“I had a ball tonight, man,” laughs Denise O’Sullivan following the 0-0 draw with Nigeria as the Republic of Ireland bowed out of this Women’s World Cup. “I did, I needed that.”
With Katie McCabe’s historic goal providing us with the standout World Cup moment against Canada, the skipper reminding everyone that she is one of our world-class players. But she is not the only one. Some of the iconic photos of the qualifying phase are of McCabe and O’Sullivan together, in tears, overjoyed. Photos speak a thousand words and the pictures of these two, separate but together, told its own story: two players at their own level.
To get a grasp of O’Sullivan’s work ethic on this team we need to look at some statistics. She was second only to McCabe in terms of goals scored in the qualifying campaign. In the qualifying game against Sweden, she ran 11,091 metres, more than any other Irish player, 10,420 against Finland, 10,469 against Slovakia. O’Sullivan and McCabe are the only two players who were consistently in those ranks for all the qualifying games.
However, for the Australian and Canada games we didn’t see O’Sullivan clocking up these numbers, her performances more muted that what we’ve come to expect from the North Carolina Courage captain.
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“Yeah, I think it’s been tough obviously,” says O’Sullivan. “I think my last two performances haven’t been the best in an Irish shirt and there’s no one to blame for that only myself and I hold myself accountable for that.
“I’m well able to take it. I’m well able to take criticism, so I’ll go away and I’ll reflect on those two games. But, the girls are very supportive and tonight I showed what I can do, what I can do on the ball and what I can do off the ball and I’ll just go in and reflect on both of the games, look at them, look back and really analyse it.”
This Nigeria game saw O’Sullivan moved to the right, and further up the field. It made an immediate impact, giving her more space and creating attacking opportunities for her.
“I had more freedom to be quite honest. It’s a more natural position in the number 10 I can just float about and get on the ball and not have to think too much. I really, really enjoyed it and think being in that position I’m able to show myself a bit more.”
Criticism has been thrown Ireland’s way for their hesitancy at making changes, but this positional switch came directly from management.
“To be quite honest, I think she’s [Pauw] probably seen it herself. Looking back at the [Canada] video, I didn’t have much space in the six [position] and I wasn’t able to get on the ball as much, and number 10 is the natural position for me, for Ireland.
“So I think Vera – fair play – looked at the Nigeria team and saw that there would be space on either side of their six. They and the staff discussed that and thought it would be a good game for me to be in that pocket.”
Forty minutes in, O’Sullivan was gifted a pass beside the Nigerian goalposts, but the ball tipped off her foot and over the line before she could get a proper shot on target. Immediately, she was bent over in frustration. So when she did get a shot on goal, it felt good.
“I did. I finally got a shot on goal, so at least that was good. But yeah, that’s the next level for me I think now, to obviously get those chances is number one and then start finishing them. That’s where I can take myself to the next level I think.”
The performance was respectable, with Ireland ending their tournament on something of a high, but of course, there is also the what ifs.
“[We’re] disappointed that we didn’t come away with a win,” says O’Sullivan. “Honestly, I thought we could have gotten the win tonight. But I thought the performance was a lot better. I thought we were a lot more controlled and composed on the ball in midfield especially. So yeah, it’s bittersweet. We wanted to come away with a win and we got our first point on the board, so it is kind of disappointing at the same time.”
Ireland’s entry to a first major international tournament was in a group of death, the debutants facing co-hosts Australia, Olympic champions Canada and nine-time Africa Women Cup Of Nations champions Nigeria. That jump in standard was probably not completely grasped initially.
“Honestly the teams coming in here, how intense it is the level of play that’s here. The first two games probably hit us in the face a bit, the intensity of the games and stuff. So I think that’s a big learning curve for us. We know now we have a taste of it, so the next time we will come back and we wanna be back.
“I think we can go in together and enjoy our night and enjoy the moment together, but we’ll all reflect as individuals I think and as a team and I think we can learn from these moments.
“We knew coming in here was gonna be very difficult and it showed that it was really, really difficult to, and we only got one point out of it, but we can be proud of the performances. I think every single player went out and gave a hundred per cent, no one gave less than that and that’s what we can ask for. That’s what we’re supposed to do and it’s an absolute honour to play for this jersey and it’s special to represent the country.”
