

Manozh's second strike of the day, the effort that earned the "Siuuu" celebration, came after fellow attacker Nilab had got to the byline and cut the ball back -- albeit it was quite clear that the AWT No. 7's first instinct had been to find an angle for a shot herself.

Her hair also cut short, Nilab's competitive spirit and desire to win are apparent the moment she steps onto the pitch, and her ability on the ball is among the highest on the team. The attacker's arms are adorned with tattoos and, while she doesn't possess the height of Manozh, she carries the same hunger for goals. It was Nilab who had opened the scoring against Melton Phoenix in the team's first game at Ron Barassi Reserve, going down in the record books as the first member of the team to find the back of the net in Australia.

Nilab had been forced to wait until the half-hour mark to enter the game against Buffalo, a sanction for arriving at the ground after the time set by Hopkins and agreed to by the team, and she was eager to make up for the lost time finding the net with a quick-fire brace in the second half as the AWT eased into a 4-0 lead.

Soccer has played a big part in Nilab's life. Mickey Hodgson, marketing manager of Ultra Football, a specialist soccer shop based in Melbourne that has partnered with Victory to kit the team out, recalled how Ultra had made an immediate impression when the AWT players arrived for their kit launch photoshoot -- for which Nilab became one of the faces.

Hodgson explained that Nilab revealed at a subsequent visit with a translator how the store had brought forth memories of a printing business that she had frequently visited while growing up in Kabul. There, as a young girl rapidly falling in love with soccer, she had watched numbers and names be pressed onto the back of shirts for sale. And now, more than a decade on and half a world away, in a place where there isn't a fear of reprisal for loving the game, she was reminded of those happier times.

"[The] first time she came in for the kit launch, she was the one that pulled me aside, looking around and you could see that she was pretty amazed by the whole thing," Hodgson said. "She was like, 'This is my dream to work here in Australia.'"

In making it 5-0 inside an hour, Nilab had effectively killed off any chances of an already unlikely Buffalo comeback; her side putting in a five-star demonstration of how far they had come in just a few short months. She wasn't done, however (not surprising given her competitive temperament), and she added a final exclamation point, as well as completed her hat trick to make it 6-0 with five minutes remaining.

There were appeals from the defence for the assistant to flag for offside, but it didn't come. It was the correct call, even if it did attract further raised eyebrows from the Buffalo bench given that Didulica was the linesman on that side of the field -- the Victory football director lured down to Docklands by the opportunity to measure the AWT's progress and roped into serving as the team's "volunteer" to ruin his white sneakers in the mud and run the line.

Didulica couldn't stick around after the game, however, as he had to rush to a nearby hospital to accompany a player who had suffered a wrist injury during the match. Without the player's family in Australia, Didulica would serve as a figure of authority pushing to get her seen and treated as soon as possible, as well as serve as a trusted and reassuring presence as the challenges of language barriers and confusion over masks were confronted.

Hopkins, meanwhile, addressed the players who remained, congratulating them on another win, providing encouragement for their performance and touching base about the plans for training in the week ahead. As the season progresses, he's been gradually trying to partner with the squad to increase the level of discipline and accountability. A hard-nosed and feared defender in his playing days, Hopkins has morphed into one of the most well-liked and well-respected coaches in Australian soccer in his post-playing career, taking both Brisbane Roar and Victory to A-League Women titles and working with Matildas such as Clare Polkinghorne, Tameka Yallop and Alex Chidiac.

"I'd heard all the stories about them and just wanted to try and help in some way. It seemed the right thing to do," Hopkins said.

"Once I got involved with them ... their enthusiasm is infectious and you want to be around them. They're playing the game because they love to play the game. They're playing the game for the right reasons. You can't fathom that they're not allowed to go and kick a ball around in their own country, their backyard."