Netherlands 2-1 Ireland | Reaction with Kathleen McNamee

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1:02Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to Kachava.com and use code fitness. New customers get 15% off their first order. That's KAC, H-A-V-A.com code fitness. Off the ball. G-A-A. I mean, there was a lot of made of Congress at the weekend, and a lot of different things came over to Congress. But for me, to be honest with you, once it's off the ball I take it's off the wall in terms of something like that coming up the hardest. Join in the obsession. Subscribe now at offtheball.com for its last join. Irish football. Unoff the ball. Brought to you by Cadbury, a private sponsor of the Republic of Ireland football teams. This is News Talk. Welcome back to Off the Ball Sunday here on News Talk. John Douglas with the 3-7. So, Dyson made it out of the ball and the Rangers net, but ruled out for off sides. So still goalers between Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish Cup at Ibrox in the FA Cup at the moment, Fullham Nils at Hampton Nils and Portfail Nils, Sunderland Nils. So, the Republic of Ireland lost two, one to the Netherlands in their World Cup qualifier.

2:05Last night, the Women's World Cup qualifiers for Brazil in 2027. Let's check in with our reporter and new track to Kathleen McNamey afternoon, Kathleen. Afternoon, John. This has been a really unfortunate week in ways. I mean, we've come up empty handed after two, two, one defeats against topside. So, the players and the management must be just gutted. Yeah, the devastation that there was around the players last night was definitely very different to anything that I've seen in a long time, to be honest, from that team. You know, we talked to a couple of players, we talked to Carter Ward afterwards. You could just even see the body language on the pitch whenever the game finished, that they were really upset. And I think the thing is that we've seen probably two of the best performances that the team has ever put in. And yes, we've still come up short and been undone by, like, really, really good opposition. I think there's a lot of times when we look back, you know, you think of, do you play in games when we were trying to qualify for the Euros or the Welsh games again, where

3:06we were coming up against opposition that we knew we should have beaten. We knew we should have gone further, but we just didn't play to our skill. Whereas this time, we've come up against two world class teams. We've put in a serious shift. It's looked like, I mean, last night it was the 82nd minute before the Dutch actually managed to get through us and properly win out the game. And then they spent the last 10 or so minutes were out at time, time wasting and just trying to keep the ball out of play. And you know, I think that was something that everyone really reflected on last night was that we are actually being properly respected by these top tier teams. And that's something that has just come from years of development. And hopefully is something that we can bring into the polling game in a month or so's time. You don't wonder what would have happened as well if we'd had Denise's 11 last night. Yeah. I think it would have made a massive difference to be perfectly honest. I think in the first half, we really, really saw her absence. It was interesting, you know, Lucy Quinn was a player that was decided to come in in the

4:08first half to kind of replace Denise and whenever the team sheets were handed out in the media room in Utrecht, it was probably the one name that basically every single journalist didn't expect to see. And I think she had an essentially impossible role in trying to come in there and replace Denise. But I think what I really noticed and even some of the players said it afterwards was that it was almost, I think it was in their heads that they didn't have Denise there. And there was passes going astray. There was, you know, different breaking balls that were happening that the plate, the normally there was a sort of things that Denise would scoop up and she would do something with. And that just wasn't happening at all in that first half last night. And it was really disappointing to see because we had been so strong against France in Tyler on Tuesday. But I thought it was really interesting because then in the second half, that totally changed and it was the team that we saw in Tyler and there was no substitute. So it was purely just a case of the team going in at halftime, having a talk and saying,

5:09OK, we need to change things. And I asked Anna Patton about this last night and I just assumed it was Carla Ward, you know. So I asked her what did Carla Ward say to you guys and she said, no, it was actually Katie that brought us all together and told us that we need to be better. And I think we can hear a clip from Anna here now talking about what Katie said at halftime. I think that we need to be more confident. I think you can see it in games that maybe at points, we feared them or we weren't more confident on the ball and I think that's what we've got to do when we win the ball back in these games. We spend so much of the time without it and we've got to make sure when we regain it, we keep it and we compose because we've got the players that are capable of doing it. So I think that's a big one to take into the Poland fixtures. And you say they're about that confidence. There was an obvious difference in the way the team came out in the second half in terms of being a bit more confident on the ball going for things a little bit more. What was the advice from Carla and the team at halftime? Yeah, I think, to be honest, we're a massive part of that was Katie. She got us all around and said that they needed to be better and we needed to back ourselves

6:12more and realise that we have more time on the ball. And I think that's what meant us all, meant that we all came out with a bit more fi and yeah, you could see that with first part of that second half obviously scoring the goal. You're obviously on the receiving end, does you imagine there a bit of a knock or two? But the same thing, like the France game as well, they're both two really physical games. Do you think that that shows that people are starting to appreciate our football is something different to maybe that they have in the past, that they need to get on top of us, they need to annoy us, they need to try and pull something out of us because we're actually technically really gifted. Yeah, I think so, I think our forwards have been incredible in both these games being able to hold the ball up, keep on running and link play and I think teams probably have left it a bit too open for the quality that we have up there, definitely. And I think the fact that the Netherlands were time-wasting at the end of the game shows how far we've come as well because I don't think they would have done that previously.

7:13And do you think that this team is now really cementing a bit more of an identity under Carla in terms of knowing how we want to play the level that we're able to play up because we've seen, like, while the results weren't exactly what we wanted the last two days, two really, really competitive performances. Yeah, and I think that's what we've got to take. It has been really competitive. It's been really positive at points and I think that's what we need to take into our final two games. You won't see the engineer that slams the Nissan Rogue Store 13,920 times or the corrosive chamber that simulates 15 years of life in five months or the Rogue Heat Bank for over 300 combined hours. What you will see is a vehicle that can take punch after punch and keep rolling. Nissan, number one, a new vehicle quality among mainstream brands by JD Power. We put it through the worst so you get it's best. For JD Power 2025 US Initial Quality Study Award information visit JDPower.com slash awards awards based on 2025 model year newer models may be shown. You do it all! So why not get all the electrolytes?

8:17Hydrate better than water with new Gatorade lower sugar. Now with no artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors and 75% less sugar than regular Gatorade. New to the fridge, all the Gatorade electrolytes you love. Gatorade lower sugar, is it in you? Now available nationwide. That was Anna Passion. We were reflecting on their public of Ardens too and defeat to the Netherlands and the women's World Cup qualifier was casting a new track to our football and off the ball brought you by Cadbury, a proud sponsor of the Republic of Ardens football team. So they got a really good goal to go ahead, but then we equalized the penalty early in the second half, Kathleen. Yeah, and I think that penalty definitely gave us the lifts that we needed and that we had started really well. Now, within the stadium, I didn't think it was a penalty. Personally, I thought it was one of those ones where a keeper comes out, a player is also going for a ball most of the time that goes in favor of the keeper, Chattano Anna, after the game.

9:17She said she definitely got a whack and wasn't best impressed with the the Dutch players, some of them who she plays with in the WSL trying to say that she didn't get a hitch in the box, but I have to say we've seen, there's been times where McCabe has struggled to convert penalties in an Irish jersey and yesterday the atmosphere was absolutely mad. Like the booing from the Dutch fans, they had little lights behind the goal as well. People were trying to put her off and she barely calmly stood up and took the goal. And I think that really was the the impetus that the team needed to keep pushing on for the rest of the game. And you saw, there was a difference in the way that they had played. But at the end of the day, we just gave the Dutch far too much space in the box when it came to crosses and corners. And to be out done by a set piece again, which is something that we're generally quite good at defending in the terms of this week is disappointing because a lot like our defence really did put their

10:18bodies on the line at a couple of times where I thought that the Dutch could have easily got one or two more and they managed to hold it back. So yeah, it was it was great to get a goal. It would have been nice to get one from play because I know as a as a Irish side whether it's the men's team or the women's team, sometimes that is the the way that we struggled the most to score a goal. And we have a heavy reliance on set pieces. Yeah, shades of him, Keith, in 1988 with the Dutch scoring in the last 10 minutes to be the Republic of Ireland and then at the barren stain with the with the goal. Look, I say it was was it then? Did we look like equalising from there or was it just it was just a soccer punch? It was a knockout blow. It was it was a soccer punch. We definitely had our chances. I would have said that we probably had better chances in Tallah whenever the French went ahead. I think we we really really put it to the French in terms of throwing balls in. It was one thing that Amber Barrett actually said interestingly because I asked her how she felt playing in a

11:22team that was more attacking than we've probably seen this Irish team in a long time and she spoke about her frustrations as the end of the game that we weren't just putting more balls into the box or putting it as she said as close to goal as possible and hoping that someone was on the end of it. I think the Dutch were smart yesterday in that they knew how to frustrate us. There was a lot of time wasting going on. There was a lot of niggly challenges particularly on McCabe because obviously when you went into that game on a yellow it was clear that they were they were trying to get in Irish heads and we didn't let them but we also didn't really get the opportunities in those last eight minutes that we had in comparison to the to the French game and she also had that very bizarre moment when Courtney Brosnan came halfway up the pitch. So she was going to do a solo run all the way to the goal but was dispossessed and one of the Dutch players tried to lob it in from the halfway line and somehow it hit off the head of her defender who was the only person in that half at the time.

12:25So there definitely could have been a few more goals on the Dutch side but as you said earlier that team they were just devastated after the game last night and I think a culmination of the week and Caitlin Hayes in particular who I mentioned at the start had two good chances at the start of the match she put in such a Trojan effort her head was used for everything to keep the Irish team still in the match and whenever she came to speak to us after the game you could see she was visibly obsessed you know she she talking to her at any moment it looks like she was she was going to get quite upset but she was actually she was very reflective on it and we can hear a clip from her now about how the experience was. Caitlin obviously really disappointing nice how are you feeling? yeah probably a bit like you saw as a just gutted but trying to remember and remind myself with the positives of standing toe-to-toe with

13:26another giant of women's football which is no mean feat so yeah but gutted overwhelmingly. I can imagine you had an incredible game I mean I think your head was the reason why we stayed in it for so long when you took a few knocks yourself where you feel okay afterwards. I'm all right it's fine it's it's numb by now. Tell us what it was like out there because the atmosphere in the buildup was incredible I think there was a there was a lot of positives that everyone took going into today in terms of how the team had paid and for the majority of the game again we we were in it. Yeah of course I think it's always great to come to a country like Netherlands that you can really see the how much it means to the country. I still think it was louder and teller the other night and I would take anybody on that defied that or disagreed but it's always great like I said to go toe-toe so with a giant of women's football it's good on an individual basis to test yourself against some of the best and it's good as a team perspective

14:28to see that actually they were wasting time at the end by going to the corners and that's nothing but a respect to us that they don't not chance in it that they don't want us to have the ball and they see as a threat so I think that's the biggest positive we can take and yeah it was good fun. I was just chatting to Anna about that and the fact that it was the same thing we saw in the France game that you know teams are really being physical with us in a way that we haven't seen before they're trying to put us off in a way we haven't seen before it must it must be good from a team perspective to know that some of the best teams in the world are seeing us that and the football that you're developing under Carla and the team is being respected even if the results aren't exactly going the way that we want just yet we'll say yeah no I completely agree I think Ireland's always been a team that has heart and it has fight it has the defensive capabilities I think maybe we've lacked goals in the past and now it's the opposite way around we're conceding more too many but no it's a great part on the back and we'll take as a now some joy

15:35from that but like I said you want to walk away here with three points and we're not so overwhelmed and they're disappointed but we're stepping the right direction. That was Caitlin Hayes speaking after Ireland's defeat to the Netherlands 2-1 and the women's World Cup qualifier and who tracked Cathy and McLean me is there. Cathy and those not a lost cause we can still qualify for this World Cup. Yeah definitely not a lost cause I mean the whole idea of qualifying for Leigh Gay in the first place was that you're guaranteed a playoff no matter what position you end up in in in the group and now we would preferably rather end up in third place because that means that you have an easier qualification rush so like this is not a lost cause by any shape or form we go to Gdantz next and the Polish team come to the Aviva in April and that that fixture is going to be massive because that's the one that we are probably on a similar enough level now as we know Poland did get a result against Netherlands on Tuesday but they were

16:35fairly hammered by France last night which wasn't a situation we were in so I think it's not a lost cause at all we've gone to these two games we've shown that we are capable of going to still with the best if we can get realistically at this stage we probably need to get the full six points out of the two next games to secure that for or that third place and then hopefully in the final round of fixtures we are able to grab a pointer to you against the French or another lens team which despite the results that we've seen this week I think I still think it's entirely possible briefly Kathleen is the happy camp under Carla Ward I think so and I think obviously massive disappointment with the results but you saw like if you look at any of the coverage from last night there's a lot more on the afterball youtube and on like social media all the players seem to really be enjoying their football underneath Carla at the moment and that's not what we saw when she first came in and that she didn't really seem to know what her team was she didn't know how she

17:37wanted them to play and it seems to be a very settled camp at the moment so hopefully there's good things to come in the next year and we're going to two world cops John very good yeah rather non-Cathie and McNamee from Utrecht thanks for coming on preset us thanks guys