In the tome of Irish sport, Áine O’Gorman will command a chapter that places her somewhere between suffragette and pioneer.
She remains a unique force, now and forever.
On Thursday against Canada, O’Gorman became the first active League of Ireland player to wear the green shirt at a World Cup.
It was her first start since Hampden Park last year.
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She’s also the first Irish mammy to play at the tournament. Baby James is waiting for her back home in Dublin.
Cap number 119 nudges O’Gorman past John O’Shea on the all-time Republic of Ireland list, where she stands fifth behind Robbie Keane, Emma Byrne, Shay Given and the indomitable Olivia O’Toole.
There is so much more to say. She is the first World Cup player to have represented Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and Peamount United, in reverse order, throughout an 18-year career.
O’Gorman is only 34.
“I’m always ready to go,” she said last week. “I think no one should be happy just to be here. Everyone should be chomping at the bit to play.”
When Heather Payne’s hamstring blew up during the warm-up at the Perth Rectangular Stadium on Wednesday, O’Gorman got “two minutes notice”.
Payne was devastated.
Get ready, Áine.
“But I warmed up like I always do. I thought that Heather would probably start but maybe wouldn’t last the game, so I was ready to come on and I was delighted I got the call-up to start, it just doesn’t feel like it right now in the way the game ended.”
The 2-1 loss to Canada ended any hope of Ireland reaching the last 16, but in time this group will look back with some satisfaction at the second half in Sydney, when they rattled Australia, and a thunderous 40 minutes in Perth, when the Olympic champions could barely contain them.
At half-time Canada coach Bev Priestman had to remind her players about the gold medals they won last year in Tokyo. Then she sent on game-changers in Sophie Schmidt and Christine Sinclair. The veterans directed all their football intellect, gained from 544 international appearances, down O’Gorman’s right flank.
That is where Adriana Leon’s winning goal originated.
The Canadian equaliser in first-half injury time, an unlucky Megan Connolly own goal, also came from Julia Grosso finding space down that side before sending a low cross into the Irish box.
Afterwards, Ireland manager Vera Pauw chose to heap blame on her own players when she all but named O’Gorman and Niamh Fahey as the culprits.
“At the end of the first half you have to keep the organisation tight,” Pauw told RTÉ. “It was one of those moments where there was no cover. They cut in and there was no cover so [Grosso] could have a free cross.”
This assessment does not stand up to scrutiny. With five minutes of the allotted injury time up, Ashley Lawrence sent a looping pass down the Canadian left for Grosso. Fahey refused to let the Juventus winger reach the end line, so both turned back before Grosso delivered a right-footed, speculative cross.
All the while, O’Gorman was tracking Jordyn Huitema’s trot from deep. There is an argument to suggest that Denise O’Sullivan could have made a lung-busting run to cover the space into which Grosso turned back, but her opposite midfielder had also slowed to a walk.
There were six green shirts and four white in the Irish penalty area. O’Gorman stood tall at the last second, thereby losing Huitema, who almost connected with a glancing header. That movement was enough to distract Connolly and the tiniest touch changed the hop of the ball as it beat Courtney Brosnan.
It was hardly textbook defending by Ireland but apportioning specific blame felt like a hollow exercise. Marissa Sheva received a similarly ruthless assessment from Pauw after conceding the penalty against Australia.
“Vera is definitely trying to deflect,” said ex-international Méabh De Búrca on RTÉ. “It is disappointing for a manager to be trying to deflect the blame on to players at this stage. They can only do what they are told to do and play in a structure that they are clearly told to do.”
It is also worth highlighting that Connolly is a midfielder and not a defender but Pauw was adamant that she had to be repositioned after injury to Aoife Mannion.
There is so much more to O’Gorman’s career than this single World Cup appearance. On and off the field. She’s the only semi-professional in the squad and the only Irish teacher to play at a World Cup.
The likes of O’Gorman will never be seen again and that is thanks to her. History will tell the full story about her tireless work leading up to and during the Liberty Hall boycott threat in 2017.
There was O’Gorman, on Six-One News, calmly revealing the ritual humiliation forced upon the Irish players by the FAI.
“We’ve been getting changed in the public toilets of airports on the way to matches. Getting our kit [in the airport] and having to open our personal bags and put our kit in.”
O’Gorman is the first and last Irish wing back at a World Cup to have gone toe to toe with former FAI chief executive John Delaney. Other players, such as Emma Byrne, Katie McCabe and Karen Duggan, played significant roles in negotiations with the FAI but it was O’Gorman who did the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
That she made the cut for Australia despite the advent of professionalism is a testament to her ability to manage time.
“When you retire you can reflect on how magic it all was,” she told The Irish Times last February.
“The plan was to start my Uefa A Licence this year, so hopefully after the World Cup I will be able to pursue that. I think it is really important that we have female coaches in the country and for me to give back to the game.
“I am very passionate about the game here in Ireland.”
