Ireland's final match of the World Cup qualifying tournament yesterday morning just about summed up their two weeks in Harare - nightmarish beginning, great middle and a shattering end. Their 4-2 defeat by Russia gives them an eighth place finish, two short of a berth in next May's finals in Utrecht. With just nine minutes to go, Ireland looked set to repeat their superb comeback against Japan when they levelled at 2-2, having trailed by two goals. It wasn't to be. Russia responded by adding two more late goals to secure seventh place in the tournament.
There was an eerie atmosphere in the near empty stadium for the 9 a.m. start to the match, with a subdued Irish contingent (who had a `Farewell to Harare' party the night before) and three Russians making up the `crowd.'
Like the crowd, it took a while for the Irish players to wipe the sleep from their eyes. In the first 19 minutes they conceded two goals and cleared two more efforts off the line. Elena Polovkova scored the opener in the ninth minute, after a shot from a short corner rebounded off Alison Vance's pads, and Tatiana Vasioukova doubled the lead 10 minutes later when Vance failed to keep out her mishit shot.
Ireland would have fallen further behind in the second half only for two goal-line clearances from substitute Michelle O'Sullivan of UCC and a brilliant save from Sharon Hutchinson, the Harlequins goalkeeper who came on for the second half.
Meanwhile Sarah Kelleher chose the final third of the match to produce her best form of the fortnight. The Slough midfielder pulled a goal back from a short corner in the 58th minute and three minutes later rounded off a superb run from the halfway line with a perfectly struck shot that flew past the Russian goalkeeper.
But then it all fell apart. Much to the local television commentator's dismay, Nadeida Tchegourdaeva scored Russia's third from a short corner in the 63rd minute and four minutes from time Olga Ouchkova capitalised on poor defending to wrap up the match.
Seventh place would have guaranteed Ireland a spot in the next Olympic qualifying tournament but they will now have to wait until after the World Cup to find out if eighth will be good enough.
A bitterly disappointed Terry Gregg tried to look on the bright side after the match but was reluctant to discuss his future as Irish coach. "We came here as outsiders, the 11th ranked team, we finished eighth, we improved our ranking from 20th at the beginning of this season up to 14th - that is something people must remember."
"We've finished ahead of three very good teams (Spain, Canada and Japan) so we have made an enormous improvement. The question now is how do we take the next step and how many years of a cycle is it going to take."
Ireland: A Vance, K Humphreys, A Thompson, J Stewart, C Craig, R Kohler, S Kelleher, J Turner (capt), C O'Kelly, M Logue, J Burke. Subs: L McVicker, C McMahon, M O'Sullivan, C Devine, S Hutchinson.
Russia: A Davydtcheva, I Piskounova, T Vasioukova, T Timonina, I Sviridova, E Polovkova, O Ouchkova, N Tchegourdaeva, M Tchegourdaeva, O Lexina, E Kondrootskaia. Subs: O Nikoloeva, E Kalinitchenko, N Kovaleva, N Kravtchenko.
Yesterday's results: 7th-8th place play-off: Russia 4 (T Vasioukova, E Polovkova, O Ouchkova, N Tchegourdaeva), Ireland 2 (S Kelleher 2); 5th-6th place play-off: England 1 (P Miller), China 1 (H Cheng), England won 2-0 on strokes; 3rd-4th place play-off: Scotland 1 (R Simpson), India 1 (F Ekka), Scotland won 3-1 on strokes; final: South Africa 2 (P Coetzee 2), New Zealand 2 (K Foy, M Senior), South Africa won 4-2 on strokes. Player of tournament: Pietie Coetzee (South Africa).
