O'Sullivan goal seals bye into final of World Cup playoff
CLASS ACT: Denise O'Sullivan of Republic of Ireland during the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 Qualifier match between Slovakia and Republic of Ireland at National Training Centre in Senec, Slovakia. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Denise O’Sullivan’s 18th international goal was enough for Ireland to end their World Cup campaign with another win and confirm their bye into the final of the playoff next month.
Vera Pauw’s side will discover their opposition for the one-off tie on October 11 in this Friday’s draw but are developing a winning habit that engenders a confidence and momentum peaking at the perfect time.
A patchy game in Senec was settled on 36 minutes by a piece of brilliance by the Cork native, her swivel and turn inside the box yard box creating the space to tuck the ball into the bottom corner.
Slovakia were a shadow of the team that pushed Ireland so strongly in Tallaght last November, not once seriously testing Courtney Brosnan over the 90 minutes before a measly crowd of 490.
Three places from the team that beat Finland on Thursday were up for grabs, with Pauw electing to go like-for-like rather than reconfigure positionally. That wasn’t required until the final 20 minutes.
Claire O’Riordan was the beneficiary of Megan Connolly’s broken ribs, making her first competitive start since her sole last one, all of four years ago in Norway.
It looked ominous for Harriet Scott when was removed as a mainstay for Pauw’s first game at the helm in 2019 but she was preferred to Áine O’Gorman in the right wing-back slot vacated by the suspension to Jamie Finn. Delivering the game-winning goal against the Finns having replaced the injured Ruesha Littlejohn cemented Lily Agg’s status as the ready-made replacement.
She harnessed midfield for her first competitive cap, lining up alongside Denise O’Sullivan, who was close to profiting from a Megan Campbell’s hurtled throw-ins within a minute of kick-off.
Peter Kopúň had circled the Liverpool player’s weaponry from the touchline in his pre-match warnings, stressing the difficulty posed for any team to defend the deliveries.
His Slovakia team were the latest victims, powerless to stem the flow of throws onto the heads of Louise Quinn or Diane Caldwell up front the back.
From that panic that it wrought, of equal importance was the second balls and frequently it was O’Sullivan who was first to react.
On more than one occasion, her path to goal was blocked by a wave of blue inside the 18-yard box, forcing Ireland to rethink and utilise width that was rarely available in the early stages.
Instead of Thursday’s deficiencies, when they allowed Finland spring from the outset, against the Slovaks it was the lack of accuracy on the final pass that was hampering them.
A typically incisive dash into the box by Heather Payne deserved a pinpoint cross, only for Campbell to delay squaring the ball.
Even McCabe was off-colour in her execution, lacking elevation on a free-kick that eventually offered her a second attempt which she sent straight into the hands.of Maria Korenčiová.
Slovakia’s first effort in vain didn’t arrive till midway through the half when skipper Dominika Škorvánková tried to catch Courtney Brosnan out with a 20-yarder but the goalkeeper scampered across goal to foil.
On the half hour, Diana Lemešová’s lofted pass behind the backline almost presented Patrícia Hmírová with an opening to crown her 100th cap with a goal but she was too slow to pounce.
Although goalmouth action was scarce, Ireland still held an edge that threatened to find a breakthrough.
Caldwell should have done so on 33 minutes, swiping horribly wide from just eight years out after Quinn’s knockdown from a Campbell throw, but O’Sullivan wouldn’t be so wasteful.
A core feature of this campaign has been the emergence of Jess Ziu as a regular and her contribution was illustrated by igniting the move that engineering the opener.
Her tidiness in midfield was apparent when he latched onto a loose ball, releasing the ball to O’Sullivan on the right. She, in turn, fed Payne to surge towards the endline before cutting the ball across the six-yard lane.
That corridor of uncertainty was too much for Jana Vojteková, whose outstretched foot only managed to poke the ball into the path of O’Sullivan. Without much time, she still had the nimbleness to turn and steer the ball into the far corner past Korenčiová’s dive.
Once ahead, Ireland were never rattled, the Slovaks devoid of the creativeness to cause the upset the manager was in need of to save his job.
McCabe fired a dipping volley just past the upright on the hour and O’Riordan saw her shot amid a scramble cleared off the line Patrícia Fischerová.
A wild shot from distance by substitute Tamara Morávková that sailed over six minutes from the end was the closest the hosts got to Brosnan’s goal.
M Korenčiová; A Horváthová, K Košíková, P Fischerová, J Vojteková; D Lemešová; P Hmírová (T Morávková 72) , M Mikolajová, D Škorvánková, M Šurnovská (K Panáková 83); L Maťavková (S Semanová 66).
C Brosnan; C O’Riordan, Louise Quinn, D Caldwell; H Scott (E Molloy 68), L Agg, D O’Sullivan, M Campbell; J Ziu, K McCabe; H Payne. (L Kiernan 83).
Maria Martinez (SPN).
490.
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