Vera Pauw led her team to climb two places in the FIFA women’s world cup rankings. Previously at 26th, the 24th ranked team is overjoyed with their progress.
They climbed to 26th place last August, which was their previous highest ranking. But after their 1-0 game on Tuesday against Scotland, Ireland has qualified for next summer’s World Cup Finals in Australia and New Zealand. This will be the first ever major tournament for the girls in green. This is the first time in 21 years that Ireland has qualified for a FIFA World Cup.
Only 35 years after their male counterparts qualified for Euro ‘88, Amber Barrett’s goal has reflected the team’s sensational hard work recently. Ireland has won six of their last seven games with their only loss in Russia back in February. The Milford forward snatched the ball in the goal after a pinpoint pass from Denise O’Sullivan on minute 72 to secure the win. Barrett paid tribute to the victims of the Creeslough tragedy.
Her grandparents have lived there their whole lives, so she would spend a lot of time there, and knew people that were affected by the tragedy. "This result, this game, that goal, this award, I’m dedicating it to those ten beautiful souls who unfortunately perished on Friday. This is for Creeslough, this is for Donegal."
The final whistle brought an overwhelming amount of emotions and celebrations from the girls and their management. The Republic of Ireland’s win coupled with Portugal’s victory over Iceland on the same night.
Vera Pauw was visibly in tears during some of her post-victory interviews. She expressed hopes of playing at the Aviva Stadium before travelling to Australia for the Cup.
It was especially reliving for Aine O’Gorman. Two years ago, she unfortunately scored an own goal against Ukraine that ended their chances for Euro ‘22. Louise Quinn expressed how those heartbreaks removed the fear of failure.
“But everything changed the mindset, to go to the World Cup. That was it, trying to come back from that and learn from defeats. We did that. We played bigger and better teams and we took the fear out of football, out of occasions. You go into games, and you think, ‘Do you know what? Go out and play football like you’re a kid and remember that it’s just a game’.”
🆕 The latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking is out!
🇺🇸 USA still out in front
🏆 October rankings will decide seedings for the Final Draw for the #FIFAWWC
📈 Gains for Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Bangladesh
👉 https://t.co/yQ9jjAIg4T pic.twitter.com/Eb0KT5A8gn— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) October 13, 2022
With the USA still in the top seed, Sweden has surpassed Germany for the number two spot. The Euro 2022 winners, England, remain in fourth place.
The rankings will be used to determine the seeding for the draw for the 2023 World Cup. Ireland is confirmed to be in pot three. The drawing is due to take place in Auckland on October 22nd.
