O'Brien & Gleeson reflect on U17 World Cup
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
A trip from Tramore in County Waterford to Trinidad and Tobago is quite a distance to travel, but for Tramore AFC defenders Ciara O’Brien and Jessica Gleeson, it was a trip neither are ever likely to forget. The duo spoke to extratime.ie about the experience.
Defeat to Spain in the final of the Women’s Under-17 European Championships guaranteed the Republic of Ireland team a place in the finals of the 2010 Women’s World Cup, held in Trinidad and Tobago. What some may have expected to have been a short lived and uneventful journey, the Irish girls showed once again that determination and belief can play a massive part in progressing in tournaments against the odds.
Coming from the cold of Ireland to the sweltering heat of the Caribbean was something the girls admit was tough to take, but a stopover in America helped the acclimatisation. “The heat was a shocker”, Ciara said. “I think it really helped thought”, Jessica added. “If we had played the three matches in that heat, I don’t think everybody would have made the 90 minutes and playing against Spain and Germany really helped as well.”
“It was mainly to take it one game at a time really. Our main goal going over there was to get out of the group first-and-foremost and just take it from there”, Ciara said.
First up for the girls was the task of overcoming Brazil. Despite conceding after just four minutes, Jessica admits that the girls knew that chances would come their way. “Everyone was nervous, we just went out to do our best. But after they scored we knew we’d come back and we got the goal.”
“When we lost against Brazil, we knew we needed a win against Canada, so we were all raring to go”, Ciara said. “We were similar teams; we knew if we went at them and kept shooting and attacking we knew we’d get a break eventually.” That break did come as the girls went on to beat Canada 1-0.
Relaxing during time off can be important in competition finals and no-one would have believed the surprise Noel King had in store for his team. “It was crazy. You would never imagine actually eating an animal like a shark. Everyones faces dropped. It didn’t taste that bad though”, Ciara joked, adding “it tasted kind of like chicken. “I ate the whole thing anyway”, Jessica added jokingly.
The win set up a clash with Ghana with all four teams still looking for quarter-final places. Ciara admitted that despite knowing a draw could be good enough, they knew they could win the game. “Noel said a scoreless draw could get us through and they’d keep us informed of the other match as well. All we were thinking about was getting through to the next round and the quarter-finals. But once we scored inside four minutes we knew if we kept shooting and attacking that we definitely had the beating of Ghana.”
“Brilliant” and “amazing” was how Jessica described the feeling of topping the group ahead of Ghana, Canada and Brazil, adding “everyone was so hyper and so happy.”
With Ireland now firmly gripped with World Cup fever, the girls were very grateful for the support they received from back home. “The support got everyone going; it was amazing” Ciara and Jessica said, “with the support messages coming through facebook and people ringing. It made everyone want to perform better and to get further and further to prove that women’s football is up there.”
What followed was very hard for the girls to take with a penalty awarded against the Irish girls, seen by most as a superb defending tackle, but not in the mind of the Canadian referee. “It was really hard to believe; in a match that meant so much to us”, Ciara said. “She didn’t even give it a second thought, when she saw the player going down she just blew the whistle, when the linesperson gave a corner”, Jessica added.
And so the dream was over for the Irish Under-17 girls, but both expect to be back in action soon enough with the under-19 squad. “The Under-19’s didn’t qualify while we were away so it’s finished until about April, but hopefully we’ll be back again and get to ready for next summer’s European Championships and hopefully the World Cup from there”, O’Brien said.
Despite the heart-breaking exit from the World Cup, both girls graciously accepted what happened and look to the future. “We were annoyed but we were happy to get as far as we got. We would have loved to have gone further; but it’s just the luck of the draw”, they said.
Defeat to Spain in the final of the Women’s Under-17 European Championships guaranteed the Republic of Ireland team a place in the finals of the 2010 Women’s World Cup, held in Trinidad and Tobago. What some may have expected to have been a short lived and uneventful journey, the Irish girls showed once again that determination and belief can play a massive part in progressing in tournaments against the odds.
Coming from the cold of Ireland to the sweltering heat of the Caribbean was something the girls admit was tough to take, but a stopover in America helped the acclimatisation. “The heat was a shocker”, Ciara said. “I think it really helped thought”, Jessica added. “If we had played the three matches in that heat, I don’t think everybody would have made the 90 minutes and playing against Spain and Germany really helped as well.”
“It was mainly to take it one game at a time really. Our main goal going over there was to get out of the group first-and-foremost and just take it from there”, Ciara said.
First up for the girls was the task of overcoming Brazil. Despite conceding after just four minutes, Jessica admits that the girls knew that chances would come their way. “Everyone was nervous, we just went out to do our best. But after they scored we knew we’d come back and we got the goal.”
“When we lost against Brazil, we knew we needed a win against Canada, so we were all raring to go”, Ciara said. “We were similar teams; we knew if we went at them and kept shooting and attacking we knew we’d get a break eventually.” That break did come as the girls went on to beat Canada 1-0.
Relaxing during time off can be important in competition finals and no-one would have believed the surprise Noel King had in store for his team. “It was crazy. You would never imagine actually eating an animal like a shark. Everyones faces dropped. It didn’t taste that bad though”, Ciara joked, adding “it tasted kind of like chicken. “I ate the whole thing anyway”, Jessica added jokingly.
The win set up a clash with Ghana with all four teams still looking for quarter-final places. Ciara admitted that despite knowing a draw could be good enough, they knew they could win the game. “Noel said a scoreless draw could get us through and they’d keep us informed of the other match as well. All we were thinking about was getting through to the next round and the quarter-finals. But once we scored inside four minutes we knew if we kept shooting and attacking that we definitely had the beating of Ghana.”
“Brilliant” and “amazing” was how Jessica described the feeling of topping the group ahead of Ghana, Canada and Brazil, adding “everyone was so hyper and so happy.”
With Ireland now firmly gripped with World Cup fever, the girls were very grateful for the support they received from back home. “The support got everyone going; it was amazing” Ciara and Jessica said, “with the support messages coming through facebook and people ringing. It made everyone want to perform better and to get further and further to prove that women’s football is up there.”
What followed was very hard for the girls to take with a penalty awarded against the Irish girls, seen by most as a superb defending tackle, but not in the mind of the Canadian referee. “It was really hard to believe; in a match that meant so much to us”, Ciara said. “She didn’t even give it a second thought, when she saw the player going down she just blew the whistle, when the linesperson gave a corner”, Jessica added.
And so the dream was over for the Irish Under-17 girls, but both expect to be back in action soon enough with the under-19 squad. “The Under-19’s didn’t qualify while we were away so it’s finished until about April, but hopefully we’ll be back again and get to ready for next summer’s European Championships and hopefully the World Cup from there”, O’Brien said.
Despite the heart-breaking exit from the World Cup, both girls graciously accepted what happened and look to the future. “We were annoyed but we were happy to get as far as we got. We would have loved to have gone further; but it’s just the luck of the draw”, they said.
About Brendan White
Brendan White is Extratime News Editor and is responsible for the news section of Extratime.ie. Brendan also covers matches in Dublin and Waterford. You can contact Brendan on twitter @whitebrendan. View Full Profile