Day one down of the Homeless World Cup and I'm reminded again how and why I love this annual event so very, very much.The opening parade was both spectacular and fun as 64 teams hailing from the world over danced, cheered, and marched from the Trocadero past the Eiffel Tower to the pitches set up for them at the Champs de Mars. I imagine it's not often that traffic is stopped around that part of Paris.

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I cried during the opening parade, as I do every year and vow not to do the following. Something, though, about the power of the moment, the mix of joy at being there for the triumph over homelessness, the knowledge of the pain that's preceded it, and the touching, humbling, candid moments of kindness that demonstrate the power of humanity gets me every time.

That sentiment carried throughout the first day, which kicked off in baking 32-degree heat and 1000% humidity. Being Australian, you'd think I'd cope better than the Europeans, but I swear to goodness I sweated out my internal organs and later suffered an in-retrospect hilarious night of heatstroke in my tiny hotel room.

The air-conditioning was broken and the one teeny tiny window I had was right next to the main exhaust fan of the massive air-conditioning unit cooling the other rooms. I blame the combination of jetlag and heatstroke, but it took me a long, long time to work out that wetting towels in the shower and then taking them back to bed with me was the way to go.

That debacle combined with the fact that the Street Socceroos went down to Denmark by a fairly large margin in their opening game should make the first day sound flat. It was anything but, and my softness aside at not coping with the heat, I've never been prouder to be an Aussie.

The Street Socceroos have drawn the HWC's group of death. The only thing that could make it tougher is if the group also included last year's winners and runners up, respectively, Brazil and Chile. Their upcoming opponent Portugal, for starters, consistently finishes in the comp's top four and thinks nothing of pummelling opponents with score lines of 19-0.

It's not that we haven't got a talented team—because we do. It's that I'm pleased to say that win, lose, or draw (well, you can't draw under HWC rules, but meh, semantics), the Australians come over to play fair and relish the experience. Starting the tournament against such a tough group with many of the teams out to win at all costs could potentially be not quite the experience you'd hope for. But their first match demonstrated their—to quote the Matildas' motto—never-say-die attitude.

Denmark stacked on a few goals and, despite plenty of on-target shots on goal, the Street Socceroos couldn't sneak one past the fortress of a Danish keeper. Then, just seconds before the match's end, Denmark were penalised for having three players back (under HWC rules, three can push forward to attack, but only two can drop back to defend).

Cindy Chatters, the Street Socceroos' only female player, stepped up to take the penalty while the rest of the team lined up on the halfway mark ready to race in should the shot be deflected. They didn't need to, though, with Chatters booting the ball straight past the keeper and into the net.

The crowd, which had been cheering 'Go Aussies' the whole time, erupted. Even more so when the full-time whistle went a few seconds later. Then the Street Socceroos and the Danes got together in a group huddle in the middle of the pitch to sing what the Street Socceroos have decided will be their new song: 'I am, you are, we are Australian...'

It was an incredible finish and a fitting one too. The Street Socceroos take on India and England on day two.

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