Carla Ward was full of praise for ‘outstanding’ Ireland captain Katie McCabe ahead of France ‘cup final’ in Grenoble on Tuesday night.
Ward was speaking after her side sealed a dramatic late 3-2 victory over Netherlands to keep their hopes of automatic qualification to the World Cup alive.
Following the monumental victory, Carla Ward spoke to the media and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
Carla Ward lauds ‘tremendous’ Amber Barrett
The matchwinner on Friday night, Amber Barrett has been outspoken on the pride she feels in wearing the Ireland jersey. Ward was asked just how important a player like Barrett is to Ireland’s off pitch culture,
“Yeah, huge” Ward earnestly stated. “What I really like about her is, I remember, I think my first or second camp, she sat down and she said, ‘All I ever want is honesty, feedback, how do I get better?’ I said, ‘love it, I love that from a player’.
“So she’ll knock on my door and I’ll sit down and we’ll have a coffee and we’ll discuss what she needs to do, what might get her in a team for this game, what might not, how she can contribute.
“She contributes really well, really well. Whether she’s in the starting team or the opposition training team, she does tremendously.”
Ward was asked if the fact Barrett is playing at a higher level, having recently joined Strasbourg has made a difference to her game,
“You can tell, can’t you?” Said Ward. “Yeah, she’s doing really well. So, no, that’s a credit to her. And she’s shown again tonight, you know, how much quality she’s got.”
Ward reflects on how playing days as an ‘attacking player’ feeds into her coaching
After five games in Ireland’s first ever League A campaign back in 2024 they had yet to score a goal. In the 2026 edition, only five nations have scored more than Ireland’s nine goals.
That goalscoring prowess was in evidence again on Friday night, with three goals each scored by three different goal scorers. That fact was put to Carla Ward,
“Yeah, I think we’ve scored in every game, right?” Ward said. “Yeah, I think some people thought I was mad when I looked to the bench and I said, ‘right, get every single attacking player ready, we’ve got to go for it, why not?’
“And I, as a player, I was a 10, I liked to play football a lot. I was an attacking player and I liked to go score goals. And I think at club football, I’ve always tried to play with an attitude with the ball and be a little bit more attacking.
“And you know what? It probably hurt me early on coming in here in the system that I started with so we had to then build back. We almost had to go backwards to build our out of possession structure in a five.
“And then we restart again with the way we want to play with the ball. But this lot, you know, they enjoy it. They enjoy it. So I tell them all the time, enjoy the ball, with the ball. Enjoy the fight without the ball. That’s critical.”
Ward praises ‘mentality monster’ Marissa Sheva
Another player who has hugely impressed under Carla Ward is Sunderland midfielder, Marissa Sheva. Ward reflected on another great performance against the Dutch from Sheva,
“Do you know what?” Ward asked. “I say this all the time about Maz [Marissa Sheva], and a lot of the players.
“You know, you look at their performances at the club, you look at when they put on that badge. And when they put on that badge, they become mentality monsters. They want to win football matches. They play out of their skins. And Maz is exactly that.
“She’s come on loads. And you have to keep telling Maz, you know, what she’s really good at, which I’m delighted about because I love telling people what they’re good at. So she embraces it and she plays tremendously well for her national team.”
Carla Ward also provided an update on fellow midfielder Jess Ziu,
“Yeah, I love Jess Ziu” Ward said. “She was only fit for 45. She’s coming back from an injury.”
Katie McCabe is ‘outstanding’ praises Carla Ward
Katie McCabe once again as Ireland captain, helped lift Ireland to a level rarely seen before. Carla Ward was full of praise for Ireland’s number 11,
“Katie was outstanding. Katie is though” Ward said. “I think Katie, I actually remember, I think it was you, John [Fallon from the Irish examiner] that we talked about when I first came in about maybe how do we find Katie’s best position?
“I think it was out in Slovenia, do you remember? We talked about what is Katie’s best position for Ireland? We’re not sure. And then when we went to a back five and played a little bit more aggressive with the ball, I think she’s been outstanding.
“This past year, she’s been outstanding. And I would argue the last, what, 10 performances in an Ireland shirt I think some of the very, very best of her.”
Leanne Kiernan ‘apologised quite quickly’ for red card says Ward
In all the excitement of the final minutes it could have been lost that Leanne Kiernan was sent off for a second bookable offence. Emma Duffy from the 42.ie asked if Ward had spoken with Kiernan since,
“Yeah, she came up to me. She said, ‘I’m so, so, so sorry’” Ward replied. “What was interesting is I don’t think the ref clocked it and her fourth official was like, she’s had two yellows.
“Well, it was actually their bench that told the fourth and the fourth then told. I’m not sure what would have happened there because she didn’t realise that she’d got two yellows.
“But she [Kiernan] apologised. It’s an unfortunate piece and it’s a difficult one because, you know, it’s her first minutes for a while. Obviously now she misses…it was a second yellow so she’ll miss just the one game.”
Ward confirmed that Kiernan was a part of the post match celebrations,
“She was, yeah” Ward said. “I think she apologised to the group quite quickly. But listen, it happens.”
Ward looks ahead to ‘winner takes all’ match against France
Ireland opened this League A campaign with two defeats but have since stormed to three wins on the bounce. That run of form gives Ireland the chance to qualify for the World Cup on Tuesday.
Ward was asked to reflect on those two matches in the wake of Ireland’s exceptional current run of form,
“Yeah, you learn a lot from defeats” said Ward. “We learned an awful lot in those first two games. But listen, this is a very, very, very different game on Tuesday now because it’s essentially a cup final, right? Let’s be really, really honest.
“It’s not a group game anymore. This is winner takes all. That’s what this game is now. I can’t f***ing wait. Sorry.”
Ward was asked if France is a tougher test than the Netherlands,
“Listen, they’re both top teams” Ward said. “They’re just very different. They’re both unbelievable but everyone’s beatable.” Ward stood up to leave the press conference before uttering one final line in her typically charismatic cadence,
“Let’s f***ing go.”
