A NEW DAWN, a new day.
The next chapter, the next campaign.
A fresh start, a fresh bid to reach a first-ever major tournament.
The road to England 2021 starts on Tuesday night at Tallaght Stadium, as Ireland get their Uefa Women’s European Championship qualifiers underway.
They may be without a permanent manager in place after Colin Bell’s shock departure in late June, but the Girls in Green are fully confident under the watchful eye of Tom O’Connor as they welcome Montenegro to town [kick-off 7.30pm, live on RTÉ2].
The last time the Balkan country graced these shores was in 2016, and Ireland enjoyed a record-equalling 9-0 win on that occasion. Things have come on leaps and bounds within the Irish set-up since then, so they’ll be targeting a big win to kick off the campaign in style.
And after a recent encouraging trip to the Rose Bowl to face the world champions, captain Katie McCabe and her side will feel they can do just that. That game against USA may have finished 3-0 after early first-half goals, but Ireland can take huge positives from their second-half performance.
Last week, the 24-year-old Dubliner spoke about how she was “dead proud” that her side held their own physically in the test against the best.
Recently-appointed Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey echoed those sentiments before a training session at Johnstown House on Wednesday morning, as did first-choice goalkeeper Marie Hourihan.
It’s something the team spoke about at length afterwards over in California. The clean sheet in the second period was important for London-born Hourihan, and the defensive shut-out under pressure from the best attackers in the world bodes well going forward.
“It’s something to build upon,” 31-year-old Hourihan told The42. “Obviously we did concede three goals, but in the second half we kept a clean sheet.
“We said after the game that we’ve got to use that to build on coming into this game and the future games against bigger teams, if you like. Ultimately that’s the discipline that’s going to be needed and going to be required.
“For us, obviously to play the world champions, it was a great experience. The atmosphere, the crowd, being in California playing at the Rose Bowl; that’s an experience in itself. Coming away from it, we were just proud.
“We felt that we did the country proud in that we put in a disciplined performance when a lot of people weren’t expecting it with the difficult circumstances that the team were going out there in.
“For us, it was something to build upon for this game definitely.”
The future is definitely bright. We saw that in their last campaign, and just how close the young and ever-rising team came in a very tough group. Top seeds Norway, who ended up in the World Cup quarter-final, progressed top of Group 3, while European champions Netherlands went through the play-off route, and ended up in the France 2019 final.
Hugely encouraging, with some serious talent coming through.
And look at where they’re playing their football. Fahey is across the water in the Women’s Super League [WSL], and there’s a fair army of Irish talent over there.
The latest addition that group is 18-year-old Donegal midfielder Tyler Toland, who put pen to paper at Manchester City earlier this month, and is now on the books there with Megan Campbell.
With the Women’s National League in a developmental stage here, just how important is it to have players plying their trade overseas and bringing their learnings back to the Irish set-up?
“It’s massive,” says Fahey, who’s also had successful stints at Arsenal and Chelsea, and a year in Ligue 1 with Bordeaux. Huge. Plain and simple.
“It’s exposure to a full-time environment that really progresses a player. Obviously the girls in the National League are doing all the extra bits behind the scenes but you can’t beat full-time football.
“It’s just a case of the more people we have playing full-time football, the better it is for our team.”
As Hourihan also stressed, it brings the game on here, and helps the Girls In Green’s senior side excel more and more on the biggest stage.
Both at club level and internationally, 31-year-old Fahey has witnessed plenty of change in women’s football through the years. As an example, she looks at the WSL and how much things have come on since she first joined Arsenal in 2008.
“It’s night and day really,” she explains. “It’s huge.
“When I first started off it was very much semi-professional. We were considered the lucky ones because we were at Arsenal and we had all the facilities and stuff like that.
“Most teams were probably amateur. There were great players but the different things like S&C, the backroom support; it’s just pushed the game on to another level. Younger girls are getting more quality coaching.
“That progression has just filtered through and filtered through. It’s been huge. Massive.”
“I think you can just see the progress has been huge and rapid over the last couple of years,” the Galway native adds. “It’s brilliant.
“You have the likes of Tottenham now, Man United coming in, big teams across the world and they’re investing heavily in women’s football. It’s only going to get bigger and better. It’s just a really exciting time to be involved at the moment.”
And on home soil, she’s pleased to see the sparkling strides being made on the international scene at underage level.
The U17 Women’s National League is definitely helping that cause, and that’s shining through in U17 and U19 Ireland teams who are qualifying for major tournaments.
“There’s just a steady stream now,” Fahey smiles.
It’s a lifelong dream for her at senior level to reach a first-ever major tournament, and the All-Ireland winning Galway footballer assures that her side will do absolutely everything in their power to get over the line this time around.
With Germany, Ukraine and Greece also in their qualifying group, Hourihan — who recently started a new chapter in her club career in Portugal — feels the exact same way.
The time is now.
They were so close last time around, missing out at the expense of Norway and Netherlands, but that, and the lessons they learned and experiences they gained, just pushes the side on more and more.
“Definitely,” Hourihan nods, “and also I think the preparation that that’s given us when we play the bigger teams, the experience of not fearing the bigger teams now.
“We want to go and embrace it, we want to go and cause them teams problems and get points. That’s the belief that this group has got now. Ultimately that’s what we’re going to need to do if we’re going to qualify.”
That, it sure is.
A last word, perhaps for the managerial situation ahead of the next chapter.
Ultimately, it is what it is, and it’s not a concern for the players in question. They just want to play football, and do their talking on the pitch.
“Obviously Tom was in charge for the America game, he knows the group, he’s been involved in campaigns before so he knows everybody,” Hourihan concludes.
“That’s a good thing, to have that consistency. Ultimately, our concentration is just purely on the game. This is our campaign now, we need to start it the right way.”
Theirs, it is, and start the right way, they should.
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