In a stadium littered with tales of storied sporting endeavours, an Irish women’s soccer team will this evening seek to deliver a resounding statement of what, relatively speaking, is for them an Olympian aspiration.
t may only be the second game of Ireland’s road towards a maiden voyage at a major tournament but, from the perspective of manager Vera Pauw, this is already a pivotal encounter.
Even if the closer this Finland clash hovers into view, the further the visitors have attempted to distance themselves from the potentially enormous impact of a positive or negative outcome.
“It could be pivotal,” hedged Pauw before her side’s final training beneath the Helsinki Olympic Stadium’s famous looming tower.
“We will only know that afterwards. The thing is in football, if you are performing every day a little bit better, you won’t know where the turning point is.
“We hope that it was against Australia and we need to see what we can bring, because we do respect Finland very much.”
Finnish coach Anna Signeul, an erstwhile sparring partner of Pauw, appreciates that, with Sweden nailed on to directly qualify, this initial battle to snaffle a play-off match is effectively a contest for the ‘middle ground’.
“Of course we are looking at Sweden as the favourites in the group but seeing Ireland’s performance against Sweden gives us a little bit of encouragement before that game,” says Signeul, whose side have already seen off Slovakia and Georgia.
“But I do not look at that game yet, it is all about tomorrow’s game that really matters.”
They expect to win it; Ireland will hope to do so.
Pauw has evoked an image of her side upon their “tippy toes”, desperately straining to strive towards some semblance of belonging with the sport’s elite.
Finland may be closer to their level than the Swedes but despite the relative closeness of the rankings – Finland are 25, Ireland 33 – the hosts did cruise through a European Championship qualifying group featuring two sides, Portugal and Scotland, who are both rated higher than the Irish.
A dour stalemate may not be the worst outcome in the world for the visitors.
“It is not going to be what makes or breaks the campaign for us,” confirms Louise Quinn, seeking a 13th goal at the right end tonight to atone for her luckless own goal last Thursday.
The home side, expectantly welcoming around 6,000 to their national stadium as the sport celebrates 50 years, might be enthused to attack pre-emptively to demonstrate their strength in the race for a play-off slot behind Sweden.
Ireland may have to withstand that initial assault from the home side, spearheaded by the classy Linda Sallstrom – a scorer when the Finns destroyed Ireland’s Euro 2017 hopes here in a 4-1 rout five years ago – and hope that their defensive-minded attitude holds firm with as much verve as it did last Thursday against the truly world-class Swedes.
Mistakes are the only blot on that soothsaying landscape; Niamh Fahey’s brave but ill-judged foray resulted in a catalogue of errors which condemned Quinn’s flailing leg to concede the only goal of last Thursday’s tight contest.
Pauw is adamant that Ireland must be defensively minded primarily, as seems to be her way with an Irish side not fully trusted, or indeed often competent enough, to dominate a game in possession. They will seek to attack only if the opportunity presents.
And then, perhaps somewhat like Eamonn Coghlan, who sprung from the final bell into a truly commanding final lap here to win an emotionally redemptive gold in 1983, Ireland can launch a spring-heeled offensive late in the piece.
“We are developing in possession,” concedes Pauw, albeit with minimal flourish. “Of course our counter-attack could be our best chance.”
There is another way, of course, and presuming Ireland do not defend as deeply as they did with a formation that is likely to remain unchanged – although there may be one personnel switch – they should be seeking to establish patterns of play.
Pauw has hinted that Katie McCabe will once more be deployed in a more advanced role; at times in a second half of bewildering formation changes last Thursday, she also played centrally, and even for a few minutes up top.
If she can dovetail with the fit Denise O’Sullivan, who struggled to impose herself in Tallaght, Ireland can occasionally dictate the proceedings instead of relying on the less accurate and less frequent, counter-attacks.
Their distribution, so poor against Sweden, must improve, however; a higher block may help in creating tighter links. Quinn and her side were reminded on arrival in Helsinki yesterday that when they were building this Olympic Stadium, the architects were instructed to construct the famous adjoining tower to exactly the same height as the distance thrown by Finland’s 1932 Olympic javelin champion Matti Järvinen, 72.71 metres.
“You can take a little bit of inspiration from it all,” says Quinn.
After Thursday’s resolution without reward, Ireland must aspire to inspire in a setting fit for heroes.
