The Ireland players were still on the pitch at Q2 Stadium in Austin, warming down and waving to friends and family when up in New York, the social media team at Gotham FC tweeted a declaration: “2023, the year of Sinéad Farrelly”.
The US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club were rightly proud of their midfielder’s international debut, an hour of action in Ireland’s 2-0 friendly defeat to the USA on Saturday evening. If their Twitter post sounded just a tad hyperbolic, Farrelly’s newest manager did little to tamp down their excitement.
Vera Pauw is excited too and her post-match offerings in Texas suggest that 2023, the year Ireland’s women make their first trip to a World Cup, could indeed be the year of Sinéad Farrelly.
Since securing qualification last October, Pauw has been vocal about not adding newly interested and eligible players to her squad for the sake of it. Yet the Dutchwoman clearly feels that in Farrelly she has found something truly different – a player who changes the entire direction and approach of her team.
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Farrelly was steadily impressive throughout her 60 minutes, bringing instant composure on the ball and added presence in the middle. While the shape initially looked a familiar 3-5-2, it soon became something closer to a 5-3-1–1 with Kyra Carusa as the focal point up front and Marissa Sheva, another recent addition to the panel, working busily off her with Katie McCabe and Heather Payne darting forward from wing back positions.
[ Ireland will take both heart and lessons from defeat against USAOpens in new window ]
For the first half-hour in particular, when Ireland could and probably should have taken the lead against the best team in the world, it worked a treat in both an attacking and defensive sense. And it all came down to the addition of Farrelly.
“We’ve made huge steps in our game and we were waiting for a player like Sinéad to allow us to play with a target player. So as soon as she came in and showed what we also saw on video, we decided to just go for it,” Pauw explained.
“Kyra Carusa is a target player instead of a runner so that means the first ball is going to her, with runners then on the wings. Whereas before, we had to play with Heather [Payne] conquering the space behind the defence.
“But now we can be in control because with [Farrelly], you have just that little bit more rest to be able to get into position and to play that style with fast wingers going forward. So we have made a huge first step and we are going to build from that.”
Building from a position of strength is an envious position and even if she saw her side’s run of nine games unbeaten and seven-straight clean sheets come to an end on Saturday, Pauw saw so much that she liked.
Ireland teams of the past have consistently wilted in the face of an American attack but Emily Fox’s drive from distance after 37 minutes was only added to with a late Lindsey Horan penalty.
Louise Quinn, Carusa and Denise O’Sullivan, captaining Ireland on her 100th cap, could all have given Ireland a deserved lead before the USA’s opener. Asked about shading the opening half, Pauw again quickly came back to her new recruit.
“We had the best chances,” said Pauw who will likely shuffle things for Tuesday night’s second meeting with the USA in St Louis.
“But you can also see the quality of USA, in the moments that you tire, it comes out. You could also see immediately when Sinéad went off that you miss that one extra player who could be calm on the ball.
“From that moment there was a storm on us because there was no rest. With Sinéad, we got a balance in the group that we did not have before.”
Rest was top of the mind for Farrelly herself. After blowing the whistle on abuse in the NWSL, her journey back into the game has been nothing short of remarkable. But match experience is still a key.
“I am so overwhelmed. Obviously we wanted to win – but I am just really proud of the team. I am also very tired,” Farrelly told a media throng in the mixed zone before talk of a World Cup place came up.
“I don’t want to lose sight of why I came back to play. It was just to have the game back in my life, and feel that joy and passion again. I don’t want to attach [myself] to any outcomes.”
Her coach, however, clearly has outcomes in mind.
