THE WIND HOWLED and the rain sluiced crookedly down but Megan Connolly and Katie McCabe stood over a corner with a kind of defiant relish across their faces, soaking in the sheer subversive thrill of it all.
Ireland were ahead, their surprisingly bold assault on the game leaving the Olympic champions Canada looking dazed, confused, and heading for the storied Irish status of No Great Shakes. Now even the conditions seemed to be conspiring with the Irish. Ole Ole Ole rang around a ground battered by Irish weather, and it seemed that the World Cup was happily making room for a quintessentially Irish night.
At that moment, it seemed impossible that Connolly would be humbled within minutes, dusting herself down having conceded a deeply unfortunate own goal. An hour later Ireland were out of the World Cup with a game to spare. When it went wrong, it went wrong suddenly but decisively.
Ireland did not deserve to go in level based on the quality of their first-half performance but, based off the second-half alone, defeat was no injustice. Ireland lacked the composure and quality to chase the game, their final strategy best described as Get The Ball to Katie. Her performance was plainly the stuff of heroism, but sadly it wasn’t good enough at this rarified level.
Ireland brimmed with verve and energy in the first-half, playing with a boldness that was absent against Australia until they fell behind. Lucy Quinn replaced Marissa Sheva but went to the right side, with Sinead Farrelly switched to the left. Quinn’s task was to attack the space vacated by Canada’s bucaneering left-back Ashley Lawrence, and her first act was to force an early set piece.
Who knew that a ground with so generic a name as the Perth Rectangular Stadium could be suffused with portent? As soon as McCabe found its corner, she flighted a stunning effort over the goalkeeper and into the far top corner. She clearly meant it, and was wheeling off in celebration before the ball found the net. Ireland didn’t immediately declare but instead they kept the pressure on. Kyra Carusa led the line and tortured Kadeisha Buchanan; Sinead Farrelly was a highlight reel of slick control and feather touch; McCabe refused to be curbed in attack; Ruesha Littlejohn shackled Jessie Fleming and took the names of everyone else she barged into.
Ireland might have created more clear-cut chances when they were in the ascendancy but they were posing testing questions to which Canada struggled to find the answers. It was a travesty, then, that Ireland did not have a lead at the break. Instead Connolly’s connection on Grosso’s cross was just enough to skid it beyond Courtney Brosnan.
It was a blow from which Ireland didn’t recover. Ireland exploited Canada’s left side in the first half but that battleground flipped in the second half, with Ireland ripped apart. The wining goal came from down that side, the ball pinballed around challenges Ireland didn’t win before resting with Sophie Schmidt. She picked out Adriana Leon, whose touch and finish put Ireland in the situation they feared the most: chasing the game.
McCabe aside, the Irish players were too rushed and panicked, caught up in the hectic dash in pursuit of receding dreams. Marissa Sheva was pinged for a foul throw, Niamh Fahey hurried a Hail Mary shot from range. Ireland simply couldn’t retain the ball in midfield, with Denise O’Sullivan sadly peripheral. Perhaps the injury she picked up in the aborted friendly with Colombia was more serious than we thought, as her performances have been the big disappointment of Ireland’s two games so far.
Canada weren’t truly made to sweat in the end as the closest Ireland came was from a virtuoso McCabe dribble and shot, which would have been one of our greatest goals had it not been deflected away. But that Ireland were relying on historic moments of quality to score told its own story. Unlike Australia, Canada did not sink deep in the face of Irish pressure: when Louise Quinn was seconded up front, they kept a high line and instantly wiped her from the game.
In retrospect, the injuries to Megan Campbell and Aoife Mannion were too costly for Ireland. Campbell’s long throws were a miss but ultimately she would have liberated McCabe in these games before scorelines made it necessary. Mannion’s injury meant Connolly dropped into the back three, but Ireland missed her metronomic qualities in midfield.
There will be pride and dignity salvaged against Nigeria on Monday, and in the fullness of time this World Cup will assume the afterglow of great achievement.
But in the raw aftermath of defeat, it is difficult not to feel a little short-changed that this heady journey is over in just six days. It is admittedly churlish by the standards of the last half-century, but dreams beget dreams and all dreamers have the right to get greedy.
