'A one-percenter' - Carla Ward defends surreal crowd shutout for Hungary clash
Carla Ward has continued to defend Ireland’s decision to hold Saturday’s final game of the year – a 3-2 win over Hungary – behind closed doors as a full international.
Debutant goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse summed up the surreal nature of the game in Marbella but admitting she was disappointed her long wait for a first cap couldn’t be viewed in-person by her family.
Facing a team ranked 20 places behind their 27th spot in Fifa’s rankings, a revamped Ireland held the upper hand throughout in a workout ultimately settled by a 22nd international goal for Denise O’Sullivan.
Thirteen days on from the men’s team slaying the Magyars in Budapest for a World Cup playoff spot, Ward’s women prepared for their World Cup tilt by finishing the year on a high against the same nation.
Last month’s aggregate playoff win over Belgium sets up a qualification campaign for Brazil that begins against France on March 3 – potentially at Pairc Uí Chaoimh – and this was the last preparatory game. They will also face Netherlands and Poland in the top tier of qualification.
Saturday morning’s encounter concluded a five-day warm weather training camp, enabling the Ireland manager to experiment with formations and personnel.
“Why do we want to give France a one percenter on how we might press a back four?” Ward asserted, adamant the blackout creates an advantage for the competitive resumption.
“We just don't. It doesn't make any sense. If we've got an opportunity coming up against one of the best teams in world football to give ourselves an extra percent where they don't have that preparation of us in our system against a four, why wouldn't we do it?
“We've played against a back-four today, rather than a back three/back five we’ve been used to.
“So we had to then adapt; deciding which players engage in the press, who engages what line.
“Hungary play a similar structure to a couple of the teams in our group. We needed to try things.”
Abbie Larkin was rewarded for her tie-winning goal last time out in Leuven with promotion to the starting line-up and took just eight minutes to open the scoring, seizing on a mistake to power clear and beat Lauren Brzkycy.
She teed up strike partner Kyra Carusa 11 minutes later to make it 2-0 before Borbala Vincze pulled one back, following up on the rebound to beat Whitehouse in the Irish goal from the edge of the box.
O’Sullivan pounced five minutes after the restart to bury her 22nd international goal to restore the two-goal buffer.
A flood of substitutions from both managers, including Ward withdrawing her irritated captain Katie McCabe, disrupted the flow.
That may have contributed to Ireland labouring to kill off the tie, allowing Zsanett Kajet to pinch a second for Hungary with a minute remaining.
“I was happier with the second half than the first in terms of ball speed because we’ll have to move it quickly against the quality of the opponent in our group,” she summarised.
“There were a couple of moments we didn’t get it right in the first half but we addressed that at halftime.
“Overall, I was very, very pleased. I think we controlled the game throughout.”
S Whitehouse; A Mannion (C Mustaki 46), A Patten, C Hayes, H Nolan, K McCabe (T O’Hanlon 84); T Toland (J Stapleton 46), D O’Sullivan, L Quinn (J Finn 60); K Carusa (L Kiernan 60), A Larkin (S Noonan 78),
B Brzkycy; F Nagy, B Fordos (E Papai 73), H Nemeth, V Szabo; Z Mayer, D Csanyi, H Csiszar, D Sule (C Savanya 62), B Vincze, A (Csiki 73); B Purlins (L Kovacs 85).
S Galia (Gibraltar).
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