Quinn ready and able
Blessington’s Louise on life in Italy and the Ukraine clash
SINCE making her move to Fiorentina at the end of July, Louise Quinn has been busy embedding herself into the Italian lifestyle, as well as the country’s approach and mentality towards football. The decision for the 30-year-old Blessington native to jump to the Serie A certainly came at an ironic time, given the impact that a certain pandemic was having on Italy and Europe, as whole.
Since signing for the two-time Champions League winners, however, Quinn has soaked in everything about the culture in Italy, from learning the language, to experiencing the cuisine, even so far as to adapt the way she drinks her coffee, she has spent the three months engrossing herself in the way of life, while using the on-field experience to develop her own skillset in time for this week’s crucial clash with Ukraine.
The opportunity was not one that Louise was about to pass up. After leaving Arsenal, with whom Quinn won a league title and an FA Cup since joining the Gunners in 2017, back in June, she spent a very short time as a free agent. She had met with a number of clubs before eventually being approached by Fiorentina manager Antonio Cincotta with an idea for the defender to join the club, one that she could not resist.
‘I had a chat with the coach – Antonio Cincotta - and he liked me. He liked my work ethic and drive and all that stuff. We just had a good chat when I spoke with him. I just assessed all options. They are a Champions League side, as well. We played against them with Arsenal, and even though we won the first game 4-0, it wasn’t comfortable. It felt right for me to give it a go.’
Following a brief pre-season, Louise Quinn and her Fiorentina teammates have had an uneven start to the new Serie A campaign. While they picked up three wins on the bounce over Inter Milan, Napoli, and Florentia – during which time Louise started all three games – they went on to lose their next three, including a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Juventus, wherein Louise was shown a red card in the first-half.
It has made for quite the learning experience for Quinn, who has borne witness to just how intense Italian football is on the training ground and on a matchday. Italy is notoriously perfectionist when it comes to what managers expect of their players when it comes to their work-rate and appreciation of the finer details of the game. All of this has allowed for Louise to further expand on how she is able to defend the various kinds of attackers.
‘It is a very technical game. There are some very tough strikers to be putting yourself up against. They are very tricky. They find very small gaps to get themselves through or to get the ball through, and they are also very, very talented when they have their back to goal. I have found that they manage to do good to link-up play in small areas. There’s a lot to learn for myself.
‘The word relentless would actually be the word (to describe training). Yeah, some of it is very, very tough. There are very long days. They tried to put across a lot of information in the training sessions. It has gone on for longer than it used to. It is tough and they expect high quality all the time. They really want perfection with things. It is their love and passion. They are very, very driven, and hate to lose. They will do anything to make sure there is no losing going on.
‘You need to be competitive; you need to want to win. You can say that about any sports person; we are all competitive and want to win, but they are on a level up from that, for sure.’
While she has had to adapt to the Italian style of football, Louise has still had little problem adapting to her new way of life, partly because of how she has been able to build relationships with her Fiorentina teammates.
‘We have really gelled together. That is a similarity between the Irish and the Italians; I feel they are very, very open and friendly. They’re family orientated. It makes for a very, very nice atmosphere. You really have to open yourself up to them and adapt to their culture as quickly as you can; everything from the food, how you drink your coffee, attempting to speak Italian. Once they see that effort, they really, really appreciate that.’
Quinn will take a pause from her Italian job this Friday, when she meets back up with the national team for their massive 2022 European Championship qualifier against Ukraine. It is a rematch from their last meeting from the end of October 2019, when goals from Katie McCabe, Rianna Jarrett, and Lyuobov Shmatko (own goal) sealed a 3-2 win for Vera Pauw’s charges on a historic night in Tallaght Stadium.
Going into this Friday’s game, Ireland are in a must-win scenario if they are to hope to automatically qualify. Despite suffering a humbling 3-0 defeat to Germany in September, the Girls in Green are all but guaranteed a playoff. However, they still have an outside chance of ending as one of the top ranked, second-placed teams with a win over Ukraine, as long as other results go their way. Quinn and co. will do themselves a favour with a victory on Friday, given how their final game will be away to Germany in December.
Rather than dwell on the disappointment of the loss to Germany last month, Quinn is hungry to take the lessons learned from that setback and use them to rebound when they meet the Eastern Europeans.
‘I really, really can’t wait. It is such a massive occasion; a big, big game for us to get a playoff spot. I’m just really, really excited to get back in with the girls. We had a tough time against Germany, but that was just great preparation to get ourselves ready against Ukraine.
‘Even though, I suppose, we weren’t expected to get a result, we were still disappointed with the result (vs Germany), but we have got to look at it and get ready to go again. It was massive preparation. It was a really tough time; we hadn’t seen each other in months and everyone was on different levels with their clubs. We are really just trying to get ourselves right. Of course, we want to put out a better performance; more of a performance that we had in the second half (vs Germany).
‘We are obviously going to look back on (3-2 win) against the Ukraine and see that we really dominated most of that game. That is going to be our main concentration.’
Ireland will need to rely upon
every player on the pitch bringing their best if they are to get that ohso-vital result in Ukraine. Quinn will be one of the veterans leading the charge, looking to take what she
has absorbed during her early time in Italy and using it to further improve herself as a colossal presence at the heart of the Irish defence.