Katie McCabe’s Ireland “gutted” as Girls in Green Women’s World Cup ambitions dashed

Unfortunately, Katie McCabe and her Girls in Green teammates’ World Cup run seems over after losing 2-1 to Cloe Lacasse’s Canada.

By the 4th minute of the game, Ireland had taken the lead thanks to a historic goal scored by Katie McCabe directly from a corner kick. However, Canada pulled off a comeback, getting the equaliser from M. Connolly just before the Halftime break.
Ten minutes into the second half, Canada scored the goal that kept Canada’s title hopes alive but killed Ireland’s.

The game’s story was, “Luck of the Irish runs out as Canada comeback breaks green hearts.”

Things haven’t gone according to plan for the Irish, but they have learned their lessons and will get stronger to continue competing with the World’s best, as Vera Pauw admitted after the loss to Canada: “I am obviously very, very disappointed that we couldn’t get back into the game after the 2-1, but I am so proud of what we showed tonight,” she said.

“If you can go for the majority of the first half and dominate, and the way we have played with guts to go and conquer an opponent who are Olympic champions, and the way we did it with the freedom and variety we tried to bring in, I am so proud of the players that they have made that stand.

“But I am gutted, of course, very disappointed.

“But we are sports people; we hate losing. At this moment, it just hurts, but during the game, I said to Tom (Elmes), “We are equal, if not better. That was just tremendous.”

“If there is one thing I can say, we feel we have closed the gap.

“But then winning against those nations is the next step and the next task we have.

“I only think of what Katie says, we will qualify more often for finals because this team is too good to not qualify.”