Vera Pauw’s history-makers must glean results from co-hosts Australia, Olympic gold medallists Canada and African champions Nigeria to escape Group B at next year’s football World Cup.
Two teams qualify for the knockout stages, but a draining three matches in 11 days, while covering 8,000km and three cities, makes progress to the knockout stages an enormous task for the Republic of Ireland.
And yet, opening gambits at major tournaments used to be an Irish speciality.
Front and centre of this global gathering, Ireland face The Matildas at the Sydney Football stadium on July 20th, an opponent they beat 3-2 in Tallaght stadium last year despite the presence of Chelsea superstar Sam Kerr.
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“It’s a very tough draw,” said Pauw, “but on the other hand it is exciting. The game will explode [in Ireland].
“How good is it to play the opening game against the host nation in a full stadium in a country where half the country has Irish backgrounds?
“Households will be divided — ‘who will we support?’”
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| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | Australia | Spain | England | USA | France | Sweden | Germany |
| Norway | Canada | Japan | China | Netherlands | Brazil | Italy | South Korea |
| Switzerland | Republic of Ireland | Costa Rica | Denmark | Vietnam | Jamaica | Argentina | Colombia |
| Philippines | Nigeria | Zambia | Winners Chile v Haiti/Senegal | Winners of Portugal v Cameroon/Thailand | Winners of Chinese Taipei/Paraguay v Papua New Guinea/Panama | South Africa | Morocco |
But Group B never lets up. Six days after the Australia game, Pauw’s 23-woman squad must travel 4,000km to play Canada, ranked seventh by Fifa, at the Perth Oval.
Nigeria, ranked 45th but the strongest African nation by some distance, are the final opponents at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on July 31st.
“We don’t fear anyone, we will be prepared,” said Pauw. “The opening game — they will be nervous, we will be nervous, but I think we have shown under high pressure we can get the best out of ourselves. All I can say is we will give every team a game.”
How prepared remains to be seen as fresh financial strain is heaped on the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to ensure that this Katie McCabe-led group have the necessary budget to compete with the world’s best teams.
The FAI, currently paying off debts of €63.5 million, are already scrambling to entice a respectable friendly opponent in the November international window.
“It is very important we know now who we are going to face, but most countries have set their games already,” Pauw said. “There will be a lot of lobbying tonight and tomorrow.”
England at the Aviva Stadium, where the Irish women have never been permitted to play an international, would be the ideal send-off early next summer.
“I don’t know if England is waiting for us. We need to ask who needs games at what moment and fit them in. Countries qualified months ago so they had more time to put a schedule in place,” Pauw said.
Multimatch tickets for the World Cup have been on sale since October 6th with single match tickets, costing €12/€13 for adults and €6/7 for kids, available from Tuesday, October 25th. Access the ticket portal here. The FAI is accepting ticket applications for Ireland’s three group matches from Monday.
Tickets should not be a problem as Sydney Football stadium, also known as Allianz Stadium, holds 42,500 supporters. The Perth Oval takes 20,500, and Suncorp in Brisbane has a capacity of 52,500. But getting Down Under and hopping between the three Australian cities, for a grand total of 8,300km in 11 days is hardly an environmentally friendly never mind player- or fan-accommodating odyssey.
“We are the only group that has that,” said Pauw, “One group was going to travel a lot, and we will have an extra day to clear the hotel.
“It is something we have to face. We need to see if we can create a home base and travel from that to venues or don’t take a base and travel from venue to venue.”
Also, Ireland’s three Australian venues operate off three different time zones.
The tournament is kicked off by co-hosts New Zealand playing 1995 champions Norway, also on July 20th at Auckland’s iconic Eden Park. Ireland v Australia follows a couple of hours later as the tournament leaps across multiple time zones.
Champions the USA, chasing a third successive title, open their defence against Vietnam, also at Eden Park, the venue for the 2011 rugby world cup final, on July 22nd.
Euros winners England landed in a generous Group D alongside China, Denmark and a play-off qualifier.
The winners of England’s group face the runners-up in Group B and vice versa so a third meeting between the neighbours at a major tournament remains a distant possibility.
In the meantime, soccer must grow accustomed to hakas and didgeridoos. The early morning draw from Auckland began with a traditional “Kia ora Aotearoa” welcome from New Zealand, as the co-hosts of the ninth Fifa women’s World Cup put on a glitzy Saturday night show (12 hours ahead of Ireland).
“Football is joy,” declared Fifa president Gianni Infantino, before the Swiss-Italian administrator took a swipe at lowballing TV offers. “Broadcasters offer us 100 times less than what they offer us for the men’s World Cup ... pushing us to do more for equality and at the same time we are not going to accept these offers. We are trying to commercialise the Women’s World Cup for the first time on its own.”
That’s right, Infantino just used gender equality as a negotiating tool with rights holders.
“The next [women’s] World Cup will cost us around $400 million [€405 million] and we hope to break even,” said Infantino before reiterating that “whatever nationality, background, gender, sexual orientation, everyone is welcome in Qatar” for the men’s World Cup next month despite a clear contradiction as homosexuality remains illegal in Qatar with punishment of up to seven years in prison.
Kick-off times in Australia and New Zealand, so crucial to securing a lucrative broadcast deal in North America and Europe, are still to be confirmed.
The final returns to Sydney on August 20th but switches to the 2000 Olympic Stadium.
World Cup Group B
July 20th 2023: Australia v Ireland, Sydney Football stadium.
July 26th: Canada v Ireland, Perth Oval
July 31st: Nigeria v Ireland, Suncorp stadium Brisbane
