Mighty Quinn
Irish star puts friendships aside with World Cup hopes on the line against Dutch
DUTCH football may be in decline but their women’s team have softened the blow and tonight in Nijmegen, Ireland have the arduous task of stopping the European champions further showing up their male counterparts.
Next year’s World Cup in Russia won’t feature Holland and their failure to reach a second successive major tournament was inevitable long before the females restored a semblance of credibility in August by prevailing in the finals they hosted.
Ireland’s manager Colin Bell has been in the women’s game long enough and possesses sufficient medals to know what he’s talking about and so describing tonight’s opponents as currently the best team in the world wasn’t some attempt at pre-match reverse psychology.
Under the manager’s reign since February, progress has been apparent yet the extent of which should be better assessed following events at the soldout Goffert Stadium.
Despite women’s international football being for a long time a two-tier system, debut appearances at this year’s Euros by Scotland, Austria, Portugal and Switzerland understandably left Ireland’s players wondering why their drought persists.
Navigating a way to the 2019 World Cup finals is even trickier.
Holland’s form – Ireland stand between them and a 13th straight victory – bestows a favourites’ tag to grasp the sole ticket to France, while Norway are nestled neatly behind in the pecking order.
Usurping the Scandinavians for the runner-up spot will only seal a play-off if Ireland gather enough points to be amongst the top four finishers across seven groups. Away victories in the past nine weeks over Northern Ireland and Slovakia have instilled hope but their destiny will be dependent upon picking up results against the odds.
“We came into camp earlier than usual and our video sessions with the staff have been very interactive for the players,” says Louise Quinn, set for a hectic night in central-defence on her 60th cap.
DAUNTING
“The Dutch are open and honest about the style they use and we’ve to come up with a way of counteracting them.
“That can be daunting, especially playing in front of a full home stadium, but the Dutch fans are nice and I think our players will work off that atmosphere.
“For all the strengths of the Dutch team, they also have their weaknesses. Katie McCabe and Sophie Perry are excellent with their set-piece deliveries and as a defender getting forward for those, I’d put money on myself to win the one-on-one battles.
“There’s a fair bit of pace up front between Amber Barrett and Leanne Kiernan as well. It’s about taking chances when they come our way.”
Realistically, Quinn will be spending the majority of her evening shadowing striker Vivianne Miedema.
Colleagues at Arsenal, they’ll be adversaries tonight and the mission of ensuring the 21-year-old doesn’t score to reach the 50-goal mark for her country is foremost for the Blessington native.
“Four of the Dutch players are teammates of mine at Arsenal,” she said. “They’re great girls too but they haven’t talked much about this game. I’ve been trying to get inside their heads for the last while but they didn’t take it well.
“To be fair, they know it will be a tough game. All the top nations realise that to beat Ireland, they have to be really on their game.”
IRELAND (probable v Netherlands): M Hourihan (Manchester City); S Perry (Brighton and Hove Albion), L Quinn (Arsenal), D Caldwell (SC Sand), H Scott (Reading); N Fahey (Bordeaux), K Duggan (UCD Waves); L Kiernan (Shelbourne), D O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), K McCabe (Glasgow City); A Barrett (Peamount Utd).
Netherlands v Ireland, Live, eir Sport, 7.0