As Katie McCabe walked into the press conference auditorium today with Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson, the room fell silent. Journalists and camera operators fumbled about trying to set up various recording devices. Interrupting the tension- filled pause was the Irish captain, with a mischievous grin etched across her face she declared, “It’s very serious in the room today,” McCabe laughed “big game tomorrow is there?”
And of course McCabe is right, tomorrow Ireland host Wales at the Aviva Stadium for the second leg of their European Championships play off, with the tie in the balance after a 1-1 draw in Cardiff on Friday night. The Halfway Line got the chance to hear from the Arsenal left back prior to a huge match for Ireland.
Passion a ‘non-negotiable’ for this Irish side says McCabe
It was clear that the record crowd of 25,000 was understandably at the forefront of the Ireland captain’s mind today. McCabe was asked about how much the passion from the fans can impact the performance of the players to which she responded: “yeah, look, I mean, when we’re pushing up the pitch, we’ve heard it [the crowd] and we’ve seen it in games we’ve played here before, against England, Sweden, even down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, down in Cork when we were playing against France, the push and the drive and the energy it gives you, of wanting to go forward and put your body on the line for your country. And I know every single one of my teammates wants to do that tomorrow night. It’s a kind of a non-negotiable when you put in an Irish shirt on: to show that passion for your country. And I know my my teammates have that in abundance.”
When McCabe was asked about the possibility of penalties, she took the opportunity to pivot to delight in the support the team is receiving. She remarked:
“It’s [penalties are] always a possibility in these games. You’ve seen how tight it was on Friday. I will say I saw the numbers this morning: 25,000 tickets, all for the game tomorrow night, which is absolutely incredible. So we are on our home patch, but we also have 25,000 Irish fans behind us as well. So that’ll be a massive boost for us. We know how important the fans are in big games like this, whether it’s in friendly games or competitive games, they always help push us along. So it’s going to be massive for us again tomorrow night.”
McCabe: ‘We’ll be prepared tomorrow’
McCabe was asked about Wales’s physicality and if that was something that surprised her and the Irish team. McCabe lamented, “I think there were cheap shots”. She continued, “I don’t mind going toe to toe with someone in the tackle, but, yeah, it’s the ones off the ball. I’m like, come on” an exasperated McCabe exclaimed. However the Ireland captain continued, “But look, whatever game they want to play we’ll be prepared for it tomorrow. Yeah, for us, I know I’m probably repeating myself, but we know what we have to do tomorrow. We know what’s on the line and what’s at stake, and we’ll be ready to leave it all out there tomorrow.”
McCabe, honest as ever, reflected on both side’s passion: ”It’s showing the emotion and the energy in the game, both teams want to win. You know me, I don’t have a problem with a bit of argie bargie on the pitch. And we are both passionate countries, both passionate teams. So yeah, I think you’re going to get a little bit of that.”
McCabe on the opposition tomorrow night
On Friday night Wales welcomed a record crowd for a women’s fixture in the country, and McCabe reflected on Friday night: “We respected Wales going into the game. They’re in the home patch, they had a great crowd. The atmosphere they created for the game was incredible.”
The Irish captain continued: “We know they have got a lot of threats. They’ve got fantastic players all over the pitch. So ultimately, in terms of what we wanted to do, which was obviously be defensively solid, we done that. And as Eileen said, in order for us to obviously create more kind of goal scoring opportunities, we look at that and hopefully bring that into tomorrow evening.”
McCabe reassured by ‘experience’ of qualification campaigns gone by
McCabe looked back to some previous qualifying campaigns and how her side can use that experience to help guide the younger players through the experience tomorrow night. She contended: “I think what it gives us is the experience, having been in this position before twice, one not having gone our way, and the other, obviously, before the World Cup against Scotland, getting over the line with it. So, yeah, I think it gives us experience, and it gives us that kind of common sort of mentality throughout the squad, and people that haven’t obviously been in the position as leaders of the group and experienced players, we can kind of share that knowledge and show that vulnerability to younger players to know it’s okay to have a few nerves when you’re playing in front of 25,000 at home in Dublin, in the Aviva Stadium.”
McCabe had extremely good advice on hand which I’m sure will be shared with her younger team mates before the match tomorrow, exclaiming: “We know the magnitude of the game, but we just need to focus on what we can control, which is our game plan, our work ethic, and how we execute that.”
‘We’re here now’ McCabe relishes the opportunity tomorrow brings
Ireland have been here before, two years ago they beat Scotland to make the World Cup for the first time after suffering defeat at the hands of Ukraine to fail to make the play offs for the last European Championships. McCabe knows this all too well, she spoke passionately about the progress made for her side to now be in a position where they are within a match of qualifying for a major tournament again. McCabe extolled:
“I think for us as a team and as a nation, we’ve wanted to be in this position, And we’ve wanted to put ourselves in this position more regularly, and this is our, kind of third playoff scenario. So years ago, we used to speak about how we want to get there and how we get there. We’re here now. So we need to embrace that challenge, and we need to enjoy the pressure of that. I always kind of say pressure is a privilege, and to be in this kind of pressure situation, to be going out front of your home crowd, National Stadium representing Ireland, it’s unbelievable. So we’ll be taking it in our stride tomorrow, and every single one of us, staff and players will be enjoying it for sure.”
By Wednesday morning we will know which of these celtic nations will be at EURO 2025 in the summer. Wales and Ireland face off at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night with kick off at 19:30pm.
