Ireland Women's team 'FEARED for their bodies' vs Colombia, says boss

Ireland Women’s manager Vera Pauw says her players ‘FEARED for their bodies’ in abandoned friendly with Colombia ahead of World Cup… with midfielder Denise O’Sullivan taken to hospital after late tackle

• Ireland Women’s manager Vera Pauw says her players ‘feared for their bodies’ against Colombia 
• The game was abandoned after a foul on Denise O’Sullivan, who went to hospital
• The Irish FA called the behind-closed-doors match ‘overly physical’ 

Republic of Ireland Women manager Vera Pauw said her players ‘feared for their bodies’ after their friendly with Colombia was abandoned on Friday.

Pauw’s team took the decision to end their World Cup warm-up match after just 20 minutes following a late tackle on midfielder Denise O’Sullivan, who was taken to hospital.

Pauw had told members of the media they would be allowed to attend the behind-closed-doors match but journalists were denied entry at the last minute at the request of Colombia. FIFA rules state that both teams must permit media to attend games played behind-closed-doors.

After a lively start to the game, Pauw said things took a turn shortly before the challenge on O’Sullivan, with referee Caitlin Williams having already shown two yellow cards.

‘The players, [for] the first time since I am coaching them, they feared, they feared for their bodies,’ Pauw told Off the Ball.

Vera Pauw, pictured in a France friendly, says her team ‘feared for their bodies’ vs Colombia

Denise O’Sullivan, pictured in a June press conference was injured by a foul 20 minutes in 

‘After a few minutes it just started up in a way that it had almost no turnaround.

‘There was first a huge challenge on Ruesha [Littlejohn] with a lot of emotions around that of course because that was already a challenge out of the laws of the game.

‘We do not fear any physical contact, you know that. We are ourselves a team, that within the rules of the game, we are a very tough playing team.

‘We always challenge within the rules of the game. This was out of the rules of the game. Within two minutes there was a challenge on Denise. It was a build-up of “this is going wrong, this is going really wrong”.

‘She [O’Sullivan] was in awful pain of course, potentially a very serious injury, she was on the ground.’

Pauw explained how she approached Colombia’s coaching team and asked how the game could be calmed down.

‘I went calmly to the bench of the opponent and I asked the coach “I need your help. We all want to go to the World Cup, how do we calm this down?”

The match was abandoned and the Irish FA called it ‘overly physical’ 

‘He only said one sentence. Something like: “it’s both sides”, but we did not make any fouls. He went back [to the bench] and did not take any responsibility.

‘Then the team manager came and I said: “we all want to go to the World Cup, can you help me to calm things down?” She said “it’s not intentional”. I got no help from them. The bench of Colombia was very calm, they did not instigate things, I want to highlight that.

‘It was developing on the pitch, the players of course were upset. So I decided to, for the first time in my life, go to the medical team and to Denise and they confirmed it was potentially a very serious injury.’

Pauw explained how she took her players to the side to reassure them of her support before discussing whether to continue the game with the rest of her management team and the FAI’s technical director while contact with officials in Dublin was also made.

The decision was then taken to abandon the game after the Irish team discussed the matter with the referee.

An FAI statement on Friday read: ‘The behind-closed-doors game between the Ireland Women’s National Team and Colombia on Friday evening was ended after 20 minutes of play.

‘The game, which was held in Meakin Park, Brisbane, became overly physical and it was decided, following consultation with the match officials, to end the game.’

Colombia’s Football Federation then released a statement of their own, which read: ‘The Colombian Football Federation informs that the friendly match that was to take place as part of today’s training between the Colombian Women’s National Team and Ireland, was suspended because the Irish National Team, a rival in practice this Friday, preferred not to continue playing when 23 minutes of the first half had already elapsed.

‘Although all the processes and training of our teams are framed within the rules of the game, healthy competition and FairPlay, among others, we respect the decision of our rival team.

‘Colombia will return to Sydney this Saturday to continue with its preparation and before the debut in the orbital event, a second friendly training match against its counterpart from China is scheduled.’

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