Marissa Sheva has lauded more gametime that has ‘given me confidence’ to perform for Ireland.
Undoubtedly Marissa Sheva is playing her best football in an Ireland shirt. Despite a 2-1 loss to France, Sheva impressed. At one point Sheva danced her way through attempted tackles from Kadidiatou Diani of OL Lyonnes and Sakina Karchaoui of PSG to retain possession for her nation. It was only a moment, but one that demonstrated the level at which Sheva is currently operating at.
After an encouraging performance from Ireland ended in defeat, Sheva spoke to the media and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
Regular game time has ‘given me confidence’ says Marissa Sheva
For a while Marissa Sheva was struggling for regular minutes. She intermittently found the pitch for Washington Spirit and the same was true at Portland Thorns. This term however, Sheva has played over 1,000 minutes for Sunderland as well as starting four of the last five for Ireland.
The Halfway Line asked Sheva about the positive effect that regular gametime at international and club level is having on her game,
“I think more than anything, it’s given me confidence” Sheva explained.
“And I think that I didn’t realize how much I was missing out, not getting 90 minutes week in and week out.
“They say how important that is for younger players but I mean, I’m not one of the younger players anymore, so I just think, I didn’t realize how much that could do for my confidence. And I think that that, more than anything is probably showing.”
There is ‘frustration’ after ‘great performance’ ends in defeat says Sheva
Even though Ireland took a deserved lead, France, the side ranked 20 places above Ireland in the FIFA Women’s World rankings would fight back and eventually triumph.
Sheva, whose maternal grandparents hailed from Donegal and Tyrone provided her thoughts on an exciting encounter,
“Yeah, I think initial emotions are frustration, disappointment just because I think it was a great performance from us” Sheva said.
“And I think that really the two goals conceded were more mental lapses than anything else. We knew at halftime coming in 1-0 up, that it was going to be as much of a mental battle as a physical battle.
“Just staying compact and staying patient, you know, weathering the storm a bit. So, yeah, frustrated right now, but once the frustration passes, we will definitely take all the positives from that.”
‘Patience’ was key in France game plan explains Sheva
In recent times Ireland’s midfield has excelled especially with Sheva and Ireland mainstay Denise O’Sullivan pulling the strings. The performance of the midfield against France was put to Sheva for her thoughts,
“Yeah, I think the biggest thing was we wanted to be patient” Sheva said, who was also joined in midfield by Megan Connolly.
“We wanted to be compact. You know, France is so good at finding those penetrative passes and limiting their their midfield, their attack, I think we did a good job of that, especially in the first half. Yeah. So I think that’s, that’s a huge positive that we can take.”
Sheva went onto explain how important off the ball work was to the Irish game plan too,
“I think we knew that France was probably gonna have a bit more of the ball than us, so we needed to take advantage of our opportunities in transition” Sheva explained.
“And, I mean that’s exactly how our goal was scored, patience. Katie [McCabe] jumped and played Murph [Emily Murphy], Murph played her back like it was quick.
“I think it was only three passes since we regained the ball and put it in the back of their net. So those are the opportunities that we need to really take advantage of, especially against teams that we know that we might not have 70% possession or anything like that.”
Never say die attitude a ‘non-negotiable’ for Marissa Sheva
Ireland came close to levelling the contest in the dying moments. O’Sullivan’s shot on goal was headered off the line by Marie-Antoinette Katoto as the crowd’s roar attempted to suck the ball over the line.
Sheva spoke on the importance of that desire, right down to the dying embers of a match,
“That’s a non negotiable” Sheva asserted.
“I think that that is just kind of in our DNA as a group. We will be pushing for every last second of extra time. And, I mean, even if it was more than a one goal deficit, like goal differential matters.
“So I think that you’ll see that from us regardless of the score line in any of the games in this campaign.”
Ireland face Netherlands at Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht on Saturday night with kick off at 7:45pm, the match will be shown live on RTÉ 2 and RTÉ Player.
