Katie McCabe ready to round off ‘best year in green jersey’ at Windsor Park
Katie McCabe during a Republic of Ireland women training session at the National Football Stadium.
Almost 30 years have passed since an Ireland team contested a senior international at Windsor Park but the women’s side have already made history before tonight’s occasion wraps up the year.
A twelve-month blitz that began with building for their unprecedented World Cup appearance dipped with a fractious managerial departure and culminates with what is almost certainly a sixth straight win.
That Belfast’s football mecca is no longer entitled Windsor Park, nor the police that will patrol it are RUC, tells the story of how the landscape has changed around crossborder relations.
Another difference their predecessors didn’t get to exercise was the right to belt out Amhrán na bhFiann, albeit the reception is unlikely to be universally embraced.
There wasn’t much thought for women’s representatives when the men’s teams battled it out against a toxic backdrop twice a year apart but nowadays they are the FAI team most likely to keep rekindling those heady days of the Jack Charlton era.
Ireland have cantered to top spot of this Nations League group, maximising their status as League B’s top seeded team to rack up a maximum 15 points.
On the lush surface of the renamed National Stadium, which is anticipated to have at least half of its 18,500 multi-coloured seats occupied, players in the calibre of Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan will relish rounding off 2023 with aplomb.
“I’m a bit boring as I tend not to look back too much,” remarked Ireland captain McCabe, one of Arsenal’s mainstays.
“Personally, it’s probably been the best year I’ve played in a green jersey. Playing at the World Cup in the summer has just made me so hungry for more.
“We have these two important games here with Ireland and I then finish off the year at Arsenal with three London derbies, two of them against Spurs.
“It’s always really exciting and lots of football to be played, but I don’t think I’ll properly reflect on it until I retire.” McCabe will be approaching her 30th birthday when the 2025 Euros comes around in Switzerland.
She’s morphed from the player that Arsenal almost released into the reliable seven out of ten performer whose regular bookings are excused as part of her tenacious side that sets the tone for club and country.
Rather than the string of friendlies which filled the gap between the two previous qualifying campaigns, the Euros and World Cup, all of which ended in defeat, Ireland have cruised through the competitive series UEFA devised to add meaning.
All the disappointment of marginally missing out by one place on entry into League A for this Nations League series did was heap pressure to swat aside inferior opposition.
They didn’t allow the distaste over Pauw’s exit to impair their tunnel vision, commencing the campaign by strolling past tonight’s opponents 3-0 in September.
The occasion will be recalled in time as a watershed for ending the team’s wait to grace the Aviva stadium as well as being a debut for recruit Caitltin Hayes.
Further cakewalks against Hungary (4-0) and Albania (5-1) illustrated the change Ireland had to spare over the field and, while the subsequent 1-0 wins over the same opponents were hardly vintage, the disparity in quality was evident.
“Success brings expectation,” confessed McCabe about the Euros target.
“We’ve certainly worked hard to change that narrative. I’ve been a part of this team for the last eight years when we were always the underdogs and we always had to fight for those wins.
“We have now put ourselves in that position where we can get on a winning streak of five games, qualify for tournaments and want more of it. This squad that has massive lot of talent in it and it’s up to us to work with Eileen and the coaching staff to ensure we are getting the best out of each other on the pitch.” The Eileen she speaks of is Gleeson, the caretaker boss due to make way for a new manager within a week or two of the cap being put on a 12-match year of matches.
McCabe was consulted by the FAI top brass about their decision to dispense with Pauw and is again while this recruitment phase reaches endgame.
“It’s very important,” the skipper said of the FAI landing the right candidate for guiding this team onto their next milestone.
“It’s the FAI’s job, not mine, I’m the player (but) it’s going to be obviously a massive thing going forward, someone to lead the team.
“But my focus is on making sure we get three points against Northern Ireland.” That, indeed, would accrue a legacy from this belated reunion of the neighbours.
M Harvey-Clifford; R McKenna, S McFadden, L Rafferty, D Vance; C McCarron; D Maxwell, J Andrews, M Callaghan (captain), L Wade; S Magill.
C Brosnan; C Hayes, L Quinn, D Caldwell; H Payne, M Connolly, S Farrelly, I Atkinson; D O’Sullivan, K McCabe (captain); K Carusa.
Veronika Kovarova (CZH).
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