REPUBLIC OF IRELAND manager Vera Pauw and midfield maestro Denise O’Sullivan have both hailed a positive week for the Girls In Green at the Pinatar Cup.
Pauw’s side finished the friendly tournament in Spain on a high this afternoon with a 1-0 third-place play-off win over Wales; Player of the Match O’Sullivan’s stunning first-half goal the difference on the scoreboard.
The 25th minute at the Pinatar Arena saw the Corkonian punish a Rhiannon Roberts mistake, and smash home a half-volley from 20 yards for her 17th senior international goal.
“I kind of I eyed it up… I knew,” O’Sullivan explained afterwards. “I looked a bit disinterested, and I knew she was gonna play it into that defensive midfielder. So I just pounced on in it and took a touch and honestly just whacked it in. I was absolutely delighted to get on the scoresheet today.”
O’Sullivan did what Pauw’s tigers do best, as they ramped up preparations for the resumption of the 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign in Spain.
The North Carolina Courage star was deployed in a deeper role than usual this afternoon, akin to the six she plays at club level.
“Megan Connolly wasn’t here because of Covid,” Pauw noted. “She gets out of isolation tomorrow. But Denise is so versatile. When we need her to play deeper, she’s doing really, really well. When we need her to play behind the striker, she’s doing really, really well. I think today showed again that she is on a very high level.”
“I think it was just to take more control of the game, get on the ball, try and get our hands on the game,” O’Sullivan added. “I think I got more of the ball in the first half and then I think it kind of by-passed me in the second half.
“But look, it’s about a team and I think the girls done excellent today. Really proud of everyone. To win this game and end the week on a high, absolutely excellent. I thought we were really good in the first half, gritty performance.
“I think in the second half, we dropped the level a bit, went longer a lot so we didn’t really take control of the game but I’m really proud of the hard work of everyone on the pitch. Looking forward to Sweden now, I think that’s the main thing.”
Pauw echoed those sentiments, and reflected on the encouraging signs shown all tournament, in which the Girls In Green enjoyed a 2-1 come-from-behind win over higher-ranked Russia and a new-look XI fell narrowly short to Russia.
“Happy with the result, of course,” the Dutch boss said, referencing today’s game first, “that we can cope with very opportunistic play at the end with long balls.
“But I think that we are capable to have more risk in our play. We are capable to do that. We showed that in the first game, we showed spells in this game, but we need to learn to be consistent in that.”
“We are growing every time and if you grow, you take more risks, you make more mistakes,” she continued.
“If you look how we can get out of close situations by times, we have more feeling for possessional play on the pitch at the moment. That means if we all on the same [hymn] sheet, there’s less chance to lose the ball.
“But we now need to make sure that that turns around, when somebody is going to put long balls in unnecessary and we’re not sure of each other anymore if we go long or if we go possessional. I think that is the biggest step that we need to take.”
That must be done by April, when Ireland’s bid to reach a first-ever major tournament hits new heights.
Currently second in Group A, Pauw’s side face a trip to Gothenburg to face runaway leaders Sweden, with an all-important double-header against Finland and Slovakia down the tracks in early September.
“This week was fully about Sweden,” O’Sullivan concluded. “All our focus was on it.
“I think it was great as well to rotate the team in the in the second game and get more confidence for those girls going into the Sweden game. Yeah, it’s about the Sweden game now.
“I think we can take a lot of positives out of it and I think we also can work on a lot of things as well as a team. Full focus on Sweden. I think we’re in a really good place.”
