Dora leads Girls in Green to World Cup quarter-final

Keith Kelly

Most Leaving Cert students have spent the last few weeks settling into what they hope will be their final year in second level education, but for Barna teenager Dora Gorman there have been more pressing matters on her mind - leading the Irish U-17 girls’ squad through a successful World Cup group stage and into a quarter-final with Japan tomorrow (Friday) night.

Gorman is due to sit her Leaving Cert in the Taylor’s Hill in Galway City next June, but while the rest of her classmates have spent the past fortnight getting class schedules and devising study plans for the year ahead, the Salthill Devon star has been away on international duty, and she is in no hurry to come back!

“Obviously we want to win on Friday and stay here right until the end of the tournament. It has been very intense, and the heat is a big factor, but before we came to Trinidad & Tobago we spent a week in Miami to acclimatise, and it was actually warmer there so we are getting used to the heat now,” Gorman told Tribune Sport on Wednesday.

The Girls in Green face Japan at midnight on Friday (Irish time, 7pm local time), with the winners facing either Germany or North Korea in the semi-final next Tuesday. The Irish side started their campaign with a narrow 2-1 loss to Brazil, but bounced back in their next game to beat Canada 1-0.

Canada had started with a 1-0 win over Ghana, who then went on to cause a shock with a 1-0 win over Brazil, meaning all four sides went into the final pool games level on three points apiece.

As both games entered their final stages, both Brazil and Ireland were wining 2-0, which meant the South Americans would top the group while the Irish girls would face a quarter-final with Spain, who beat them on penalties in the final of the European Championships earlier this year.

However, a long-range strike 13 minutes from time from Mayo winger Aileen Gilroy meant the Irish girls topped their group and instead face a quarter final against Japan, who finished second in Group C behind Spain, beating both New Zealand and Venezuela 6-0, while losing 3-1 to Spain.

“That was probably the best feeling we have had, to beat Ghana 3-0 and then come off the pitch and find out we had topped the group. The turning point for us was beating a very strong Canada side to get back into contention, but the best feeling had to be hearing we had topped our group,” Gorman said.

“I suppose it was good to avoid Spain as we know how good they are, but Japan are a very good team as well. They are technically very good, very fast, but we might have the edge on them physically so we are confident we can beat them.

“At this stage, we don’t fear anyone. We knocked holders Germany out of the European Championships, and we topped our World Cup group which also featured South American champions Brazil, a Canada side that had knocked out America in their qualifiers, and a very strong Ghana side.

“I’m not sure if you can say we exceeded expectations by topping our group – we knew we had a tough draw, but we had great confidence in ourselves and we delivered. We lost to Brazil, but that game could have gone either way, and then got the wins over Canada and Ghana to top the group,” she said.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.