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Get to know the chances of the Republic of Ireland’s Women’s national team at the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Overview
Until last year, the closest the Republic of Ireland had ever come to qualifying for a major tournament was when they made it to a play-off for Euro 2009, Iceland putting paid to their ambitions. But after taking the runners-up spot in their World Cup qualifying group behind Sweden, thanks largely to beating Finland home and away, they finally did it with a 1-0 play-off victory over Scotland in Glasgow last October.
“What heroes, what fighters, what tigers,” said a rapturous Vera Pauw that night at Hampden Park, the Dutchwoman, after 25 years in coaching, having made it to her first World Cup too. A run of seven defeats in a row in the early part of her reign hardly augured well, but the team turned it around, captain Katie McCabe and midfielder Denise O’Sullivan, with 13 goals and 11 assists between them in the qualifying campaign, their standout players.
The success, however, has primarily been built on a solid defence, with Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey at its heart. Goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan has shone too, after difficult moments earlier in her career, seven successive clean sheets up to last April earning her Ireland’s international player of the year award.
Pauw’s conservative tactics – she usually opts for five at the back with two midfielders performing shielding duties – aren’t universally appreciated, but she stands by her approach. “It is not that I love a deep block – I love winning,” she has said. “We need to be realistic, we have performed so well as a team - and that starts with not conceding.”
Against stronger opposition, though, goals can be hard to come by, set-pieces often their chief source. McCabe, O’Sullivan and Megan Connolly’s delivery are likely to be key again. As will the ever trusty head of Quinn.
The coach
Vera Pauw. The former Dutch international, who was a teammate of England manager Sarina Wiegman for a decade, is a vastly experienced coach who had spells in charge of Scotland, the Netherlands, Russia and South Africa before being appointed to the Irish job in 2019. Last year was a momentous one in her life, the 60-year-old going public with allegations that she had been raped as a young woman by a Dutch coach and sexually assaulted by two more.
In December, she was on the receiving end of allegations, chiefly about ‘body-shaming’ players in her season in charge of Houston Dash. She was subsequently sanctioned by the NWSL, but she has strenuously denied the charges and has engaged a lawyer to fight them. “I’m not going to sit in a corner and let the storm get over me – be the storm.”
Star player
Undoubtedly, Katie McCabe. The Dubliner, who was named Arsenal’s player of the year for the season just ended, is the face of this Irish team, having been appointed her country’s youngest ever captain at 21 six years ago. Goals, assists, tackles, arguments with the ref, she brings the lot. The eternal debate, though, echoed at Arsenal, is where is she best deployed? Most Irish fans would prefer to see her further up the pitch, but the ever-cautious Pauw often slots her in to the left wing-back role. Wherever she plays, she’ll be central to Ireland’s World Cup prospects.
Rising star
Okay, this will sound weird - but Ireland’s rising star could well be a a 33-year-old midfielder. Sinead Farrelly only made her debut for her adopted country last April after an eight-year absence from the game, during which she was central to the NWSL’s investigation into misconduct by coaches in the league after her allegations against her former coach Paul Riley. “We were waiting on a player like Sinead,” said Vera Pauw after Farrelly’s debut against the United States, the country of her birth. She’s never lost her class, and, if fit, could take the quality of the Irish midfield up several notches.
Did you know?
If she hadn’t chosen boxing over football, world champion Katie Taylor could well be limbering up for a World Cup as we speak. A hugely gifted player, she was called up to the Irish Under-19 squad when she was just 15 and went on to win 11 senior caps. But she turned down a contract offer from Arsenal in 2008 to focus on boxing. With an Olympic gold medal and a bundle of professional world titles to her name, you’d imagine she has no regrets.
Standing of women’s football in Ireland?
While the domestic game still struggles in terms of attendances and media coverage, and carries on losing its best players to the UK and beyond, the national team’s profile has gone through the roof since World Cup qualification. There has been a surge in young girls joining clubs around the country, when Gaelic games would have been the number one attraction before; there have been record crowds and TV audiences along the way for the national team who now have match-fee parity with their male counterparts. And come September, they will play in the national stadium for the first time. And it’s only six years since the squad threatened strike action against their association for being treated “like the dirt on the their shoe,” as their legal advisor put it. Changed times.
Realistic aim at the World Cup?
It’ll be no small challenge finishing in the top two in a group that includes co-hosts Australia and Olympic champions Canada, both ranked in the world’s top ten. Realistically, Ireland’s best hope would be the runners-up spot, at which stage they would most likely meet England in the last sixteen. Tricky. Vera Pauw, though, is up for that challenge. “What was it that that Jackie Charlton used to say? We’ll give it a lash!”
Written by Mary Hannigan (The Irish Times) for the Guardian.
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