I don’t think Ireland have played a more pressurised friendly in our existence. The only other one I can remember feeling remotely similar was the game against Slovakia immediately after the squad took its stand against the FAI back in 2017 – because all eyes were on us. But multiply that tenfold for the players scrambling for the final places in Vera Pauw’s World Cup squad, with Thursday’s game against Zambia their last chance to make their case.
And that pressure showed. All around the pitch there were players so afraid to make mistakes, they seemed stifled by it. The shackles were thrown off in the second half when the game opened up, but by then it was too late for the five taken off at half-time.
Leanne Kiernan was especially unlucky. Everyone involved in Irish football knows about her ability and wants so much for her to be on the plane. I would love if she had stayed on for at least some of the second half because towards the end of the first I think she was really coming into her own.
The nerves definitely got to her in the early stages, but having played only half an hour of football since getting injured last September, that was understandable. As the half wore on, though, she relaxed, and even though her “goal” was offside, she was the first person to break the lines, to get Zambia facing their own goal and to cause trouble.
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She has that ability. She can turn on a sixpence, she’s technically good with her feet, she’s rapid and she can get goals. But she’s never been in the manager’s favour, and Pauw’s prematch comments – “we all know what Leanne was capable of, but we need to see if that’s back in her play” – had a little tone to them. But I’m hoping her being taken off at half-time was pre-planned, easing her back in. We’ll see. I’d love for her to make the squad.
Amber Barrett? Yes, she had a really tumultuous few months in Germany, but I could never understand how anyone could have questioned her place in the World Cup squad.
Who in the wider squad, outside the starting 11, have you seen with the ability to come on and impact the result of a game? Not just play well, but to get on the score sheet? And even with limited opportunities – just eight starts in 30 games under Pauw – she’s done it.
Against Slovakia in Tallaght in 2018 she came on and scored a late winner in a World Cup qualifier. We needed that win, and she delivered. Similarly at Hampden Park last October. I don’t know if anyone else would have had the balls to go through on goal the way she did and toe-poke it home, to back herself in that moment.
I think Kyra Carusa is nailed-on for the World Cup, Pauw having spoken about a change of style to use her abilities as a holdup front player. That’s why Saoirse Noonan was given a chance against Zambia, to see if she could deputise for Carusa in that role.
But Barrett, whose greatest strength is playing off the shoulder and getting in behind, showed glimpses in that game of her ability to hold the ball up too, bringing the midfielders into play. So I think she proved that she can deputise for Carusa and add her own game – which should always have got the respect it deserved anyway.
Claire O’Riordan had a good night too.,Having played with her for Ireland and knowing the amount of effort she puts in, I’d love to see her in the final squad too. But the battle for those centre back positions is the most hotly contested in the squad, with Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey probably the only two certainties.
Aoife Mannion would be too if it wasn’t for her injury worries. She would be a terrific addition to the starting line-up, never mind the squad, but do we really want to bring a half-fit player to the World Cup, in the hope, say, that she’ll make the second game, over someone who is injury-free and ready to play? I think it would be very hard to justify that decision.
And while, of course, you need to rule out sentimentality and just pick the best players available to you, I also think you can’t overlook the squad dynamic and the relationships built up over the years.
If you look at how we qualified for the World Cup, it wasn’t down to brilliant, skilful individual performances, it was based on how hard these girls worked for each other. I know anyone who goes into an international team will do the same, but for girls you’ve been in the trenches with over the years, there might be a little extra there, you might put in an extra tackle, go a little step further for them. It’s important that you don’t completely forget about that.
That’s why, I think, care has to be taken with the players who have got their Irish passports since we qualified – Mannion, Sinead Farrelly and Marissa Sheva. They have five caps between them, and because they’ve come in late, they’re somehow guaranteed to be on the plane.
That throws up an extra nervousness and a kind of weight in the dressingroom, among players who have been part of such a tight-knit group.
If the newcomers are better than what we have, by all means select them. But is, say, Sheva better than Kiernan, Abbie Larkin or my clubmate Erin McLaughlin, who made her debut on Thursday?
We don’t know. We’ve only seen her twice so far, she did well, but have we seen enough to justify her taking the place of a player who’s been a long-time part of this group? That’s a tough one.
I just feel so sorry for the players waiting to hear if they make the squad, I can’t imagine how on edge and stressed they are. Pauw is in such an unenviable position. You’re splitting hairs at this point, there’s so little between many of the contenders.
[ Mary Hannigan: Vera Pauw and the unenviable task of breaking World Cup dreamsOpens in new window ]
To be that close and to be told you haven’t made it? Awful. Especially for players who were there in Hampden Park. It was so special, they’ll always have that. But people won’t look back and say she was part of the squad in Glasgow, it’ll be all about who made it to the World Cup. Jesus, I feel for them all.
