Katie McCabe will captain the Republic of Ireland to its first Women’s World Cup appearance this year. Going to the Women’s Football Showpiece in Australia and New Zealand from July 20th to August 20th, the Girls in Green should be ready to take their chances.
The Irish face a difficult battle in their opening game against the hosts, Australia, at an 80,000-plus-seater Stadium Australia in Sydney that will be completely packed to the rims. The question is, are they prepared? Defender Niamh Fahey says that even if they need to feel the pressure, they don’t; in fact, they’ll just be ready to experience things as they go, saying: “I don’t think you can realistically replicate that scenario, even if you wanted to try.
“You ready yourself like any other game, and you try and not think about the outside. As cliche as that sounds, it’s 11 v 11 on the pitch, and you focus on the game, and yeah, there’s noise, but to be honest, even in games where there’s been 40,000, 50,000, once the game is on, you don’t really hear that crowd, that noise.
“It’s only the anticipation those first couple of minutes, and once those five minutes, or once you’ve settled into the game, I think it just becomes a formality in terms of how the game is going to pan out.
“I think if you can get through those first couple of minutes, it makes all the difference; you don’t really hear it. Well, I don’t hear it anyway, so I can’t speak for everybody.”
According to Fahey, the girls in green have no pressure, which can push them to achieve history, even if just being in the World Cup is making history!
Michelle Maxwell
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