Ireland got their first points at a Women's World Cup and if you look at it objectively, they lost to Australia and Canada who would be top ladies teams and put in good performances. They drew with Nigeria which again was not a disaster by any means. Ireland got 1 point in the end which is disappointing but not a disaster considering the group. Since the start of the World Cup campaign however the Irish team have been plagued with non footballing issues coming into the World Cup. Vera Pauw who is the Irish manager came under criticism in America for bullying and this followed her into this World Cup. In one press conference the Irish players were never asked about the World Cup itself but more around how the manager treated the players. It wasn't the ideal build up that they would have wanted.
The FAI who are the governing body were discussing a new deal for Vera heading into the world cup but for some reason this had cooled during it. Whether it was for the reason above it is unknown but her contract situation again did not help the situation with journalists starting to ask players their opinion whether she should stay on or not.
Vera Pauw's style of football is not for everyone and she does focus on getting the defence right before the attack. She was criticised for playing too defensively on occasion but that said no other manager has gotten Ireland to a ladies World Cup so the proof is in the pudding. After the Nigeria match there was some fall out around Ireland captain and star play Katie McCabe who is an Arsenal player in England. Katie McCabe is rumoured to have asked Vera Pauw to take another player off the pitch and bring on someone in her place. You can see in the video that Vera Pauw told her where to go and that was the end of it. But when asked in the presser post match she went on to say that she was the manager and not Katie McCabe and there was no way she was taking off their best player when they were level with Nigeria. When pressed again to let it be know who the "best player" was Vera announced that this was Sinead Farrelly. So in summary Katie McCabe asked for Sinead Farrelly to be taken off. Here is the presser where the question was asked.
https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status/1686070125294657536?s=20
- RTEsoccer
Source
After hearing this press conference Katie McCabe went on social media and replied with this post
And this had the journalists in a frenzy with arguments being carried out over Twitter on who was in the right. In my opinion a player should never ask for another player to be taken off. How do you think Sinead Farrelly feels now while this plays out in the press. Her captain asking for her to be taken out of a world cup game looks bad. There are some people saying that Katie wanted fresh legs on the pitch and Sinead looked spent but who knows. Katie was not having the most impactful game of her life either. I would love to be on that plane home tonight.
Irish journalists love some sporting drama. The Roy Keane saga in Saipan was even made into a musical and people are still debating it but both manager and player may be at fault here. Vera should not have named the player to be taken off and Katie should not have fueled fire to the flames with the tweet. It could have been just put to bed but now it is out and it is not going away anytime soon. The Irish journalists are not asking the players again whether they want Vera to sign a new contract but the silence is deafening from them so I take it everything is not well in the camp.
So there you are now with an Irish women's football gossip. Thanks to the guys over at @hivebuzz who are doing their awesome world cup competition. I'm languishing in 25th at the moment hoping for a few upsets in the knockout stages.