A WORLD CUP SEND-OFF game is like spending Christmas with your parents and reactionary uncle: you approach it hoping nothing memorable or interesting will happen at all.
Therefore a record crowd came to Tallaght Stadium came in the implicit hope of being bored to tears and served up the kind of rambling, frictionless fare that could be scored to a hundred idle conversations about Marty Morrissey and the Renault.
But sadly this game was simply too interesting for anyone’s comfort. Less disconcerting than the 3-0 deficit on the 62-minute mark was the television shot of Katie McCabe sitting in the stands, wrapped up in a branded jacket and tugging at a black, Kendall Roy baseball cap. McCabe started the game but was withdrawn after 30 minutes having rolled her ankle playing a pass. She walked off looking unconcerned and the official word is that it was a precautionary change because of a knock…anything more than that and the country would be justified in offering up a few prayers in Knock.
Otherwise Ireland were soundly beaten by a French side who will contend for the World Cup, the positives of a bright opening not reflected in a 2-0 half-time deficit and then a distant memory as they were overwhelmed in the second-half. Some parts of the video review of this game will dismay the Irish players but they shouldn’t be too discouraged, as while the quality in this French team will elevate the World Cup, it will not envelop it. Of Ireland’s three group opponents, only Australia can be this good.
This was not a sun-kissed World Cup farewell: instead Tallaght was shrouded in cloud and buffeted by the wind which makes the ground the most windswept venue in Irish sport outside of Salthill. France manager Herve Renard even had to forego his trademark, crisp, open-necked white shirt in favour of a Wengeresque puffer jacket.
The flag that blew most notably in the wind was an erroneous one. Ireland should have taken the lead after 10 minutes when Kyra Carusa ran onto Sinead Farrelly’s flicked header and tucked the ball into the far corner, but was wrongly flagged offside. VAR will be in operation at the World Cup so these kinds of grievances will be happily restricted to the meaningless games.
Carusa’s performance was probably the most encouraging part of the Irish performance, combining muscular hold-up play with a direct running threat in behind. She dovetailed nicely with Marissa Sheva, showing Vera Pauw has cannily used the lead-in to the World Cup to improve Ireland’s attacking options. More disappointing was Sinead Farrelly, whose use of the ball was often too sloppy.
But Ireland’s performance for 43 minutes was encouraging, as they limited France to few chances while retaining an attacking threat through Sheva and Carusa. That they then went in 2-0 down was brutally harsh; the scoreline felt like, in the words of the RTE personality de jure, a very ad hoc arrangement.
The first goal was a comedy of defensive errors. Izzy Atkinson was burned on the outside by Maelle Lakrar, whose cross was then swiped by Heather Payne right back into her path at the back post. Her angular finish cannoned off Courtney Brosnan and over the line. France’s second goal a couple of minutes later was a bracing reminder of their quality, as Kenza Dali slipped a gorgeous pass into the pass of Eugenie Le Sommer, who then leaned back and lofted a first-time shot beyond Brosnan.
Perhaps reeling from the scoreline, Ireland were pinned back after the break until France got their third goal. It was gallingly straightforward, Lakrar nodding in from a corner without even needing to get off the ground.
From there Pauw and Renard emptied their benches and the game trundled to the dreary conclusion all would have taken from the off. The disruption of substitutions is not enough to excuse Ireland’s spartan attacking output, though, as they failed to register a single shot on target across the game.
It is too late before the final exam to start cramming so tonight we we didn’t learn anything new but instead were reminded of what we have always known McCabe is integral to everything, France are world champion-quality, and Ireland’s lack of goalscoring threat means everything at the World Cup will be on a knife-edge at all times.
This, however, is living. Better to pass diffidently into the summer while fretting and praying than relax utterly in apathy. Not that anyone wants to go through the wringer in a mere warm-up game.
“We have to be comfortable in the uncomfortable” said Carusa after the game. She was talking about her team-mates but she might as well have been addressing the rest of the country.