World Cup: Irish pay high price for doing little wrong in group stages

YOU would need a heart of stone not to feel for the Irish players in the huddle after defeat at the hands of Canada. Tears welled in the eyes of Denise O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe as the reality sunk in that their World Cup dreams effectively ended in the howling wind and driving rain of a particularly Irish night on the west coast of Australia.

The accurate but rather unimaginatively named Rectangular Stadium in Perth looked distinctly like the old Lansdowne Road at times on Wednesday, in the sleeting rain, the low-slung corners to the stands, and dark green seats, it evoked memories of the old ground in Ballsbridge, prior to its Aviva facelift.

It certainly felt like a home match. The travelling (and resident) Irish fans, as always, doing their bit to make our teams in exile feel as much at home as possible. The Ole, Ole, Ole was in full voice even before McCabe’s wonder-corner goal after just four minutes. While the Fields of Athenry was warming up nicely as we looked to be coasting to a comfortable half-time lead, despite the interminable added time for injuries leading to the break.

The first half performance from the Girls in Green made a joke of the rankings, as Ireland continued to run rings around the seventh seeds and reigning Olympic champions from North America. The lowly 22nd placed Irish players looking accomplished and confident on the ball, picking up from where they left off at the end of the match against Australia. Holding their own in possession, they pressurised the Canadians into working hard for every second of their time on the ball.

One of the highlights from the first match against Australia was the whipped crosses from Katie McCabe’s corners that continuously put the Aussie keeper under pressure. This time, McCabe cut out the need to connect with a team-mate by going direct to goal over the floundering Kailen Sheridan in the Canadian goal. A magical and historic moment for Irish women’s football and totally well-deserved for Ireland’s player of the tournament so far.

For the rest of the half, Ireland continued to belie their standings, with Sinead Farrelly composed on the ball going forward, and with Niamh Fahey and Megan Connolly dogged as always in defence.

If there is any criticism to be directed at this Irish side, it may be them not making the most of their advantage at this point. Another goal would have buried this Canadian side, who were struggling to find their feet not to mind team-mates at this stage in the game.

Of course, as is so often the case, when you fail to take your chances, it comes back to bite you. And how unfair, after a steadfast performance, that a speculative spinning ball sent in by the Canadians wing into the Irish box that it would hit the bottom of Megan Connolly’s boot, inadvertently sending it past the despairing grasp of Courtney Brosnan in the Irish goal.

It was a late, late, lifebuoy for a floundering Canadian side, and after what one suspects was a bit of a hairdryer dressing down from coach Beverly Priestman and three substitutions at the break, the Olympic champions returned to the field and played a lot more like their vaunted standing should suggest.

They looked a lot more comfortable on the ball. They got their ing triangles back working and started to put pressure on Irish possession, absent from the first half.

Their confidence growing, it was sadly just a matter of time before a well-worked ing move saw a dropping ball land nicely in front of Canadian winger Adriana Leon to finish it past the oncoming Brosnan.

It was enough for the Canadians, who with a mixture of skill and gamesmanship (time-wasting) ran out the clock as Ireland’s attempts to find an equaliser grew evermore frantic.

And that was that. It was desperately unfair that we are already effectively out of the World Cup, after doing so well against two of the more favoured sides to win the tournament overall. It seems even more harsh in the light of the result the following day that saw Nigeria stun the Matildas with a 3-2 victory over the hosts.

Just a little bit more composure in our opening games and maybe a bit more experience in our match-handling and who knows what type of impact we may have had? We can also wonder how we would have fared if we had the expertise of Megan Campbell, Leann Kiernan and Aoife Mannion available to us? But it was not meant to be.

Sure, there were tears in the eyes at the end for the players but they can be proud of their effort. Wipe it away, hold your heads high and face Nigeria in the final match. You can’t advance, but we can still play for pride and you can still play a major role in who advances to the next round.