IT HAS BEEN a memorable 12 months for Kyra Carusa.
Arguably no other Irish player has seen their status elevated to the same extent in that time.
Carusa was an unused sub when Ireland beat Scotland 1-0 last year in a memorable playoff at Hampden to secure a World Cup spot for the first time. It was Amber Barrett that Vera Pauw turned to rather than the US-born striker when the visitors needed a goal.
Yet Carusa subsequently started all three of Ireland’s World Cup matches and finished the year as their joint top scorer in the Nations League along with Katie McCabe on five goals.
This time last year she was not even a certainty to make the World Cup squad. Yet now Carusa is a key player who has helped change the Irish team into the more formidable attacking force they have become under Eileen Gleeson, finishing their National League campaign with 20 goals from six matches, with just two conceded.
But Carusa might never have made her Ireland debut in the first place were it not for the influence of Dave Nolan.
There are about 20 framed jerseys in the hallway leading to Nolan’s office including the kit from Carusa’s first-ever match for Ireland.
The 55-year-old coaches at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he got to know Carusa.
Born in Dublin, he was on the periphery of Shelbourne’s first team in the mid-1980s before travelling over to the US on a soccer scholarship.
Nolan has been working at Georgetown for 25 years and has seen several top players come and go in that time.
He describes the college as “probably one of the top 15 Division One schools in the country out of about 350″ and says their facilities would be “on a par with any League of Ireland men’s club”.
It is also among the most prestigious universities in the US — alumnae include King Felipe VI of Spain as well as Eric and Ivanka Trump.
On a footballing front, they regularly compete in the NCAA Division I — Nolan describes the competition as akin to the Champions League of US college soccer and says Georgetown are comparable to Ajax, regularly qualifying while not necessarily being among the favourites to triumph.
In addition to Carusa, other members of the Irish squad would have plenty of experience in this system, including Sinead Farrelly, Marissa Sheva and Courtney Brosnan.
Many of Nolan’s graduates go on to have good careers in the US and beyond.
“I have about seven kids [in the professional game], two playing in France, one of them just played against Chelsea last week in the Champions League. I’ve got one in Denmark, one in Germany, one plays for Glasgow Celtic. And I’ve got four in the league over here.”
Nolan says the standard abroad often pales in comparison to Georgetown.
“When they first go to Europe, they’re doing a six-hour drive on the day of the game. We would fly the six-hour journey or drive the night before, and just medical stuff, they’re flabbergasted. I say: ‘You don’t know how good you have it over here.’”
Carusa initially played at another top college, Stanford, in her home state of California, before moving to Georgetown to try a different experience.
Nolan knew of the player’s talent having come up against her during Carusa’s Stanford stint, and therefore welcomed her into the setup.
“We had played her team the previous year, I think they’d beaten us 5-2. They were number one in the country. They won the national championship. They’re the Barcelona of our sport.
“And so when she came to us, I was kind of like: ‘I wonder am I going to keep getting from her: ‘At Stanford, we did this and at Stanford, it was better. And at Stanford, we did that.’”
Instead, Nolan was impressed with the recruit’s attitude.
“She’s one in a million, this kid,” he says. “She’s a very confident kid, in a good way, but I would imagine sometimes she could rub people the wrong way on a first meeting because she’s so American.
“You know the way they sometimes come in a room and they’re just bubbly and full of beans and people at home are a little bit more low-key? They’d look at that and go: ‘Who does she think she is?’
“But within an hour, she’ll have won you over because she’s the most genuine person, the most caring person, the most honest person and she has a personality that lights up the room, she really does.”
Carusa swiftly became a leader in the dressing room at Georgetown and backed it up on the pitch, registering 10 goals and 12 assists.
The talented forward also appreciated the level of support she received during her time there.
“The team she was at were so good, they didn’t have to try to be good. So we had to do a lot more coaching, a lot more individual stuff. And she lapped up this individual attention that she never got at her previous school because really, they just rolled out the ball and let good players go win the game.
“They probably had 11 of the top 20 soccer players in the country. There was a reason why they were winning. So when she came to us, and all of a sudden, we’re doing individual work and videos and one-on-one sessions — she never had that.”
Carusa’s considerable influence helped her team exceed expectations, making it to the semi-finals of the NCAA.
Thereafter, as her time in college drew to a close, Nolan and Carusa began discussing what was next for her.
“She could stay in the NWSL and play — at that stage, as a young player, she would probably be a squad player — or she could go to Europe,” Nolan says.
A naturally adventurous type, Carusa wanted the latter option, though there were some stumbling blocks.
“Certain countries are challenging because of labour rules,” Nolan says. “The UK is impossible — since Brexit, it’s even worse. You can’t get into an English team unless you’re a full national team player.
“So I said to her: ‘By any chance, do you have a European grandparent?’ She said: ‘Yeah, my grandmother?’
“‘Well, we should look at getting you a passport.’
“I said: ‘What country?’ She said: ‘Ireland.’
“‘Listen, you played for me for how many months now? And at no point, did you ever feel the need to say: ‘By the way Dave, my grandmother is Irish.’”
Carusa began applying for a passport around the same time Vera Pauw took over the Irish team.
Nolan sent Pauw videos of Carusa in action and the Dutch coach was impressed with what she saw.
Then in March 2020, Carusa made her Ireland debut, coming off the bench in a 3-0 win over Montenegro, midway through the team’s Euro 2021 campaign.
Yet Carusa was not involved in Ireland’s final three qualifiers of that campaign, including the defeat in Ukraine that all but ended their hopes of progression, with the likes of Barrett, Rianna Jarrett and Leanne Kiernan usually preferred in attack.
It was a similar pattern for the World Cup qualifiers. Carusa featured in just two of Ireland’s eight games, starting the 11-0 win over Georgia and coming off the bench during the 1-1 draw at home to Slovakia, with the quicker but less physical Heather Payne often preferred as the sole forward in the starting XI.
However, it was a pre-World Cup friendly in April against the USA in Texas that appeared to convince Pauw that Carusa was worthy of a bigger role in the team.
She was given the nod to start and Ireland played well despite being beaten 2-0 by the then-reigning world champions, with Carusa holding up the ball and linking up with her fellow attackers expertly.
From that point on, Carusa has been a consistent presence in the starting XI and her confidence has also grown.
Having scored just twice at international level in the first three years since joining the Irish setup amid limited opportunities, Carusa has found the net five times in 2023 taking her tally to seven goals from 21 caps.
Tellingly, the Irish team in general have acquired a greater attacking intent since Gleeson’s reign began and Carusa has been one of the main beneficiaries.
Nolan is not surprised by her success and the fact that she has emerged as one of the team’s outstanding players.
“Kyra’s style, she’s a back-to-goal target player ideally. She’s a player that’s very good at holding the ball up, bringing others into play, and then she can finish in the box.
“She’s decent in the air, she’s brave, she just has an instinct inside the box, she comes alive.”
Not coming through the underage setup and taking the place of an Irish-born player can cause tension under certain circumstances, but it has not been a problem for the outgoing Carusa.
“I think the girls on the team love her because she is such a positive person,” says Nolan.
“Any new player they bring in, she will be the first player to sit with them at lunch. ‘I’m going to be the first player to check: how are you doing? Are you doing okay? You’re doing awesome at practice.’”
In tandem with her increasingly strong Ireland performances, Carusa has been doing well at club level in recent times. She spent three successful years at HB Køge, lining out in the Champions League with the Danish side. She had a brief spell too with the London City Lionesses in the months leading up to the World Cup and is now back much closer to home with NWSL side San Diego Wave FC.
Carusa remains close with her former coach Nolan — they speak about once every fortnight.
“Many female athletes in any sport, their first instinct is I can’t do that. Kyra always [thought]: ‘I can do that.’
“She doesn’t lack confidence. And it’s not cocky, or it’s not an arrogance. Why do you think the US women’s team has been so dominant over the years? Mostly, it’s because of their attitude and their confidence.
“Now, they’ve had the ability too. But you’re starting to see teams like England challenge them. It’s because the best English players have confidence now as well. And they’re getting more competitive.”
He continues: “When you’re fortunate enough to be a train stop on these kids’ journeys, and then you see them go on and do great things, it does make you proud.
“And in some ways, she’d never given thought to playing for Ireland, it was something that she never thought was a possibility just because she never thought about it.
“After we found out about her passport I reached out to Vera, that kind of got the ball rolling. And then the rest was up to Kyra — her ability and personality.”
Nolan concludes the conversation by recalling one anecdote that sums up Carusa’s infectious character.
“For the last couple of years, when we’ve gotten into the NCAA tournament, I’m always trying to find a link between our past great players and my current team. So I always would reach out to some of our better players and say: ‘Hey, we’re playing this weekend against such a team. Can you just give me a quick one-minute video, wishing the girls good luck and congratulating them?’
“We won our league this year for the fourth year in a row and it’s the seventh time in eight years. So I contacted all the girls and asked.
“Well, one minute is not enough for Kyra. Her video was six minutes long. And it’s just the enthusiasm [of her telling] of the story, she totally broke the ice for my team because I would show them it before the game.
“And they’re just dying laughing as Kyra’s going on and on, and the funny thing is, none of them know her because they’ve never met her.
“But they all know of her because, for the last couple of years, I would always have Kyra and Daphne [Corboz], who is in Paris FC [doing the videos].
“The older girls who would see this every year would be looking forward to getting the video from Kyra, they all want to meet her because she’s such a personality.”
