This kind of thing was replicated across the pitch. Sinead Farrelly was insinuating herself into the game here and there, all clever flicks and Velcro touch. Lucy Quinn doesn’t have Farrelly’s willowy ability to slide through cracks in the brickwork but she was dogged and insistent both with and without the ball. Ruesha Littlejohn was Ireland’s best player at this stage, breaking up Canadian play like a shushing schoolteacher.
Though the goal was all down to McCabe’s own brilliance, she was mostly just another cog in the wheel in the first half. O’Sullivan, in fact, was hesitant and out of sorts – maybe because of the yellow card she carried into the game, maybe because of the injury from the Colombia run-out. Whatever the reason, she was having an off-day and Ireland were still bossing the game.
But everyone knew the terms and conditions too. When Carusa got on a brilliant McCabe pass running into the Canadian box 10 minutes short of the break, you were willing her to cut across the chasing Kadeisha Buchanan. The Canada centre back was having a nightmare on Carusa and already had a yellow card against her name. Any touch now would surely have meant a penalty and a red. Carusa stayed on her feet though and forced a corner. That second goal stayed stubbornly out of reach.
Ireland were always going to need more than one goal to get a point out of a game against a team with that sort of depth. Because when you don’t get the second goal, you leave yourself with no wiggle room. Mistakes take on outsized significance and all those glimpses of what could have been get washed away.
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