Temperatures cool as Pauw future overshadows finale
NOT IMPRESSED: Manager Vera Pauw during a Republic of Ireland training session at Spencer Park in Brisbane, Australia, ahead of their final Group B match of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, against Nigeria. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Welcome to the Irish version of a long goodbye in a flash of seven days.
Vera Pauw’s standing at the start of 2023 couldn’t have been higher.
Deservedly crowned RTÉ’s Sports Manager of the Year – the first-ever female recipient – she has joined Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy in the coveted cohort of bosses who have delivered World Cup qualification.
Her Ireland team had concluded 2020 conditioned for the World Cup that lay ahead by going six games without conceding a goal, the crescendo being that famous night in Hampden Park.
Paramount for the FAI was keeping that golden asset aboard, a 60-year-old manager unafraid of travelling afar becoming a commodity international suitors pining for a similar watershed would bid for.
Pauw had by that night in Montrose batted away allegations from two former players of controlling behaviour during her time at Houston Dash, the complaints featuring in a report commissioned and published by the professional league and players union. FAI Chairman Roy Barrett stood firm, decrying her inclusion among those condemned for far more serious indiscretions.
That wouldn’t be the end of it. Further, deeper and wider details of her time in America were chronicled – mothballing the FAI’s wish for closure. That the publication involved, were provoked into the revelations by Pauw contacting them eroded goodwill she held within the FAI’s corridors of power. This was meant to dissolve into the annals of a one-hit scandal rather than become something reignited and sustained by the accused.
Whether it’s by pure coincidence or not, FAI negotiations with Pauw’s Dublin-based agent Ciarán Medlar stalled in the same week as that July exposé.
They’ve remained parked and Pauw isn’t one bit impressed, likely compounded by her players collectively distancing themselves from the standoff.
She’s been isolated on this one, so her press conference on the eve of the final game against Nigeria was dominated by one word.
Asked if she felt that for the sake of the players and herself certainty should have been supplied by now by the FAI, Pauw replied with an emphatic ‘yes’.
When invited to elaborate, she repeated her stance of wanting to continue for the Nations League campaign and Euro 2025 qualifiers. "That situation has not changed," she said.
The thorny issue of player backing was raised, leading Pauw to state only: "I think we have a fantastic bond in our team and that has shown all over the four years.”
Megan Connolly – expected to remain in defence again on Monday stopped short of unloading an endorsement for Pauw’s continuity.
She said: “What we have achieved in the past three years under Vera has been amazing. She helped us get to this point and I can only speak on my own personal experience and Vera has been great for me. But that is not my decision."
Four other players, who unlike Connolly weren’t sitting beside her at a FIFA event before cameras, were cooler in disassociating from their manager 24 hours earlier. Lily Agg, Lucy Quinn, Kyra Carusa, and most pointedly Louise Quinn, all pleaded the fifth when their opinions were sought. They appear to be jaded and this cycle may have reached a natural conclusion.
Even Connolly wasn’t aligned to Pauw’s take on the impeccable preparations, highlighting scope to learn from this maiden experience.
Words and body language can be over-analysed but that is not unexpected when the manager’s relationship with her employers is so blatantly fraught.
Former players – and notably one of Pauw’s predecessors, her friend Sue Ronan – criticised Pauw for her tendency to apportion blame to her players. Firstly, it was the defence in the firing line, their lack of pace seemingly militating against a reversion to a back four, before a lack of experience and not covering ‘down the sides’ were cited to explain the capitulation against Canada.
“I am always honest but never pointing at a single player,” she emphasised by way of defence.
“In a team that is gaining World Cup experience, those moments cost you the game, like the first game (against Australia).
“We’ve had that before during the previous campaign (Euro 2021) at a lower level. And that is what I want to say - you can do it tremendously for 46, 47 minutes but one lapse at this level that the task is failing. Even one metre can lead to conceding.”
Pauw exonerated Niamh Fahey from culpability for the Canadian equaliser, adding that she, along with Louise Quinn and Katie McCabe are not in the bracket of lacking the necessary experience that Canada utilised to prevail, in her view.
“Maybe I have expressed myself in a way that people thought differently,” she said.
“If we had a squad full of players with the experience of those (Fahey, Quinn and McCabe), then of course we have more experience on the pitch and you’re closer to the rivals, experience wise - even if it is your first World Cup.”
Back against the wall, Pauw is determined to go down fighting, if her fate has been sealed.
Sentiment won’t be entertained against a Nigerian team who’ve defied their lowest seeding in the group.
Pauw is not looking in the rear-view mirror, an intriguing dynamic if the planned homecoming in Dublin comes to pass.
“Of course, we’ll evaluate but regrets mean that you haven’t taken everything into consideration,” she reasoned about the five-week blitz concluding today.
“Whether it’s subs or selection, they were made with full consideration. So, regrets? No.”
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