Emmet Maloneon Noel King's aspirations for his squad's 10-week training camp. It's their only way to reach top tier, he says

WHILE MOST of the men’s squad are sunning themselves on foreign beaches and, in some cases, contemplating lucrative close season transfers, the Ireland women’s squad headed for America yesterday and a 10-week training camp in Indiana which, it is hoped, will help them graduate to football’s elusive “next level”.

Manager Noel King sees the trip as an opportunity to build on the steady progress made in recent years and overcome some of the handicaps that have prevented the team making the breakthrough they have craved. Most recently, they lost to Iceland in a qualification play-off for this year’s European Championship finals and the target now is the 2011 World Cup in Germany.

“We’ve made amazing progress already,” says King, who has been in charge of the team now for eight years, the last four of them on a full-time basis. “Every year we’ve jumped in the rankings and to get to the stage where we’re now second seeds in our qualifying group seems unimaginable when you think back to where we were coming from not so long ago.

“If we are to become top seeds, though; if we are actually going to start qualifying for tournaments then we’ve got to make another leap and I think there was a realisation that that was going to require an even greater level of commitment from everybody. But I’ve got to say I was delighted when the idea of this trip was floated and the reaction was probably 95 per cent positive from the players.”

One problem for the Irish is women’s tournaments are smaller than men’s and only four European countries were represented at the last World Cup, in China two years ago. Gradual expansion is on the cards but in the meantime, the Irish have to displace of one of the continent’s major powers, the likes of Sweden, Norway or England if they are to earn their place on a major international stage.

“It’s difficult because in the men’s tournament you have maybe eight group winners going through and then second-placed teams playing off against each other for more places. With us, even the winners have to go into play-offs to qualify.

“Ideally, you’d like to see more teams qualifying but Fifa argue there’s no point having more teams in these tournaments if it means the standard goes down and I can absolutely accept that, so what we have to do is work harder than ever to raise our game again.”

This won’t be the first time the Ireland team has headed across the Atlantic in search of quality training and games – the fact a sizeable chunk of the squad is based in America makes it an obvious destination – but after the defeat by Iceland, King says, there was a feeling that more was required if the Irish weren’t going to be continually frustrated at the final hurdle and the idea of a significantly longer camp was raised when the squad were there last year.

“To be honest, things like this have been suggested a good few times before but this was the first time something really concrete came of it afterwards. FC Indiana, who are one of the top teams over there, are helping out with accommodation and looking after us over there; the trip really wouldn’t be possible with them, and the FAI have been great but there’s still been a lot of work involved in pulling the whole thing together.

“Some of the girls have had to get time of work or studies and even he ones who haven’t have had to make a big commitment. Hopefully, we’ll see the benefit of it. There are bound to be some difficulties – with home sickness, injuries and just the sort of issues that arise when you have a small group together in a confined space for that length of time – but it will give us the opportunity to work on things like fitness that have definitely been problems when we’ve played against teams made up of full-time professionals.

King is full of praise for the players, the coaches and the FAI but his frustration at the lack of a coherent national women’s league here in Ireland is obvious.

The backbone of his squad play with the dominant force in the English game, Arsenal, but even they are only part-time, while there are a handful at other English sides and a number on scholarships in the United States.

There are two full-timers, Ciara McCormack with FC Larvik in Norway and Mary T McDonnell is with, but not yet a first team regular for, Boston Breakers. The bulk of the rest, though, are playing with Irish clubs in what are effectively local leagues.

In an effort to keep players at home the FAI has provided scholarships to some of those wanting to study at Irish colleges but on the one hand, the players are based here and more readily available for training sessions and games but on the other, they are spread terribly thinly amongst clubs and playing in competitions where the standard is not high.

A potentially beneficial side-effect of this camp might be the recruitment of some of the Irish players by American clubs or colleges – Arsenal goalkeeper Emma Byrne is one of several to attract interest previously – although King insists that is not the point of it.

“What we’re aiming to do here is improve individually and as a group, to look at some new players (outside of the squad of 20, most for whom will be present for the whole 10 weeks, others, including McDonnell’s older sister Shannon, will join up for shorter spells) and to come back in a better position to take on (group top seeds) Russia for a place at the next World Cup.”