The beautiful game? Take a running jump. It’s mean and merciless, with the unhappy knack of leaving hearts in smithereens. We were only getting in to the World Cup swing of things, and now it’s done and dusted, apart from a deceased rubber against Nigeria next Monday.
And until stoppage-time in the first half, all was good with the world. There were we perched on the edge of our seats, marvelling at our bunch schooling the Olympic champions.
And then?
There we were slumped in our seats watching the Olympic champions school our bunch in the art of successfully chasing a game. It was as if the teams had swapped shirts at half-time, instead of waiting ‘till the contest was over.
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We’ll always have Katie McCabe’s goal, though. The pity is that when it comes to choosing a name for her biopic, ‘My Left Foot’ is already taken. ‘Wonder Woman’ too. But by the time we’ve finished rewatching that corner, we’ll have come up with something. We’ll have years to ruminate, then.
She was immense, which made it doubly hard to watch the doughtiest of warriors in tears at full-time. There she was, talking to Tony O’Donoghue about how bright the future of Irish women’s football is with the likes of “Larko” and co coming through. “We’ve done so much to get here, we know the level now, we’ve got to push for more.”
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She’s some leader. How can you have even a sliver of a thought for the future in the immediate aftermath of a heartbreaker like that?
And George Hamilton had been so hopeful too, having spotted a rainbow over the stadium in Perth. That, he trusted, was a good omen – the pot of gold, in the form of at-least-a-point, would be secured.
And Tony wondered out loud if the weather would suit Vera Pauw’s charges, the “biblical rain” making it feel just like your average Irish summer’s day. “But I’m sure they have rain in Canada too,” he added, beginning to doubt his own theory.
When Peter Collins welcomed us to RTÉ’s coverage, Karen Duggan and Megan Campbell his sidekicks for the day, he told us that this was “the biggest game in the history of Irish football”, following hot on the heels of the previous biggest game in the history of Irish football, last Thursday’s opener against Australia.
The team news for this latest slice of history was positive, Louise Quinn was fit, although whoever designs Fifa’s formation graphics was having a laugh with their 3-4-3 prediction. Pauw would have laughed loudest.
Bad news, though, with Heather Payne’s hamstring problem forcing her out of the starting line-up, Karen comforting those of us left in a panic by pointing out that her replacement, Áine O’Gorman, was hardly a rookie, this being her 119th cap.
Back outside, Ireland were warming up with big elastic bands wrapped around their legs. “Is there anything we can detect from that,” asked Tony. “No, they’re just getting ready,” Stephanie Roche replied.
Anthems. 1-0 Ireland. VAR ruled out that lead, though, because it didn’t happen during the actual game, but Katie’s Left Foot didn’t leave us waiting long to restore it, just four minutes on the clock when she did her magic thing. The “Ooh ah, up the Mná” banner behind the goal did a jig and a reel.
Canada on the ropes. Kyra Carusa tormenting Kadeisha Buchanan, Sinead Farrelly conducting the orchestra, Ruesha Littlejohn doing her ‘thou shalt not pass’ thing, Niamh Fahey adopting a similar line, and Katie being Katie.
And then the own goal. Two games, two self-inflicted wounds changing the course of both. “A kick in the gut,” as Karen put it. But both she and Megan were chuffed with the Irish performance, and hoped it would be more of the same in the second half.
It wasn’t. And despite looking decidedly ordinary, Canada still looked decidedly superior, the Ireland of the first half melting from view. Goal: 2-1 Canada. And not even Katie doing more Katie things, like attempting to score the goal of the century, and hollering at her comrades to get up the pitch to join her in the effort to equalise, could change matters.
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All over.
“We didn’t expect the performance to fall off a cliff in the second half ... I’m not saying that’s what happened,” said Peter about what happened. “We reverted back to our old selves,” said Karen, “I feel a bit dejected.”
She spoke for us all. No shame in losing by a single goal to two of the world’s top 10 ranked teams, but no pot of gold, just a whole bunch of ‘what ifs’.
