Adelaide United Captain Isabel Hodgson (she/her) is excited to be playing in the inaugural A-Leagues Pride Game on Saturday.
The Reds will be the first professional football team to host a Pride Game in Australia.
The matchday is a show of support and solidarity with the LGBTI+ community and a promotion of respect, inclusivity and acceptance.
The women’s side tackle Melbourne Victory before the men’s team host Central Coast Mariners.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Hodgson told reporters at Coopers Stadium on Monday.
“I think it’s going to be such an amazing day and even just this week kicking off now there’s so many great things that are going to happen leading up to the game.
“Even the game itself, playing here at Coopers obviously with the rainbow flag printed everywhere – it’s going to be fantastic.”
Hodgson said sport, specifically football, has the power of bringing all cultures and people together regardless of gender, ethnicity or sexuality.
“I think the best thing about it is that sport is something that brings everyone together,” Hodgson said.
“So it doesn’t really matter about anything else – your race or your sexuality.
“It’s just about playing football, so it’s great that our Club stepped forward and openly shown that we’re supportive of the LGBTI+ community.”
The Reds are also in superb form having won their past two matches while scoring 12 goals to currently lie in third place on the table.
Adrian Stenta’s side are on the brink of its maiden finals appearance but it is not guaranteed just yet.
However, a win over fourth-place Victory would change that as they currently lie three points clear of fifth-ranked Perth Glory with two regular season games left.
“I think we’re playing really well and we’re having fun out there while doing it,” she said.
“Melbourne Victory is going to be a huge game, they’re a great side and we played them the first round and didn’t have our greatest performance (a 5-1 loss).
“And ever since then we’re improving, so I think for us we’re going to go out there and show them they got lucky in round one and we’re going to put heaps of goals by them.”
