Dynamic Jarrett leads Irish to glory
Touch of Dutch courage helps Euro hopefuls see off play-off rivals after first-half scare
VERA PAUW told us this week that it seemed like she’s been with the Irish squad months, rather than merely a few days.
After a roller-coaster evening in charge of her first competitive game, the Dutch woman might have felt like she’d aged several years.
“It was very tense,” she nods wearily, but contentedly, an hour after her Irish charges doughtily saw off rivals Ukraine in their Euro 2021 Group I qualifying game before a record women’s international crowd of 5,328 in Tallaght.
Two goals up with half-time looming, a brace of sloppy concessions meant they had to start all over again after the break. This they did, much more resolutely, to stay on track for a playoff spot behind runaway group leaders Germany.
“We showed good spirit and scored a goal we’ve been trying to work on all week,” said captain Katie McCabe.
That 26th-minute goal, Ireland’s first, finished by the Arsenal star, was the highlight of a brilliant first-half hour; maybe, one might say, an example of Dutch expressionism at its finest.
Pauw desires purposeful passing and from the moment goalkeeper Marie Hourihan dealt with a back-pass, her team delivered precisely that.
Classy
Three passes later, the ball was nestling in the net; from Diane Caldwell to Heather Payne’s neat ball to the always classy Denise O’Sullivan, her raking right-to-left ball to Rianna Jarrett, her jink beyond Natiya Pantsulaya, then the precise cut-back to a gleeful McCabe.
“We’ve been working on that all week, trying to get into the right spaces,” noted McCabe, whose side seemed to have absorbed so much in so little time.
Players swapped positions at will while Megan Connolly and Niamh Fahey provided the twin core anchors to allow the creative talents to flourish.
Jarrett, player of the match, flourished in the freedom to thrive, celebrating by pouncing for a second goal within three minutes, nodding in McCabe’s corner.
“We didn’t know Rianna was capable of this and she didn’t know it either,” said a clearly taken-aback Pauw. “We asked her afterwards and she said she didn’t either.”
Jarrett is a home-based Wexford Youths player; on this evidence, she is worthy of a higher stage.
“I still can’t believe I’ve scored my first goal for Ireland. It’s something I dreamed of since being a kid and since coming back into the international set-up
“We have been working on breaking really quick and getting those positions. So I burst down the wing and Katie McCabe took the space inside.”
The low point of the night were the two poor defensive errors from goalkeeper Marie Hourihan and Megan Connolly which allowed Lyubov Shmatko and Olha Ovdiychuk to score in the 34th and 43rd minutes.
Pauw didn’t blame an inability to defend the set-pieces from which the goals derived, rather the opposite effect of the “purposeful possession” which had formed their brighter moments.
“We suffered from a lack of composure when the pressure came on us, that is why the mistakes were made,” she insisted.
“We’ve been working the whole week to get rid of a fear of failure. When the pressure went up, the composure disappeared.
“And then later that’s when the long balls came in. They were afraid of giving the ball away. I calmed them down and I just told them to repeat what we had done all week.”
Impressively, it didn’t take them long to re-absorb the message after the break and within 10 minutes they regained the lead.
Megan Campbell’s no longer secret weapon – an audaciously lengthy throw – released Jarrett on another jinking run down the left. The gifted O’Sullivan deserved to claim the goal but instead, in keeping with a familiar theme of the night, a calamity in defence produced an own goal.
“Over our dead bodies would we concede again,” said Pauw and her side displayed plenty of Dutch courage to stem the tide as the Ukrainians flooded bodies into attack.
Hourihan’s late save illustrated the defiance against a side who are ranked higher than their hosts and therefore more favoured to chase runaway leaders Germany into a potential play-off spot.
Not any more.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – M Hourihan; K Keenan, D Caldwell, L Quinn, M Campbell; M Connolly, N Fahey, D O’Sullivan; H Payne (L Kiernan 71), R Jarrett, K McCabe (capt).
UKRAINE – K Samson; T Khimich, N Pantsulaya, D Apanaschenko (capt), L Shmatko, O Basanka; V Andrukhiv, I Andrushchak (N Kunina 86), T Kitayeva,O Ovdiychuk; Y Kalinina (T Romanenko 67).
REF – D Grundbacher (Switzerland).