TIME TO CATCH a breath.
The last 24 hours or so have been an absolute whirlwind in Brisbane, encapsulating the notion that there is rarely a dull moment covering the Irish women’s national team.
The past year alone has been something else: the highs of Hampden and World Cup qualification to the lows of controversies overshadowing their historic feats. From the fallout of that dressing room chant to allegations levelled at — and by — Vera Pauw, it’s been relentless.
Fresh accusations from Pauw’s time at Houston Dash in 2018 emerged last week. There was noise for a few days but the focus soon switched back to the football, as the Girls In Green departed for their first-ever major tournament.
Brisbane felt like reset, of sorts, as they worked through the gears for their World Cup opener against co-hosts Australia in Sydney and looked to finish their preparations on a high against Colombia.
It was all going so well. The 42 landed on Wednesday and it was straight to an open training session and media duties at Meakin Park. Thursday was for exploring the city and doing some work along the way, while the Irish press pack were invited to a DFA celebratory evening with Ambassador of Ireland in Canberra, Tim Mawe. AFLW star Orla O’Dwyer was among those present, along with some of her Brisbane Lions team-mates. It took place at Ireland’s team hotel, The Emporium, but the squad were training at the time.
Then came Friday. The day of the final tune-up against Colombia, and although behind-closed-doors, the Irish media had the blessing of Pauw and the FAI to attend. Colombia had been pretty insistent on no entry to conceal their tactics, but an arrangement was made and an agreement reached.
Until an 11th-hour U-Turn outside Meakin Park. As Colombian fans made their presence felt on our side of the fence — scenes of Vamos, a giant flag and bottles of wine — the case was argued but to no avail. Defeat was accepted, and we returned to the Brisbane’s South Bank with our tails between our legs.
The Australia-France warm-up was kicking off half-an-hour before The Main Event, a mouth-watering fixture between Ireland’s next opponents and their last ones. The perfect Plan B.
It finished Australia 1 France 0 in front of a record crowd of 50,629 at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. Well, a record crowd until Stadium Australia next Thursday.
Mary Fowler — her father hails from Dublin — came off the bench to score the 64th-minute winner, France pegged back after their 3-0 win in Dublin last week. It was an entertaining, open game between two heavyweights, with the Matildas looking incredibly sharp. Caitlin Foord, Hayley Raso and Courtnee Vine were among those to impress, while Sam Kerr was typically troublesome.
She signed off goal-less after an hour. “Perhaps she’s saving herself for the biggest stage in a weeks’ time,” the commentator on Channel 10 noted. Ominous. “This is all about the journey and building confidence for next week,” the Chelsea superstar said in her post-match interview. “An amazing team, an amazing feeling and I’m so excited.”
There were gut-wrenching injury blows on both sides, Tameka Yallop and Selma Bacha both appearing to sustain severe setbacks on the eve of the World Cup. Soon, we would learn that Ireland were sweating on one of their own stars.
Word began to filter through from Meakin Park. Ireland had abandoned the game after 20 minutes due to “overly physical” Colombian play. Denise O’Sullivan was in hospital with a shin injury, and suddenly, a routine warm-up game became a major story.
The Emporium was hit for more snippets of news, both on O’Sullivan and the chaos at Meakin Park, but a return trip was in order for interviews with Pauw on Saturday morning.
Just as everything was winding down at 2.30am local time, a video from outside the ground emerged.
“They are just girls,” Colombia star Daniela Caracas told fans. “One little foul and they started complaining, they were having a chat amongst themselves to continue or not so we weren’t going to hang around waiting for them.
“Let them eat shit.”
Pauw’s reaction this morning was like most others’.
“I’m sorry?!
“To be honest, I’m a bit shocked hearing this.”
“Well, let’s say that they maybe were emotional too,” she added.
The manager detailed Friday night’s events at length from an Irish perspective, telling how abandoning the game was the only way to protect her players, who “feared for their bodies”. She also offered a positive injury update on O’Sullivan, but the next 48 hours are crucial.
In terms of what we know about the football from the game that never finished: Ireland, playing the same XI from the France fixture and their expected team to start against Australia, started brightly and went close with a Louise Quinn header, before Courtney Brosnan cut out a one-on-one. Pauw says the nastiness was building throughout with a heavy tackle on Ruesha Littlejohn and two Colombian yellow cards issued before the plug was pulled after the challenge on O’Sullivan.
With national anthems played but no caps awarded, up on 100 kids from Football Queensland are understood to have witnessed it aside from the Irish and Colombian camps.
A penny for their thoughts.
Ireland played an 11-v-11 among themselves afterwards and a reduced squad were back at the scene of the crime for a training session this afternoon. The rest, some nursing knocks with O’Sullivan back in the fold in a protective boot, spent their recovery day at the hotel pool.
Tomorrow is an off day. Who knows what could happen, though.
Rarely a dull moment.
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