This might not make much sense, but after our World Cup opener against Australia on Thursday, I was happy to be disappointed.
After researching the Australians and their form going in to the tournament, I just thought ... oh God. I felt trepidation.
Sam Kerr was, of course, a huge loss for the co-hosts, her absence would definitely have buoyed our players, and it would have been a massive relief for the girls at the back because her movement is second to none. It will be a real shame if she doesn’t get to show just how good she is in a World Cup on home soil.
But Australia are far from a one-player team, they have a group that is just a higher calibre than ours.
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Yet we showed that we could mix it at that level. We defended resolutely, they needed a penalty to beat us, and if goal difference comes in to play in the group, conceding just once could prove crucial. All that is where my happiness came from – if you told me beforehand that I’d be disappointed we didn’t take something from the game, I’d have doubted you.
I think that’s how the players will reflect on it too. They’ll be frustrated, but lifted by how they dealt with the momentous occasion. Lifted by their performance after they went a goal down. Lifted by Australia having only two shots on target in the course of the game, one a hit and hope from about 50 yards and the other a penalty. Courtney Brosnan is our player of the year because of how busy she’s been in the last 12 months, on Thursday she barely had a save to make.
That’s a testament to what went on in front of her, to the work-rate of her team-mates in every area of the pitch. It was, ultimately, undone by the concession of that penalty. Marissa Sheva made a mistake. It can happen to anyone.
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But we finished the match on a high and when you do that it can soften the blow of defeat because it gives you some confidence going in to your next game. And the players will feel that if they can start against Canada as they finished against Australia, they’ll have a chance.
And that, as ever, is my frustration, that it’s only after we concede that we throw the shackles off. That’s the next stage in our development, having the confidence to take a game to a team rather than waiting to go a goal down before doing it. But our approach was always going to be to stay in the game for as long as possible and then see if we could go nick something.
Once we started testing their goalkeeper and defence with free-kicks and corners in particular in the closing stages, we discovered their weaknesses. It’s a pity we didn’t test them earlier – identifying those weaknesses might have given us the confidence to go after them more.
That will frustrate the players because they know they can play better football. You could sense that from Katie McCabe’s interview when she said we showed more of what we’re about in that second half. We have girls who have the ability to hurt our opponents, it’s about getting them into the game.
Denise O’Sullivan and Ruesha Littlejohn did really, really well defensively – but by denying Denise the freedom to get forward, are you robbing Peter to pay Paul? Is there someone else you could put in there to allow her be a playmaker? Before she was switched to defence, Megan Connolly played that role which freed Denise to get in the pockets a little bit more and be more engaged with the attack.
And I just wish we weren’t so married to five at the back, especially because it leaves two of our more powerful runners, Katie and Heather Payne, pinned back. I looked at New Zealand and the way they set up against Norway, a traditional 4-5-1 that allowed them get players up in support of their lone striker. They didn’t have to come from as deep as our midfielders, and playing that deep makes it very hard to get up in support of Kyra Carusa on those rare occasions she establishes possession herself.
But maybe that’s looking at it through green-tinted glasses. We have to be realistic as well. Australia are being spoken about as dark horses for the tournament and Canada are the Olympic champions. So, in fairness, it’s hard to fault that cautious approach because it’s what got us to the World Cup, that rigid back line, with the players in front chipping in on the defensive effort. If Vera Pauw was to do something completely different now she’d be under fire. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
But we’ll be coming up against top class players when we play Canada, they will create chances – it would be great if we could too in a way that doesn’t involve pushing Louise Quinn up front.
If you are Amber Barrett, how are you feeling in that situation when you’re left on the bench? Given what she showed in the game against Zambia last month, when she scored twice, I was surprised she wasn’t brought on. Especially because when Abbie Larkin and Lucy Quinn came on, they were able to impact the game. Why not take a chance on another sub?
I can’t imagine Pauw changing anything tactically in this tournament, but I do think the girls might take it upon themselves to get that line higher and take some risks. They’ll look back on what happened when we pushed up the pitch, when we got more players in the box, how we had Australia scrambling at times.
And Larkin was a big part of that after she came on, she did a brilliant job. She has certainly put a question in Pauw’s mind: should she start against Canada? It’s obviously a massive ask for an 18-year-old, but she brought a freshness to the team, she ran at players, she played with no fear.
But for all my frustration over us not being braver, I still think the performance against Australia is something we can be very, very proud of. We looked like we belonged at that level. And seeing these players, many of them former team-mates, on that stage left me feeling very emotional. And, yes, very proud.
