Pauw to make and break dreams with final World Cup selection

Macdara Ferris reports from Irishtown Stadium in Ringsend

Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw currently has an extended 50 player panel in her mind for this summer’s World Cup.

The Girls in Green play France in a friendly on 6 July in Tallaght and fly to Australia the next day. A final squad selection is required by FIFA on 10 July so Pauw plans to name her 23-player squad ahead of that France match – subject to any last minute injuries.

Pauw said that those final calls for her squad “will never be easy. I know I break dreams. I destroy dreams. I hate my job at that time.”

The nature of the women’s game is that she will bring an additional three training players outside of those 23. They won’t be available for selection but will allow the Dutchwoman to manage her players during the tournament, reducing training load when a player is on her period during which time they are more susceptible to injury.

“So when a player gets close to her menstruation, her period, we need to be able to take her off her block, instead of being forced to keep her on the pitch,” said Pauw. “That was a big issue for FIFA also, women’s teams are different, you need to be able to prepare for the safety of the players.

“Those (training) players know they will have the experience of going to the World Cup but they will not play unfortunately. You need to be able to do that, you need to be able to helpful to the others.” 

She will have to whittle her extended squad down to just 23 and she is not expected to name any late bolters into the squad from outside those currently available. She is trying to give every current player the possibility of making the final cut.

“I keep my mind open (about the 23) because every player deserves to be judged on the best performance that they have showed and maybe she has showed that not yet.

"Every week, I make notes on every single player as to how she performs. Where I see that a player can improve in a certain area, I am calling (them). We video call, we exchange clips and we discuss it. I am giving every player a chance until the very last minute.

“Every camp, every player gets a chance until the last moment. In the USA, Lucy Quinn she suddenly jumps up. She is the perfect example. We have spoken a lot, gone through video clips of what she had to improve and how she could understand it in that role. She picks it up so well in training already. We said let’s have the guts to give her the chance to go for it. Because that is what the players want.

“You can understand my work at this moment is I put more energy into the fringe players than on the core players because they will take care of themselves. They have their club programme, and I don’t want to interfere there. Why would I interfere with Katie McCabe’s programme? She has other things to do at this moment.”

The Girls in Green will be based in Brisbane for the tournament and they are planning a game against another World Cup team on 14 July prior to the first match.

It is likely to be a behind-closed-doors uncapped game as that will allow the respective managers to use more than seven substitutes during the 90 minutes.

Ireland will play on the opening day of the tournament against co-hosts Australia in Sydney. They face Olympic champions Canada in Perth on 26 July before their final group game back in Brisbane five days later against Nigeria.

“We want to make Ireland proud. We want Ireland to see we have done everything we can to give the best performance we can. At the end of the games we will see if that is good enough to surprise the world. The key thing is that Ireland is proud of the way we show ourselves.

“We step into every game to win. We don’t step into a game to make people proud, we step in the game to win and hope the result is what people are proud of.”

Pauw hopeful of avoiding headache of player unavailability ahead of World Cup - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/UnlzUbhyZw

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) May 10, 2023