Marissa Sheva: ‘The Irish will be loud and proud in that stadium’

Marissa Sheva made her first start for Ireland on home soil against France on Thursday

Marissa Sheva made her first start for Ireland on home soil against France on Thursday Credit: Eddie Lennon (left) and Conor Ryan (right)

It seemed fairly appropriate that in the week that America celebrate their July 4th national holiday, the trio of players put forward for media duty post-match in Tallaght on Thursday were all Irish American.

There was San Diego born Kyra Carusa and a Pennsylvania duo Sinead Farrelly and 26-year-old Marissa Sheva. The latter pair both played against the US back in April and in Tallaght were earned their first home international cap in the 3-0 defeat to France.

“I had chills,” said Sheva about making her home debut. “The girls warned  me that the fans were going be incredible, the pitch was going to be incredible and just the atmosphere is unike anything else and they weren't wrong. Honestly, it was more than I expected.” 

Sheva’s eligibility for Ireland comes through her Donegal grandmother and her Tyrone born grandfather and she began the process to get her passport back in 2021 before Ireland qualified for the World Cup. 

The Washington Spirit striker first joined up with Ireland in last February’s training camp in Marbella which was where she made her international debut in the scoreless draw with China

“I’m just so grateful that Vera (Pauw) finally brought me into camp. We had been chatting for quite a while so I feel really lucky to be in with this team.

"It's such an honour. I can't even put that into words. I just feel so lucky to be here with this group. I think that we're going to do the country really proud.”

The former Penn State steeplechaser brings that athleticism to the pitch. Her manager was happy with what she showed in Ireland’s send off friendly when asked by extratime.com to assess the contributions of Sheva and Farrelly against France.

Engine

“Marissa is the engine,” said Pauw. “She is also very good in winning the ball then not losing it again and going forward or pressing forward. Sinead is more subtle. They both did really really well. I hope you see that quality and why we brought them in.”



Sheva’s own assessment was that she is “starting to get more comfortable playing with Katie (McCabe), Kyra (Carusa), Ruesha (Littlejohn) and Megan (Connolly) - that little group on the left hand side of the field. We are starting to be able to combine a little bit more which always feels good.”

Farrelly, Sheva and North Carolina Courage’s Denise O’Sullivan joined up with the Ireland squad after Ireland’s 3-2 friendly win against Zambia.

“The girls have been in camp and have been working their butts off for quite sometime now. Those of us that play in the NWSL are in the middle of our season so we came over a bit later.

“To prepare we have to play against teams like France. Vera said it this is how you get better. You don't play weak opponents to get confidence. You have to play the top teams in the world because we are in a tough group (against Australia, Canada and Nigeria).

“If the first 45 minutes show anything it is that we can absolutly compete with the top teams in the world and I would argue we are one of them when we are at our best. We showed that tonight and the games against the United States.”



Playing in front of 80,000 fans

Another big challenge for Ireland will the new experience of playing in front of a sold out stadium in Sydney that will house more than 80,000 spectators.

When Ireland secured their crucial draw away in Sweden in qualifying, the game was played in Gothenburg in front of 12,123 fans.

Chloe Mustaki made her competitive debut that day and admitted afterwards that in front of the largest attendance she had played in front of she “didn’t even look up at the crowd for one moment until that final whistle went. I didn’t want to see how many people were around me.”

Sheva has been working on managing playing in front of such a massive crowd as will be in Sydney on the opening day of the World Cup having played in front of crowds up to 25,000 previously.

“I've definitely thought about that. I feel like I have to get my mind used to it. I think visualisation is actually a huge tool. Unless you've done it before, there's no way to replicate playing in front of 80,000 people.

“I've been working on that with my sports psych, just trying to find ways to minimise the shock factor of that. At the end of the day, it's 11-v-11, we know what we need to do.

"I mean 80,000 people is a lot but I think that we're more than capable. We've shown that we're a very resilient group and we know things don't really rattle us.

“Sinead and I were talking about it. Will we notice that it's quadruple or does 20,000 feel like 40,000 or 50,000 you know? I'm sure 80,000 will feel like a heck of a lot of people.

“They had to move from a 40,000 person stadium to the 80,000 stadium - and I know that it has to do with demand from Irish fans in Australia.

"So I'm looking forward to it feeling like we're not playing the host nation because I think that we're going to have a tonne of fans down there and the Irish will be loud and proud in that stadium.”

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile