'The crown of my career' - Vera Pauw's long road to Sydney showpiece

The Ireland boss will make history in leading her side out on Thursday morning.

Thu, 20 Jul, 2023 - 09:09

John Fallon, Sydney

Vera Pauw says leading Ireland out at the World Cup today is the crowning moment of our career.

Over her decorated career, which initially encompassed 89 caps as a player, Pauw had led her native Holland to the Euros and South Africa to the Olympics.

Her groundwork laid the foundation for successor Anna Signeul to steer Scotland to their first Euros in 2017 and she quit an advisory role with Thailand just days before their opener against champions USA at the 2019 World Cup.

The route to spearheading Ireland’s tilt in Australia has been pockmarked by a couple of controversies too but she’s brushed them aside to take her seat in the dugout for the first Group B game at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Time will tell whether the stalled talks around a contract extension will resume once their commitments Down Under complete, either after the final group game against Nigeria on July 31 or beyond in the knockout stage.

For now, the woman who turned 60 in January only has eyes for Ireland and her tigers.

They roar into action before a full house of 75,784, FIFA opting for a minute’s silence rather than postponement following this morning’s tragic shooting in Auckland.

“The is the crown of my career – is that right?” she said, checking her translation.

“Our team has never collapsed under the pressure. Indeed, this is of the max.

“We played Sweden, Finland and Scotland away – the last of them with three days’ notice and everyone was against us.

“We didn’t collapse under pressure at any point so why would we collapse now?”

Pauw was originally involved in the search for Colin Bell’s successor in 2019 as an advisor to Ruud Dokter, her compatriot then working as the FAI’s High Performance Director.

Potential candidates such as current Southampton boss Marieanne Spacey were considered before an FAI then in turmoil ought to headhunt the Queenmaker.

Interim general manager Noel Mooney and outgoing President Donal Conway were billeted to a Frankfurt Airport hotel to convince Pauw the job was worthy of being her next challenge.

“I didn’t want to go to set up a team again and the next coach comes along and say it’s all done by them,” she confessed about her early reluctance.

“I was using all my energy and all my time. Even though I loved the team from the first moment I saw them, stepping into that development programme again, that was in those weeks, that was not what I wanted.

“But then when I spoke to the CEO (Mooney) and the President in Frankfurt, and they spoke of the serious way they wanted to develop women’s football, I felt that I would not be the only one pulling the cart, I would be with the whole office and people who wanted to do something special.

“That made me feel a collective aim and that is why my husband said you are going to sign this, because this was the first moment in years he had seen those twinkles in my eyes again.”

Her major tournament history began as a spectator watching Ireland. Shortly after becoming the first Dutch player to go professional abroad by joining Modena, she ventured to Germany for Euro ’88.

That husband she referred to, Bert van Lingen, was flanking the great Rinus Michels in the Dutch dugout, coordinating the golden – or orange – generation of Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten to their first major international gold.

They wouldn’t have gotten out of the group, but for a dubious winner against Ireland. Wim Kieft later admitted he was offside when Ronald Koeman’s skewed volley bounced up for him to spin his header into Packie Bonner’s post.

Pauw could sympathise with Ireland having their dreams crushed, even if she regaled at the Gelsenkirchen outpouring at full-time.

“I missed only one of Holland’s games – against USSR – during those Euros. I was sitting right in line with Wim Kieft’s header and turned to my brother immediately to say it was offside. But that Dutch team deserved to win a major championship.”