One of the first things you notice about Sinead Farrelly is the boots. So, two things really.
Vera Pauw’s Ireland team are lots of things to lots of people. Something they’re not, however, is high on notions. Yet even this grounded group run out on to a pitch wearing flashes of gaudy highlighter yellow and pink footwear, hostages to the fluorescent whims of the designers as much as anything. Not Farrelly though.
As she ambled out at CityPark in St. Louis on Monday night for a training session she would take somewhat of a part in, you notice that her feet are blacked out. There’s the tiniest silver swoosh on the inner heel to, almost out of politeness, reassure an interested observer that these are in fact a reputable brand. Otherwise all black.
For a couple of reasons, that would appear to suit Farrelly down to the ground. Firstly, the classic, old-school look is in line with the type of player everyone around the camp described this week, who in her hour-long debut in Texas on the weekend lived up to the billing. Three and four times during this camp when new team-mates or familiar opposition on the US side have been asked about Farrelly, the same word popped up: baller.
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“Sinead is a baller to be fair,” new midfield partner Denise O’Sullivan observed. “Every time she gets on the ball she just brings a calmness to the game and brings other people into it.”
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On Monday evening she tucked off to one corner of the home of St Louis City FC with other members of the panel who were going to be rested for the second meeting with the US in the space of four days on Tuesday here. She proceeded to do some light balling, pinging long passes to team-mates, skipping deliciously crisp cross-field pearlers barely above the bladed grass directly to feet. She smiled and joked and when Pauw regathered her full squad, Farrelly comfortably slotted into the circle, linking arms with her sisters in green.
What a week.
“It’s been a whirlwind. I only came in to train so I didn’t know [I’d be playing]. I just packed for three days and now I’m here for the week!” Farrelly said. “Honestly this whole journey back to soccer for me has been pretty wild. And so I just had to stay grounded, and present, one day at a time and one step at a time.”
On these pages last week, Mary Hannigan detailed Farrelly’s remarkable journey back to football and an international debut that arrived days later at the age of 33. A one-line summary doesn’t do any of it justice but here goes: Farrelly retired through injury in 2016 and later stepped forward to blow the whistle on abuse in the NWSL, detailing alleged sexual coercion by her former coach Paul Riley, but last summer found herself ready to return to football and, having never been capped at senior level by the US, came up on Pauw’s radar.
“It hadn’t been on my radar to play again. It was just last July that I decided and then I was starting at zero and didn’t know where I could get to. When I decided to play in the league here, I started talking to Vera and then I was on the radar,” said Farrelly, whose father Sean is from Virginia in Co Cavan.
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“I was living a normal life back in California doing God knows what. And then the second I was really desiring to go back to soccer again, I knew this was an option and an opportunity.”
Linking up with Pauw added another twist to the remarkable tale given the Ireland’s manager’s inclusion in a report on NWSL abuse that Farrelly helped spark. A relationship is being built ... slowly.
“Yeah, I think we’re still figuring that out,” said Farrelly. “Obviously it takes time to build that trust. I’ve only been in here for [a few days]. That takes time.
“Us talking prior, we weren’t like in depthful conversations. We checked in about stuff but there’s something about playing for someone and their team and representing. That’s going to take time. For me, you gotta take belief and carry it.”
The calmness and clarity that Farrelly speaks with, a little like the black boots, provides understatement. Beneath the surface there is another story, a recovery process that’s still, well, processing.
“My internal experiences are different to my external ones,” she added. “I’m a pretty anxious person so leading up to the game [in Texas] I was freaking out a bit. Once I got out there, I felt pretty calm.”
Farrelly delivered everything Pauw had hoped for in her hour of work. Afterwards the Dutchwoman talked about how the addition has changed the way her team will play going forward. On Monday evening Pauw all but confirmed she will be on the plane to Australia.
Her presence Down Under will be one of the stories of the wider World Cup. Farrelly said she would be “so pumped” to go but is also trying not to attach goals to her comeback.
“It’s crazy, it’s weird,” she said. “I literally don’t understand my life. I’m just showing up for it.”
