Fighting Irish take giant leap towards World Cup
EMBRACEABLE YOU: Ireland’s Katie McCabe and Denise O'Sullivan celebrate at the final whistle
It was a long way from Liberty Hall.
Five years ago, Irish women’s football was in the doldrums, the disgrace of changing out of tracksuits in airport toilets entering the national airwaves, the tournament droughts drifting further into the wilderness.
From that strike to coming within striking distance of a World Cup is a transformation worthy of Irish sporting folklore.
Lily Agg, who only declared for Ireland earlier this year through her Cork grandmother Breda Greene, sent Ireland into their first-ever Women’s World Cup playoff on a night of high drama at Tallaght.
An injury sustained early on by Ruesha Littlejohn eventually forced a change three minutes before half-time and the replacement, Agg, buried a header on 53 minutes to seal victory.
Ireland knew three points would confirm second place with Tuesday’s final game in Slovakia to spare and despite a sluggish first-half, they got the job done against a limited Finnish outfit.
The solitary goal was a controversial one, for Finland were down to 10 players due to Emma Koivisto being off the pitch following a challenge with Ireland captain Katie McCabe.
From Megan Connolly’s lofted free-kick, the London City Lionesses midfielder displayed her bravery by leaping high to beat the advancing Tinja-Riikka Korpela and nodding into an empty net.
In front of a record crowd of 6,952, Ireland are guaranteed their passage into the October playoffs and will wait until next week to discover how arduous the process to reach next year’s showpiece in Australia and New Zealand looks.
As much as Pauw did her best on the eve of the game to dampen the prospects of Megan Campbell starting, Katie McCabe’s giveaway broke the cover. Her tap of the wooden table when the question was posed spoke of the Liverpool player’s closeness to the reckoning.
There had been too many false dawns during the left-sided player’s road to recovery for presumption to prevail but once she came through pre-season unscathed, her readiness for action was unquestionable.
She became renowned during the previous World Cup campaign under Colin Bell for her lethal throw-ins, responsible for assists against Northern Ireland and Slovakia, but there are an array of qualities within her repertoire.
Campbell got the nod over Chloe Mustaki for the left wing-back berth while into the three-person central defence came Megan Connolly.
Though she was deputising for the injured Niamh Fahey, it was a positional rather than selection change, for the midfielder’s versatility was similarly relied upon in Sweden.
Otherwise, it was a familiar look to the Ireland team, with Pauw coming around to the conclusion that McCabe is best deployed in an advanced rather than defensive role.
Finland’s interim manager Marko Saloranta had won at Tallaght as U17 boss and looked to put his own stamp in his first game by dropping Real Sociedad’s Sanni Franssi.
She instead went with Jutta Rantala to partner record scorer Linda Sällström up front, maybe due to being in-season with her Swedish club, and it looked a wise decision in a first half Ireland were second best.
As the side needing the win, Finland were lively from the outset, with Ireland struggling to cope.
Connolly’s defensive instincts were tested within two minutes as she cut out a wicked cross, sustaining an injury in the process, and from the corner McCabe showed hers by hacking Anna Westerlund’s toe-poke off the line.
It was a scramble caused by Courtney Brosnan coming for a corner but desperately flapping. Clearly, Finland wanted to exploit weakness and thankfully it was the American-born stopper’s sole blemish of the night.
Pauw spoke during her pre-match interview of a tenseness in the Ireland squad, which was borne out by sloppiness in possession. Even the slick McCabe was wayward with her passing while Heather Payne opted to run into a wall of white shirts when teammates were better positioned to receive a pass on the edge of the box.
Midway through the half, Ria Oling thundered a 20-yard that Brosnan safely gathered while at the other end, the first of Campbell’s throw-in scuds on 24 minutes almost found the trusty head of Louise Quinn.
From the resultant corner conceded by Olga Ahtinen clearance, Denise O’Sullivan’s swivel opened up space to find McCabe and her fellow world-class playmaker saw her shot deflected over.
Finland remained dangerous and on 28 minutes Brosnan stuck out a hand to palm away after Diane Caldwell failed to clear a right-wing cross.
But the recently-recruited Reading defender was impactful in the opposite box too on the stroke of half-time, timing her run perfectly to meet Connolly’s deep cross. Korpela stood tall to repel the header.
Roused no doubt by a half-time team-talk, Ireland had a spring from the restart with Campbell almost profiting from close range.
Then came the turning point, after which a Finland side sliding down the world rankings offered little to suggest an equaliser, never mind a winner, was coming.
“I mentioned to the girls in the huddle that it wasn’t just us,” said McCabe afterwards. “This was for the former players like Emma Byrne.
“That (strike) opened a lot of eyes to how we can inspire young girls. Everything is perfect now with the FAI and the visibility puts us in the eyes of the kids. All that got sorted.”
Likewise on the pitch.
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