KATIE MCCABE HAS that energy.
You know what I’m talking about? The one where it’s patent she’s just not like you, or the rest of us.
We’re drawn to her not because we long to be like her or even aspire to be her friend – because that feels impossible, too much.
She is for us to marvel at.
When fans in Perth explicitly asked for a ‘World Cup moment‘, it was always going to be Katie.
With just four minutes on the clock, and after a slick move combining Aine O’Gorman, Lucy Quinn and Kyra Carusa, McCabe stepped up to take the resulting corner.
The wind, the rain and the Dubliner’s brilliance combined and Ireland were one up, and the fans’ order had been delivered.
An Olimpico that was a masterful strike by the taker, rather than a result of a goalkeeping calamity on the line.
“Oh my goodness, the bench went wild. The crowd went wild. Just to see the reaction of the crowd and how many people were here to support us and to hear that over and over again, especially after Katie’s goal,” is how Marissa Sheva describes watching it from the bench.
But as all football supporters are wont to do, the moment wasn’t actually enough. We had forgotten ourselves. We wanted Ireland to keep attacking. We wanted the win.
Analysing this match before kick off – two teams who pride themselves on clean sheets but in the midst of goal almost-droughts – it had all the hallmarks of a nil all.
But the Ireland that took to the field was the same one that we saw finish the game against Australia last week.
They pressed high, they rattled the Canadians and they had chances.
But it was also the same Ireland who lack composure to convert those opportunities, and the same Ireland – as Tony Gustavsson recognised to our national ire – that is prone to leaking goals just before half time.
The sucker punch that was the own goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half meant we couldn’t even take a breath and just rewatch Katie’s Corner™ 15 times during the break.
Instead, it was the Canadians who were able to catch themselves with their coach Bev Priestman reminding her squad they were Olympic Champions, berating them for being scared of McCabe’s Ireland.
That speech and three substitutions meant a different opposition in the second half. And Ireland lost the impetus that moment in the fifth minute had given them.
And then what became the winner came too quickly. Courtney Brosnan had kept an earlier shot out with a brilliant save but less than four minutes later a probing ball landed between Louise Quinn and Megan Connolly and found the boot of Adriana Leon who made no mistakes despite McCabe hassling her on her right shoulder.
Ireland were chasing. And Ireland are not good at chasing.
McCabe, to a fault, tried to do it all herself. Best encapsulated with a solo run with about 10 minutes to go where she continued herself rather than play a through ball to Amber Barrett. But it almost went in anyway.
In the end, she was the captain, the goalscorer, the official player of the match and the spiritual leader.
“I know that she won’t even consider that a success because she’s such an incredible leader,” says Sheva. “She would have wanted to win before she would want anything for her own personal accolades.
She should be proud of herself for both the past two games – she’s an incredible leader. We’re lucky to have her as a captain.
McCabe herself was obviously asked about the corner multiple times between the final whistle and when her media duties ended.
“Of course it’s a nice moment but I’m heartbroken,” she said, in various ways to various journalists.
“The disappointment of tonight will hit home before it will sink in. Hopefully, we have another goalscorer against Nigeria but, yeah, it is obviously an amazing feeling personally to score in the World Cup. Did I think it was going to be from a corner? No. But, yeah, obviously delighted but it is a results business and disappointed by result.
“Obviously I was delighted to see it go in and get us off to such a god start. It was bittersweet because we lost the game.”
McCabe delivered the moment. She brought the hope. She set the expectations higher. She allowed us to forget ourselves.
“It’s just so fitting that the first goal scored in the World Cup for Ireland was scored by Katie McCabe,” said Sheva, tapping into all our thoughts.
In some ways though and with hindsight, we would have preferred a dull, Italia ’90 inspired 0-0 dirge. But, the first is special. The first is important. And when the heartbreak settles, we’ll always have Katie in the homesick-curing wind and rain in Perth to remember.
Written by Sinead O’Carroll and posted on the42.ie
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