VERA PAUW, QUITE understandably, found it difficult to sum up her emotions in the immediate aftermath.
“I cannot believe it, it doesn’t sink in,” the Republic of Ireland women’s national team manager said, after her side’s 1-0 win over Scotland at Hampden Park secured their ticket to a first-ever major tournament in the 2023 World Cup.
“The last few minutes, I was, ‘Ah, ah’, I couldn’t keep up, my heart was 220, any ball could drop wrong. What heroes are those players? What fighters, what tigers. We’re going to the World Cup.”
Amidst the post-match madness, the Dutch coach — typically — mixed sentiments with analysis, ice with fire, as she gathered her thoughts.
She delved into how the game was won and lost, and the job was ultimately done, and a few minutes after the interview came to a close, came back to the reporters assembled to add one important message.
“I truly mean this from deep down in my heart that we stand on the shoulders of the previous generations,” she said. “We will get all the praise but without all the hard work and the fantastic way that everybody has step by step build this game, we can now flourish, and we do it for the next generation.
“I want to pay tribute to all the coaches before me, all the players before us because without them we would not have been here. I truly mean that. I feel it very deep down inside. I really wanted to add that because to me that’s very important.”
Looking at the game itself, Pauw assessed: “I think we won on tactics, we didn’t win because we were better players, we won because we had a better game plan. You ask about a game plan, and you seen it tonight.
“We knew we would get more chances. The first half, we could have scored but we didn’t. The second half we said to players that you need to throw you whole body in. It’s just amazing, we said we just must not get any goals against, we will get that moment. This is a game of one moment, maybe two, maybe one defensively and one in attack. And Amber [Barrett] said she would do it. She said, if you put me on, I’ll score. She said that yesterday.
“The way it came to her, a first pass from Denise was brilliant and the first touch in front, all the emotions went through her.”
The manager also reflected on the wider journey. It began after the agonising 1-0 defeat to Ukraine in Kiev, which ultimately ended their Euro 2020 hopes, she explained.
“There we said, ‘We are going to the World Cup’. That is why I stayed on and extended my contract. We were so determined. This group must go end up at the World Cup.
“This World Cup was ours because at the next World Cup a few players will be too old. This was our moment and it’s also what we discussed at half-time. I’m never swearing – some of us did! I said, ‘This is our chance, this is our moment, we are going to do it’. You could see that on the pitch. The determination to keep that ball out was phenomenal, just phenomenal. Now we need to make steps of course.”
Keen to await Saturday weeks’ draw before predicting what Ireland can do at next summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand, Pauw also added:
“It’s just unbelievable isn’t it. This is a team that is coming from really far. We had a group, nobody believed in us. Opponents didn’t believe in us. That was their fault
“Scotland said, and quite right, that they were the better team. They have the better players but we were the better team.”