Katie McCabe praised Ireland’s ‘belief’ as the major improvement under head coach Carla Ward and in this League A campaign.
Ireland lost 1-0 to France in Grenoble last night and will have felt unlucky not to come away with more from the encounter. Victory means France qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Ireland must settle for the play offs.
McCabe spoke to the media following the narrow defeat to France and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
Katie McCabe says Ireland need to ‘keep our heads high’
Ireland began this campaign as a bottom seed. They became the first bottom seed not to be relegated from League A with a match to spare in the group. Carla Ward’s charges could have qualified for the World Cup with victory against France, but even to be in that position is impressive in itself. McCabe was asked for her thoughts following defeat on the night,
“It was a cup final tonight, and unfortunately it went France’s way” lamented McCabe. “But yeah, we need to obviously keep our heads high. There’s still a long way to go, and in terms of qualifying playoffs, we’ll see who we get.
“But yeah, look, it’s time to just switch off and recover and make sure we’re starting the season really well heading into October as best as possible.”
At the time of the draw, many expected Ireland to struggle against three sides, each of whom not only qualified for UEFA EURO 2025 but won a match at the competition.
However Ireland have more than held their own, McCabe was asked to reflect on Ireland’s progress,
“I think it shows the character the group, obviously starting off the campaign with two losses, but narrow defeats as well” McCabe explained. “I feel like we could have got something from both games and grown into it, and kind of holding our own against Poland, and obviously getting the win against Netherlands.
“We shown we’ve grown, and yeah, as I said, we went toe to toe out with some of the best teams in the world. So lots of positives to take.
“Of course, there’s areas where we can clean up on, but that’s a reflection piece. We’ve got a couple of months now to, to regroup, see who we get now in October.”
The biggest improvement is ‘belief’ says Katie McCabe
After the match, both Carla Ward and Katie McCabe spoke to the team in a huddle. McCabe was asked for an insight about what was said,
“I mean it’s just instilling the belief in the team” explained the Ireland captain. “We know how far we’ve come, just touching on the campaign so far.
“We know how far we’ve come, and getting results off big nations so we can’t let our heads drop. We need to keep believing that we’re good enough to get to a World Cup.
“Obviously, we’re going to go the long way round now, but yeah, it’s never easy qualifying for a World Cup, so we need to be ready in October.”
McCabe was asked what the biggest improvement has been in this campaign,
“I think the belief going forward” McCabe said. “I think we’ve shown how strong we are from a counter attack point of view.
“Think we’ve got a lot of youth coming into the team and they’ve really held around at this level. Emily Murphy has been outstanding. We got Jess Ziu back, Larko [Abbie Larkin] obviously down in Cork, so it’s really, really positive. It’s bright for the future.
“I think we’ve improved defensively, but we’d be pretty disappointed with a couple of the goals we conceded over in the campaign. So, listen, lots to work on, which is always really, really positive, because we know we can demand even more.”
McCabe proud of Irish squad ‘pushing themselves’ at club level
There are several Irish players pushing themselves at a high level that are currently starting for Ireland. McCabe was asked about the quality of her team mates current experience,
“I think it goes over the last few years, it’s really improved” lauded McCabe. “Obviously, the girls going overseas, playing in the WSL 2, the WSL, really pushing themselves.
“Wanting to be at a level to be able to come in and compete and hold their own against top opposition like this. So credit to the girls, but obviously we want to, we want to keep improving, and they’ve done it brilliantly.
“I’m really proud seeing the developments. They were only kids [Emily Murphy & Abbie Larkin] coming in a few years ago and seeing where they are now and where they can get to is really exciting.”
