AMBER Barrett admitted that while her minutes were limited, it was still an unbelievable experience to feature for the Republic of Ireland in their Women’s World Cup debut in Australia this Summer.
Barrett was selected for the World Cup after a brace against Zambia, while she also scored the goal to qualify the side with the winner in the play-off against Scotland.
But although she was going into the tournament on scoring form, she played just 25 minutes in total in a sub appearance against Canada but a second defeat in two games at the tournament saw them knocked out after that game.
However, for representing her country in their World Cup debut, she was named the Donegal News Sports Personality of the Month for July, in conjunction with Brian McCormick Sports & Leisure.
“Everybody had to prove themselves but for me that (Zambia game) was a big one, in a way I don’t think I gave Vera (Pauw) a choice after that and for many players it was a very important game to get them over the line and I’m one of those players,” Barrett said.
“Coming off the back of scoring twice against Zambia and having a good performance, then we played France a couple days later and I don’t play and then Australia I didn’t play.
“I think I was honest about it, of course I was disappointed because in those games you needed a goal and the confidence was there but in the end you’re happy also to be part of it.
“But Canada was different because I got the shout and it was definitely a highlight for me that I could take away from the World Cup.
“My brother (Kane) and Dad (Shaun Paul) were over for the first two games and my Dad was there for the last game but I had lots of my cousins travel to see it as well so that was brilliant.
“What was special about it was so many of the girls who travelled and even the parents who travelled have so many friends and family that have left Ireland for Australia and some of them haven’t seen these people in 10/15 years and the fact we went to Australia of all places which has so many Irish.
“Sydney was an unbelievable experience with the 75,000 crowd and the Irish were deafening.
“The Australian players mentioned after the tournament the Irish game was the most difficult because the crowd was so split even though they were the home team and you can’t forget those moments.
“Of any team in world football there’s always something special about Ireland and we definitely made our mark down there.”
Since the end of the World Cup, the Women’s National Team parted ways with Vera Pauw after a very public falling out but Eileen Gleeson has come in as Interim manager and steadied the ship, with two wins over Northern Ireland and Hungary in the Nations League B, the former including a record breaking 38,000 crowd at the Aviva Stadium.
“The departure of Vera was a bit rocky and a lot of things came out that we as players weren’t aware of but she was the woman who got us to the World Cup and that won’t ever be forgotten.
“But that’s football at the end of the day and sometimes change can be a good thing and Eileen has definitely brought a new lease of life into the team and we’re looking to build on.”
Barrett made the move to Standard Liège in June before the World Cup but didn’t have much rest over the summer.
It was a difficult year for the Milford woman at Turbine Potsdam in the Frauen Bundesliga the previous season but she has adapted well to life in Belgium, with fellow Irish International Claire O’Riordan also joining the club from Celtic.
“There wasn’t much of a turnaround, I was home from Australia on the Friday and me and Claire moved out to Liège on the Wednesday. It would have been nice to get a bit of time at home with the World Cup being an emotional high and we never got the time to decompress but it was good to get back at it.
“It was extremely difficult (at Potsdam), I went from playing right back for the first third of the season which was out of my depth to not playing at all.
“It was a difficult transition and I wasn’t the only one, a lot of the players struggled and relegation wasn’t really a surprise.
“I hadn’t played that much over the last year and I’ve been getting my minutes here (at Liège) which I’m grateful for and what I like here is they were understanding of that.”
Barrett has begun the season in good form, with four goals in four starts this season as Liège, the most successful team in Belgian ladies’ football, sit in second place after six games.
And she hopes to keep that club form up and bring it back to the Irish team for their upcoming double header with Albania at the end of August.
“They built my minutes up very well and it’s allowed me to play to the best of my abilities because you can’t do a turnaround that quickly and I’m lucky that they’ve been so accommodating and it builds the confidence.”
“From a club point of view I want to keep being part of a team that’s winning games and keep fit and healthy.
“Hopefully then you can bring the confidence from the club into the International setup, we have Albania in a few weeks and I want to be playing more in that and be back scoring goals for the International team.”
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