Laura helps Irish team qualify for Deaf Futsal World Cup
IT has been a whirlwind week for Sligo’s Laura McGuinn who has helped the senior Ireland deaf futsal team qualify for the World Cup.
Laura and the Irish team were in Montesilvano in Italy for the past few days where they were competing in the European Deaf Futsal Championship.
She is a well-known local coach who played
underage with Strand Celtic and now coaches their Under-12 Girls team. She has also previously been part of the coaching team for Sligo-Leitrim representative sides in the annual Gaynor Cup competition.
Laura made her debut last Thursday for the side as they began their campaign with a 5-0 win over Israel.
This was followed up by two difficult tests against Germany and Spain.
Their encounter against Germany finished in a 5-2 defeat while Spain were the eventual winners of a game that finished 8-6. Ireland returned to winning ways with a 4-0 win over Switzerland before losing to 6-0 to Poland. This all led to yesterday, Wednesday’s all-important clash with Sweden which carried the permutation of guaranteeing World Cup qualification if Ireland were to win.
Sweden struck twice in what could have become a nervy second-half, but the result never looked in doubt as Ireland comfortably recorded a 5-2 win. The World Cup takes place this time next year in Brazil.