WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL SOCCER
By Daire Walsh
The Republic of Ireland women’s soccer team will step up their preparations for the start of their World Cup qualification campaign in September with a brace of friendlies against Iceland in the coming days.
Laugardalsvollur, Reykjavik will be the venue both tomorrow and next Tuesday for this international double-header and – like their encounters with Denmark and Belgium in April – it gives manager Vera Pauw an opportunity to test her troops against high-calibre opposition. The Scandinavian nation are currently 17th in the FIFA world rankings, a full 17 places above the Republic.
Interestingly, Denmark and Belgium are positioned either side of Iceland in the rankings. By facing these countries, Pauw will be able to get a good sense of where the Irish squad is ahead of their Group A opener away to Georgia on September 17.
As ever, Ireland will be captained in the upcoming games by Kilnamanagh’s Katie McCabe. She picked up her 50th senior cap in the recent defeat to Belgium and was also named in the Women’s Super League Team of the Year on the back of a superb campaign with Arsenal.
She is joined in the current squad by her former Gunners team-mate Louise Quinn, who was also previously a stalwart of Newcastle-based club Peamount United. The reigning Women’s National League champions are also set to be represented in the Iceland games by Claire Walsh and Áine O’Gorman.
Following a couple of substitute appearances in 2019, Walsh was handed her first start against Belgium in Brussels two months ago and produced a solid performance at the heart of the Irish rearguard.
O’Gorman brings a greater level of experience to the table, having already surpassed a century of senior international caps. A short while after making her 100th appearance in green – a World Cup qualifier against Norway in June 2018 – she announced her retirement from the international game.
However, O’Gorman was coaxed back to the set-up by Pauw in the spring of 2020 and has once again become a vital cog for this Irish team. Despite operating in a wide attacking role for Peamount, she is ordinarily utilised as a full-back/wing-back for the international side.
Also of local interest in the Ireland squad will be Lucan native Niamh Farrelly. She was playing for Peamount as recently as last December, but is now contracted to Scottish Women’s Premier League giants Glasgow City.