Pauw: "whole team is more balanced" with Farrelly's inclusion

Republic of Ireland Manager Vera Pauw has a more balanced squad with Sinead Farrelly inclusion which helps bring out her players best qualitites. 

BALANCE: Sinead Farrelly brings balance to Vera Pauw's side that they did not have before. Pic:©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Saturday in Texas had been traumatic for Vlatko Andonovski. The US women’s manager saw his side win 2-0 but lose their most potent attacking talent to a sickening injury with a World Cup defence looming.

Yet at the final whistle at Q2 Stadium Andonovski parked his stresses and made a bee line for a player in green, wrapping Ireland debutant Sinead Farrelly up in a warm embrace.

“I saw her after the game and gave her a big hug. It was so good to see her on the field,” said Andonovski, who coached Farrelly at Kansas City in 2013. 

“Just in general, not just for the national team on the international stage…just to see her back on the field because we know she’s a tremendous player. She’s really skillful, total footballer. So when I saw her after the game, I could see that joy in her eyes too.” 

The eyes of his opposite number told a story too. While her Ireland team were being rushed to Austin airport for a tightly scheduled flight north to St Louis, Vera Pauw stopped to take in the implications of Farrelly’s unlikely international debut. By both the tone and content of the manager’s words, the implications simply cannot be overstated.

Farrelly’s addition to a squad bound for a maiden World Cup in just a couple of months has apparently changed everything.

“With Sinead, we got a balance in the group that we did not have before. It doesn’t mean it is just her, the whole team is more balanced at that moment. So everybody’s qualities are coming out much better,” said Pauw who altered her approach and her formation in what looks to be a change that will be seen on the fields of Australia come July.

“We’ve made huge steps in our game and we were waiting for a player like Sinead to allow us to play with a target player. So as soon as she came in and showed what we also saw on video, we decided to just go for it,” Pauw explained. “Kyra Carusa is a target player instead of a runner so that means the first ball is going to her, with runners then on the wings. Whereas before, we had to play with Heather [Payne] conquering the space behind the defence.

“But now we can be in control because with [Farrelly], you have just that little bit more rest to be able to get into position and to play that style with fast wingers going forward. So…we have made a huge first step and we are going to build from that.” 

From her very first touch Farrelly brought calm and class, turning livewire American winger Sophia Smith inside out with a gorgeous flick. Ireland were bright, bubbly and possibly even the better team for the first half hour, Katie McCabe and Payne dangerous out wide and Carusa causing problems too with Marissa Shevaa also busy. At least four promising goal chances came — but crucially went.

Instead US right back Emily Fox ended nearly a year of defensive defiance with a long-range drive past Courtney Brosnan and a late Lindsey Horan penalty wrapped up a victory for the hosts.

It came at a huge cost with striker Mallory Swanson’s ugly knee injury after a tangle with Aoife Mannion confirmed on Sunday to have been a torn patella tendon. Her World Cup hopes would appear to be over.

Farrelly’s, however, are very much alive, even if the player herself preferred not to focus on all that is possibly coming her way. The Gotham FC midfielder, out of the game for years after injury and then blowing the whistle on abuse in the NWSL, has returned and at 33 is suddenly approaching the pinnacle of the sport.

“I am so overwhelmed. Obviously we wanted to win — but I am just really proud of the team. I am also very tired!” she told a media throng in the mixed zone. “I don’t want to lose sight of why I came back to play. It was just to have the game back in my life, and feel that joy and passion again. I don’t want to attach (myself) to any outcomes.” 

Pauw would appear to have plenty of outcomes in mind but first there will be a rapid renewal on Tuesday night in St Louis. As the players recovered on a quiet Easter Sunday in the city, the manager and her support team will have begun weighing up the priorities for the second game, the last before she will name her final World Cup squad.

“We are going to sit down and make an analysis of what we did and how we did it. But we are here to grow with the core squad and get to another level,” Pauw added. “We took a risk, a big risk but…the game taught is where we are and what we need to do.”