'I’ve no doubt that I’m good enough' for Bundesliga says Ireland's Amber Barrett
Amber Barrett doesn’t miss a beat when asked how realistic it really is for the Irish women’ team to think of taking a point or points off Germany in their quest to qualify for the 2021 European Championship finals.
“As realistic as it was to take points off the Netherlands away,” she shoots back, referencing the momentous World Cup qualifying result achieved by the girls in green in 2017 when they held the European champions scoreless in Nijmegen.
“When we’re good and when we’re organised we can do anything,” she adds. “Absolutely no doubt.”
In the qualifying race to reach the finals in England next year, Germany are on four wins out of four while Ireland's perfect start was ended by a last-gasp equaliser by Greece in a 1-1 draw in Athens, after Barrett had given the visitors the lead. Unbeaten Ireland, currently in second place, are three points ahead of the Greeks who are up next for the return game in Tallaght in March.
It will be April before Ireland come face to face with Germany, away from home, by which time Barrett will know even more about what goes into the making of such a powerhouse football nation, having left Peamount United to join FC Koln in July.
Although she has now scored twice in the Bundesliga, game time has been limited for the Donegal striker as she has taken time to adjust to all the seismic changes involved in the move, from grappling with the language to what she calls the “shock” of being confronted with the intense demands of the professional game.
“If you are playing at UCD at the weekend for Peamount, you train on Tuesday night and Thursday night and then you play on the Sunday, or the Saturday, whenever it is,” she says.
“Over there, you are in Monday, twice on a Tuesday, off on a Wednesday, twice on a Thursday, Friday night, Saturday morning and a game on the Sunday.
“I think the first few weeks the adrenaline was still there and I was thinking ‘this is really good,’ but then - and I was told this would happen - I had a complete slump. I was playing football but I’d say if you had gone up to the local primary school, you’d have got better players. I just went off the boil completely. The body just goes into complete shock.”
She came through it, of course, and was beginning to make more of an impact in the team just before the mid-season break. Now, with a new manager Sascha Glass in charge of a side whose first objective is to ensure the threat of relegation is kept at bay, Barrett is hoping to enhance her contribution, though she accepts it could be next season before Cologne sees the very best of her.
“Look, the first year is probably going to be - not a write off – but I maybe won’t play as much football this season as hopefully I will in the coming season.
"Even the players there when they found out that I had come from training twice a week, they couldn’t believe it because it’s unheard of over there.
Even their second or Sunday league teams will train three or four nights a week. So I’ve come from something different but I’m quite confident in my ability. I’m a realist and I know that it will take time to adjust but I’ve no doubt that I’m good enough.
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