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AND SO, IRELAND’S World Cup dream has come to a gut-wrenching end on a miserable night in Perth.
It all started so well against Olympic champions Canada, with Katie McCabe scoring directly from a corner in the fourth minute.
But Megan Connolly’s unfortunate own goal was a sucker punch on the stroke of half time, and Adriana Leon’s 53rd-minute winner ultimately eliminated the Girls in Green from their first-ever major tournament.
17,065 fans watched on at Perth Rectangular Stadium, the vast majority of them Irish. They were loud and proud throughout, with the noise around Amhrán na bhFiann particularly special, but Vera Pauw’s side fell frustratingly short in what was a must-not-lose Group B showdown.
Pauw originally made one change to the XI that lost 1-0 to Australia in Sydney, with Lucy Quinn starting ahead of Marissa Sheva. Louise Quinn and Heather Payne were pre-match injury concerns; the former played but the latter pulled up in the warm-up. Áine O’Gorman instead came in for her 119th cap at right wing-back.
Canada — 15 places above Ireland in the Fifa world rankings at seventh — welcomed Chelsea playmaker Jessie Fleming back into the fold after their 0-0 draw with Nigeria, with the legendary Christine Sinclair restricted to a bench role.
Ireland’s almost-perfect first half was undone at the very death. The clock read 49:35 when Canada equalised, and their experience told from there. Ultimately, Bev Priestman’s team dominated the second half and their substitutes made a big difference.
McCabe’s wonderstrike handed Ireland the dream start, Pauw’s typically-defensive side showing their attacking intent from the get-go. The industrious Kyra Carusa drew a save from Kailen Sheridan to win the set-piece, after O’Gorman played Lucy Quinn in for an excellent cross. And McCabe wrote her name into the history books as Ireland’s first-ever Women’s World Cup goalscorer with a sublime left-footed curling corner.
The roar as the Dubliner wheeled off in celebration said it all.
Straight from a corner Katie McCabe gives Ireland the lead against Canada with four minutes gone #wwc2023
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) July 26, 2023
📺Watch https://t.co/2W5kFtUgZE
📻Listen https://t.co/QHSJNYlfx8
📱Follow https://t.co/wLYTuOnlvw pic.twitter.com/PAscA2LWRh
With Canada rattled after the early concession, McCabe ran at them and Sinead Farrelly let fly. Courtney Brosnan claimed anything sent her way, including a Jordyn Huitema shot after O’Gorman lost her footing.
Ruesha Littlejohn and Denise O’Sullivan mixed style with substance as they battled in the middle, while Carusa offered plenty up top. After a lengthy stoppage as Ashley Lawrence received treatment, Canada had a big chance on the half-hour mark. Vanessa Gilles really should have done better when she looped over after a flick-on from Kadeisha Buchanan.
O’Sullivan blazed over at the other end after good work from Farrelly, while Carusa threatened Sheridan again after an excellent McCabe ball. But it was Canada who found their groove at the right time; Julia Grosso turning Niamh Fahey and her cross deflecting off the unfortunate Connolly right before half time.
Brosnan’s goal was under siege either side of the break. Gilles beat her to a Jessie Fleming corner and just missed, before the US-born ‘keeper denied the electric Huitema with a superb save.
But in the 53rd minute, she was picking the ball out of the back of her net once more. O’Gorman unnecessarily conceded a throw-in, substitute Sophie Schmidt picked out Leon in the box, and the Manchester United striker poked home.
Ireland tried to go for it, Pauw calling for the cavalry with Abbie Larkin, Marissa Sheva, Lily Agg and Izzy Atkinson all introduced from the bench. She changed formation, aiming to go down fighting — and with no regrets. But perhaps it was too much change, and Canada’s experience shone through down the home straight.
While the Canucks admittedly looked the more likely side to score again, Ireland always held a threat through McCabe. Having hit Carusa with an excellent cross earlier in the half, the world-class left-sided star created a superb chance for herself as the clock struck 80 but the ball whisked out for a corner. Shortly after, she opted to go herself when there were other options on.
The ending was error-strewn, with both sides producing half-chances as Canada ran down the clock. A stretcher was called for Jayde Riviere, who looked to be suffering with cramp in injury time, and Ireland’s dream slowly died.
No one can take this piece of history away from them though, and they’ll hope to finish their maiden World Cup with points on the board against Nigeria on Monday.
IRELAND (5-4-1): Courtney Brosnan; Áine O’Gorman (Marissa Sheva 59), Louise Quinn, Niamh Fahey, Megan Connolly, Katie McCabe; Sinead Farrelly (Izzy Atkinson 65), Denise O’Sullivan, Ruesha Littlejohn (Lily Agg 65), Lucy Quinn (Abbie Larkin HT); Kyra Carusa (Amber Barrett 65).
CANADA (4-3-3): Kailen Sheridan; Kadeisha Buchanan (Shelina Zardosky HT), Jayde Riviere (Allysha Chapman 93), Ashley Lawrence, Vanessa Gilles; Quinn, Julia Grosso (Christine Sinclair HT); Jessie Fleming; Evelyne Viens (Sophie Schmidt HT), Jordyn Huitema, Adriana Leon (Chloe Lacasse 59).
Referee: Laura Fortunato (Argentina).gify-link=”https://members.the42.ie/” data-sk=”tooltip_parent”>here.
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Terrible…we couldn’t string two passes together.
@Ronan Skelly: Women want to be judged by the same standards that men are but when it happens there’s uproar amongst certain people. The football is bad. End of story.
@John Fagan: They should get paid more than the men then as they qualified for the world cup, something the men have failed to do.
@Steve: Yeah, right.
@Ronan Skelly: was the same in the first half of the Australian game,they simply could not pass the ball to each other very frustrating to look at I didn’t even bother looking at any of the game today.
@Steve: you seem to forget 1990, 1994 and 2002
@Ronan Skelly:
LOL
Katie McCabe is good enough to make any team at that world Cup. The problem for Ireland is that no other player on our team is anywhere close to her level. Nothing lacking in terms of effort but the skills levels just aren’t high enough. No shame in it, just needs a lot of work. I thought the attempts by the RTÉ pundits to lay the blame at the door of Pauw were mean spirited. We wouldn’t have been within a million miles of a world Cup without the level of professionalism she has brought to the team. Hopefully she remains on for the coming years.
@James Groden: Tbf, Tony O’Donaghue gave Pauw a post match belly rub after the first game but RTE do love a good manager bashing, Stephen Kenny is still licking his wounds.
@James Groden: The hounding of Vera Pauw is about to start. The sports media here are now as bad as the english media for thrashing football managers. Vera Pauw should be kept for the european championships and let her decide what she will do after that. The work shes done with this team is excellent and being a young squad can only improve
Not good enough
@ciaran o dowd: And there we go again. Negativity at its best.
@hans vos: No the truth at its best. Or is going being knocked out of the competition after 2 games considered good enough.
@hans vos: but he’s right what do you want him to say? Lol can hardly say any different
@Roy Dowling: Not being among the world’s best 16 teams is not a disgrace, especially for a small country. There are a couple of hundred countries in the world.
@Roy Dowling: And the two countries we lost to are ranked in the top 10.
@hans vos: there we go again what? I’m a season ticket holder for the senior men’s team for god know how long. I call the team out when bad, are women to be treated differently? They were not good enough today, end of story.
@Brendan O’Brien: So we should applaud going out at the very first opportunity? If we had made it to the 3rd game with a chance I’d say it was a decent competition but we couldn’t even manage that. So I’m going to give them the same acknowledgement i would like the men’s national team and say it wasn’t good enough
@Roy Dowling: We should applaud their efforts in getting this far. The fact that they played top-10-ranked teams in their first two matches (and lost narrowly in each) is down to the luck of the draw. Ultimately, the positions at the end of the group stages are what matters. They still have a chance of finishing third, but, third or fourth, we should be proud of them, and keep a sense of perspective. Many nations are far ahead of us in terms of playing populations and resources.
@Brendan O’Brien: different game, different audience, different expectation. My daughter and her friends all play, really enjoy playing, great camaraderie. Let’s see how it develops over time.
@hans vos: Ciaran is 100% correct they were not good enough FULL STOP
@Roy Dowling: how many others team will be knocked out in the next couple of days??
@Larry O Reilly: I don’t know, but I’m Irish so I am only interested in the Irish national team. So it’s irrelevant to me who else gets knocked out I won’t be watching.
@Roy Dowling: World ranking Canada 8
Australia 11
Ireland. 22
Then loosing against those 2 countrys is not the score you hope for but realistically a good result if you lose by only 1 goal difference.
@hans vos:
oh you mean like celebrating murderers ?
Can they start taking that Bunting down around Ringsend for Jasus sake
@david finglas: I never comment on this site but for some reason YOU stand out to me… what’s your actual agenda David??
@Donna Fallon: To get your attention Donna,, looks like it worked
@david finglas: not funny. Do we know each other??
@Donna Fallon: David is a troll, best to ignore/mute them.
@david finglas: nope David I’ve well more important things to be worried about TBH so yes my reaction to you is an exception
@Jen McC: thank you Jen x
@Donna Fallon: actually thought he was quick of the mark
@Sheila McNulty: huh??
@david finglas: PM me because you’ve WRECKED my head… my number is 999
No luck at all.
Bossed the first half only to lose a freak own goal
Katie McCabe different class.
This young squad will come again.
its no wonder they struggled to convince TV companies to broadcast this in europe, awful tournament and football….Now I prepare to get pelters for saying this
@Tom Newell: Let them pelt away. Tiddley winks would be better.
Heartbreak? Bit of a stretch. Anyone with even an ounce of football knowledge knew they’d be on the first flight home.
Terrible stuff. Let’s put Stephen Kenny in charge of them.
@reg morrisey: Well that’s the end of them qualifying for anything if he takes over
Great start but ultimately too many silly mistakes to compete at this level.
Bad enough that the men’s team is no use. Now the women’s team are equally useless
@Alan: at least the women can make it to a World cup!
@Alan: Fix your bra, it’s 10 times harder for the men to qualify for major tournaments.
Ex WC winners like Italy failed to qualify for 2 consecutive WC’s so calm down with the hysterics.
@Gráinne O Connell: 1990, 1994 and 2002 and many a good game they had
Doesn’t matter if the standard in the women’s game isn’t as good as the men’s, they’re playing against the team they line out against.. and within that context these girls have done so well. Good first match, great first half against Canada.. great achievement.. They’ve shown real progress against their competitors. All the miserable mouthbreathers here who can’t stand it for some reason.. sad.
Passing was terrible like a load of kids playing on the street ffs kinda like the mens team, oh well going out early is something we’re used to anyway
The foul throws when we have the ball in their half in a good position are unforgivable – you’d wonder how good the preparation was and professionalism is when they can’t even take a throw in properly
A lot of poor men on here missing the fact that they can’t complain about their favourite English team.
@Jen McC: nope we just acknowledging that it wasn’t a great tournament. The same way we do with the men’s national team when they produce similar results.
@Roy Dowling: you might be Roy, a lot of people are getting personal.
Great to see such wonderful gender equality flourishing in Ireland – the women have shown they are more than capable of being just as utterly hopeless at football as the men.
@Brendan O’Brien: You started well Brendan,with the first sentence, after that the compliment backfired.
@Patrick Presley: His name is not Brendan.
Underfunded for years but still managed to qualify.Losing to the host nation,and current Olympic champions by the slimmest of margins in both games is far from disgraceful.I applaud these woman despite the huge gulf in ability their sheer tenacity made me proud.
I’m sorry to hear that . It’s still a great achievement to get to the world cup so fair play to them .
They have a game to play against Nigeria so hopefully they’ll get a good result in that match and finish on high note.
Whatever happens they have set the bar high for subsequent teams .
The country is so proud of the team you done your best
The Women’s team is no different to the men’s. Poor in every conceivable way compared to the competiton.
It’s fun to pretend the impossible dream might happen. But it’s impossible for a reason.
Ireland just can’t accomplish things like this. Crap leadership and wasting money is what we do best.
It’s a real pity that there are so many unrepresentative critical comments on here from some men.
It’s very divisive, begrudging, small minded and looks bad because it is bad.
@Patrick Presley: And yet nobody will say anything when the same people today are giving the same critical comments to the men’s teams when they lose. At least I can say consistent at giving support and criticism to both the men’s and women’s team. The same can’t be said for you when it comes to calling us out?.
@Roy Dowling: There is no denying that the optics look wrong when criticism is leveled at women by men.
A little empathy and support might be a better approach.
@Patrick Presley: no it’s only wrong because you think it is. Funny how the world wants equality but we can’t criticise a bad football performance?
@Patrick Presley: I noticed you didn’t call for empathy and support to be directed at the men’s team as well. Why is that?
@Patrick Presley: Surely it’s fair to dish out criticism in equal measures. You seem to think it’s not, that women should be criticised in a more gentle manner. You sound like you do not see women as equals, are you a mysogynist?
@Roy Dowling: Roy I’m certain you’re a decent man. If there’s criticism of the men’s team it’s largely from men, fair enough. But a load of comments from men criticising women just isn’t right. Surely you can see that.
@Nick Cahill: if it were equal measures yeah that would be fine, the critical comments here are all from men,what’s equal about that?
@Patrick Presley: No I can’t because unlike you I don’t consider a woman any different from a man. Can you not see your comments are sexist and paint women as inferior to men? Equality is treating everyone the same regardless of gender. So no I don’t see a difference in calling out what I believe was a poor tournament from the womens national team.
@Patrick Presley: if women can’t be subject to the same criticism as men then they cannot have the same responsibilities as men. Imagine a woman in a position of responsibility who cannot be criticised if she performs poorly because of your skewed sense of decorum – it would mean nobody would ever be willing to put a woman in such a position in the first place. There are very good reasons you cannot pick and choose in which arenas equality should be afforded while insisting on the maintenance of privileges in others. It’s all or nothing, because that’s what practicality demands.
@Patrick Presley: Everybody has the opportunity to comment, men and women, that’s equal. I see you’ve evaded my questions.
@Nick Cahill: Thanks Nick, I did reply to your earlier comment. The atmosphere generated on here at the moment reminds me of an Irish bar from the 50s, any self respecting woman opening the door would quickly turn around as she would realise that neither she or her opinion was welcome.
@Patrick Presley: the only person here suggesting opinions are not welcome is you. You are saying the men of Ireland shouldn’t give an opinion on the women’s football team. Just answer me this question. Say hypothetically Mary Lou McDonald is Ireland next taoiseach and things don’t go well. Can the male population of Ireland express a negative opinion of her and her government?
@Patrick Presley:
singing up the Ra is divisive and looks bad
@Patrick Presley:
they got caught singing up the Ra
they lost the send off
they abandoned the warm up
they lost to Australia
they lost to Canada
I’m glad they lost :)
@Patrick Presley:
and where was their empathy and support for Jean McConville’s family, Brian Stack’s family, Detective Garda Jerry McCabe’s family, Paul Quinn’s family ?
When our girls in green sang up the Ra they were p1ssing on graves
Roy Keane should take over, they need a good manager?
All the big hard men are louder than ever. Sad. Sad. Sad. If any of you had a wife or girlfriend I would be concerned for them.
Unlike the Canadian match where they were over defensive I thought they made a good effort to play an attacking game this time
Unfortunately they were not good enough but I applaud them for trying
Vive Charles III Roi de Canada
Thank God that’s over.
At least they played the full 180 mins in their competitive games.
COYGIRAW!
they’re the same as the Eurovision Results Ted ,,, We lost
Sob sob! I can’t bear to watch the BIG they’re so bad so I’m hardly gonna watch the women!!!
Subs brought on too late, Barrett should have started. Tyler Toland badly missed but mis treated by Vera and never given a chance. Vera needs a move and let’s bring on the talented players who were over looked.
Woman’s football isn’t great to be honest. Can we all agree on one thing
have your say