By Irish Founder of Women In Sport WA,
Karen Hennessy
When the Republic of Ireland qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup after beating Scotland with an Amber Barrett goal in Glasgow history was made. As a result of that win it was the first time the Women’s senior national team qualified for a major tournament and the first time in 21 years a Senior soccer team had qualified for a major tournament
The Republic of Irelands 'Girls in Green' will again make history when they take on the host nation Australia, in front of a sold-out crowd of 81,500 people in Sydney on July the 20th. This game had been planned for a 40,000-seater stadium but moved to accommodate the demand for tickets and FIFA made the move to a bigger stadium. The Irish in Australia will be out in force at this game and all bets are on for many renditions of the “Field of Athenry”
Questions to be answered on the night will be:
1. Are Coach Vera Pauws team going to put the ball in the net and cause an upset? Reminder Ireland beat the Matildas in Dublin, in September 2021 when the two last teams last met.
2. Will the Matildas fold under the immense pressure? Or hit their stride early with a Sam Kerr goal
In every major championship there is always a group known as ‘The Group of Death’ and as Irish luck will have it we have found ourselves in the FIFA Women’s World Cup ‘Group of Death’.
1. Australia: Ranked 10th on World rankings boasting of West Australia’s own Golden Boot scoring Sam Kerr who plays her club football for Chelsea WFC ( July 20th )
2. Canada: The Olympic Gold Medalists, who boast the highest goal scorer of all time, Christine Sinclair, beating the like of Cristiano Ronaldo ( July 26th)
3. Nigeria: The team is by far Africa's most successful international women's football team winning a record eleven Women's Africa Cup of Nations titles, with their most recent title in 2018, after defeating South Africa in the final.
Who to watch:
Irelands Captain Katie McCabe:
Katie, who plays her club football with Arsenal, and was just named Arsenals Player of the year. Katie is a left back/winger/midfielder.
Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala: A forward for both Nigeria and Barcelona, holds a remarkable achievement as the first footballer in the world to have been named the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year.
Matildas Sam Kerr:
There is no brighter star in Australia at the moment other than Sam Kerr. Sam Kerr, who is from Fremantle, was named Football Writers Associations Player of the year for Chelsea. Scored the winning goal in the FA Cup Final for Chelsea. Sam also says that the opening game will be like a “Cathy Freeman, Sydney Olympics moment for all young girls in Australia”.
The one thing the Irish Fans in Perth are looking forward to is turning out in green to support our Women.