Carla Ward has stated that the Ireland squad is ‘developing all the time’ be it ‘in the classroom, on the training pitch or in games.’
Ward was speaking ahead of a second encounter against Kazakhstan in five days with a place in the final round of the FIFA Women’s World Cup play offs on the line. The Halfway Line was there to hear from the Ireland head coach at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Monday afternoon.
Carla Ward says her Ireland squad is ‘developing all the time’
During Monday’s press conference Carla Ward had been clear that both Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan would return to the starting eleven for the second leg in Cork. Ward was asked if she felt it is a wasted opportunity not to rotate or to try something new with the tie all but over, as Ireland sit on an eight goal advantage,
“What would be the purpose of that?” Ward bristled, “Squad development” came the reply from David Kelly of The Irish Independent.
“The squad is developing all the time, in the classroom, on the training pitch and in games” Ward explained. “What we have to do is develop the squad in many different ways to be prepared for the best possible outcome in the next window.
“Every decision taken tomorrow night puts us in the best position going into the next window. That has to be focus. The sole focus is the next two games after this.”
Ward was asked if she wished that Ireland had face more challenging opposition that Kazakhstan ahead of the challenge of Belgium or Poland in December,
“Yeah, we touched on the levels our players produced. You’ve seen in all the other Nations League games, some big nations struggled to get past the lower nations.
“What this group did is put on a performance where they were ruthless and it doesn’t matter who they face, we have a job to do, and sometimes by the way it’s tricky to pay the likes of Kazakhstan, they sit in, it’s difficult, they take away any space, they bank up, what the players did is…it was a different type of challenge, it was a good challenge, a really really good challenge for them to face that kind of opponent.”
Brazil ‘not spoken about in the camp’ says Ward
With possibility of just three matches separating Ireland and the World Cup in Brazil it would be easy for minds to wander and dream about a summer on the Copacabana. Ward was asked if she allows herself to,
“No, not at all” Ward maintained. “It’s not spoken about in the camp to be quite honest. I think our only focus is the game in front of us and that’s tomorrow.
“So it hasn’t been spoken about, obviously it’s in the back of your head, it’s exciting, you want to get there but there’s no talk about it, it’s just the games that are in front of us.”
Ireland face Kazakhstan tonight with kick off at 19:30, the match will be live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
