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Ciara O’Brien eyes World Cup victory over Canada
Despite tasting defeat in their opening FIFA Women's U17 Word Cup, Group D game with a 2-1 loss to Brazil, the Republic of Ireland have an instant opportunity to get their World Cup dreams back on track as they face a strong Canada side at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Trinidad on Thursday, kick-off: 9pm (Irish time).
The highly rated Canadian team have been tipped as one of the favourites for this year's tournament after reaching the quarter finals of the 2008 World Cup in New Zealand. Canada were defeated just once on their way to becoming CONCACAF champions earlier this year, defeating their big continental rivals, the United States in the semi-final, a victory which sent shockwaves through the sport in North America.
While they defeated Ghana 1-0 in their opening FIFA World Cup game on Monday, the Canucks struggled to break down a skillful Black Stars team before a Haisha Cantave goal, against the run of play early in the second half bagged the three points for the North Americans.
Tramore defender, Ciara O'Brien (pictured) has called on her teammates to put the Brazilian defeat firmly behind them and focus on the upcoming game against Canada, "Obviously we are a little disappointed with the result against Brazil but the performance that the team put in, especially in the difficult conditions was unbelievable. Even though Brazil pressed us a lot in the second half, they were very vulnerable on the break in defence and we had a lot of good opportunities to equalise but unfortunately we didn't take them. Monday's game against Brazil was the toughest game any of the players in the squad have ever played. Brazil are without doubt one of the favourites for this tournament and we can take many positives from our performance against them. While I think we deserved at least a draw, we cannot dwell on the result as we need to focus on the next game against Canada," she said.
"The Canada game is going to be a different proposition compared to Canada however. They are a very technical side and will be very hard to break down. Their 1-0 victory over Ghana on Monday proves that this group is far from over as I think that both Ghana and ourselves will still cause problems for Brazil and Canada who may have one eye on the quarter finals already after their victories. We need a positive result on Thursday and the belief is there in the squad to secure the three points which we need to get back into contention in the group," she added.
"For the defenders, the most important aspect of the Canadian game is to keep a clean sheet. We were very disappointed at conceding two goals against Brazil considering we only conceded three goals in the whole of our European Championship campaign. If we can stop Canada from scoring in the game, I know that our attackers are more than capable of notching up one or two goals as we firmly believe that we can recover and advance to the next round with two positive results against Canada and Ghana," she added.
FIFA Women's U17 World Cup - Group 4 Fixtures
Republic of Ireland 1-2 Brazil
Monday, September 6
Larry Gomes Stadium, Trinidad
Republic of Ireland v Canada
Thursday, September 9
Larry Gomes Stadium, Trinidad
Kick-off: 4pm (local time)
Republic of Ireland v Ghana
Monday September 14
Dwight Yorke Stadium, Tobago
Kick-off: 7pm (local time)
Republic of Ireland squad
Grace Moloney - Reading
Ciara O'Brien - Tramore
Megan Campbell - St. Francis
Jessica Gleeson - Tramore
Jennifer Byrne - Bealnamulla
Ciara Grant - Kilmacrennan Celtic
Aileen Gilroy - Killala
Dora Gorman - Salthill Devon
Zoe Boyd - Montclair Thunderbolts (USA)
Denise O'Sullivan - Wilton United
Siobhan Killeen - Raheny United
Stacie Donnelly - Reading
Rianna Jarrett - St. Francis
Tanya Kennedy - Finn Valley
Kerry Glynn - Montclair Thunderbolts (USA)
Amanda Budden - Wilton United
Claire Shine - Douglas Hall
Harriet Scott - Reading
Rebecca Kearney - Lakewood Athletic
Jillian Maloney - Roswell Santos (USA)
Emma Hansberry - Strand Celtic
Manager
Noel King
