Women’s Nations League: Republic of Ireland 1 (Carusa 45+3) Turkey 0
Back in Tallaght after last year’s disappointing trip to the Aviva Stadium, many of the 8,071 attendance almost missed a Turkey equaliser in injury-time.
Thousands of fans had already headed for home when this tepid Nations League tie was a decent connection by Turkish substitute Arzu Karabulut from turning into a disastrous first night for the new Republic of Ireland manager Carla Ward.
“That would have been an injustice,” said Ward.
Only the result will be remembered as Kyra Carusa’s 10th international goal on the stroke of half-time secured all three points.
Taking up where Ruesha Littlejohn’s honest appraisal of how qualification for Euro 2025 fell apart in December, the Ward era began with Ireland players trying to convince their English manager that they possess the technical ability to be “comfortable on the football.”
“It was scrappy, not pretty,” Ward added. “New system, they executed. We need to keep believing and calm down on the ball. That will come, for sure.”
Clearly, there is a long process ahead. Ward, to be fair, only had two training sessions this week. Turkey lived up to their ranking of 60th in the world throughout this mismatch but the players in all-green continually failed to string more than three accurate passes together.
An easy excuse is the pitch showed the effects of Shamrock Rovers European defeat to Molde on penalties after extra-time on Thursday. Still, Ireland were overambitious in possession.
Littlejohn set the tempo with two early shots as she continues to play through an Achilles tendinopathy which came at a cost after the Euros play-off loss to Wales as her inability to train regularly at London City Lionesses has her searching for a club at age 34. Same goes for Marissa Sheva who was released by the Portland Thorns.
If international football is their shop window, gainful employment cannot be far off for both.
Ireland have always had decent defenders with Celtic’s Caitlin Hayes benched for the first time since her debut two years ago as Ward removed the comfort blanket of a back five by rewarding the distribution skills of Anna Patten and Megan Campbell.
Hayes is an outstanding centre-half who seemed undroppable. It laid down a marker.
Campbell needed the magic spray on 20 minutes following a heavy collision with Nelike Pekel as she scrambled back into position when her trademark long throw caused chaos in the Turkish box; Selda Akgoz saved a backward header by Carusa before Busem Seker cleared Denise O’Sullivan’s follow up off the goal line.
Ward sees Katie McCabe as a Champions League standard full-back that Arsenal regularly spring from her defensive duties. That was the initial plan here as Littlejohn anchored midfield with O’Sullivan and Sheva constantly hunting for pockets of space.
Ward identified Sheva as a “bundle of energy” at training in Abbotstown this week. The former Penn State track star transferred that attitude to Tallaght with two scrappy contributions before Mannion and Heather Payne helped to create Carusa’s headed goal.
The match programme notes have been recently weaponised by Irish football administrators and managers, but FAI CEO David Courell adopted a conciliatory tone when thanking the previous manager Eileen Gleeson and assistant coach Colin Healy “for all that they did with the women’s national team.”
Almost three weeks ago, Healy wrote to the FAI board seeking intervention following his unsatisfactory outcome from meetings with the People and Culture director Aoife Raferty. The currently unemployed coach claims that the FAI’s chief football officer Marc Canham supplied a “verbal assurance” of a contract extension last year that prompted Healy to turn down the Cobh Ramblers men’s job. Canham denies giving Healy or his representatives any “absolute guarantees or assurances.”
Ward also paid tribute to Gleeson and Healy for the squad she inherited and there was a two-page spread with pictures of the former coaches under the headline: “Thank you for everything.” However, on Thursday, McCabe added her voice to sustained criticism led by O’Sullivan since December of how Canham handled the change in personnel.
The latest FAI crisis should not overly concern Ward. Just after the hour mark, she turned to Abbie Larkin and Amber Barrett to invigorate a dull contest. Fifteen minutes later Megan Connolly relieved an understandably jaded Littlejohn.
Not much changed. Ireland did the bare minimum. At least Ward, her assistant coaches Alan Mahon and Amber Whiteley, along with new “performance analysts” Jackson Huxley and Rhianna Farr, will have plenty to work on before playing Slovenia in Koper on Tuesday.
Ireland: Brosnan; Mannion, Patten, Campbell (Hayes 86), McCabe; Littlejohn (Connolly 77); Payne (Barrett 62), O’Sullivan, Sheva, Quinn (Larkin 62); Carusa.
Turkey: Akgoz; Sakar, Hiz, Abrahamsson, Civelek; Topcu, Cal (Icinozbebek 81); Keskin (Karagenc 90), Turkoglu (Karabulut 61), Seker; Pekel (Hancar 81).
Referee: Réka Molnar (Hungary).
