Karen Duggan: World Cup success of smaller nations makes you think it could have been Ireland

Germany? Oh my God. After loving watching them in the Euros last year, when they lost to England in the final, I couldn’t wait to see them in this World Cup. And after the way they played in their opening game, in that 6-0 win over Morocco, I had a feeling they might go on to win the whole thing.

But now they’re going home.

The decision to expand the World Cup from 24 to 32 teams this time around wasn’t universally supported. There’d be too many thrashings, too many humiliations, too many nations not able to compete at this level.

That decision has been vindicated, spectacularly.

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Nigeria, Jamaica, Colombia, Morocco, South Africa ... their success has brought so much joy and colour to this tournament, it’s made it sparkle. The gap between the traditional elite in the women’s game and the chasing pack has narrowed beautifully.

And that’s the beauty of international football compared to club football, there’s no buying your way to the top, it’s just about hard work and talent.

But, it kind of makes you think ... it could have been us.

All those nations, who have advanced to the knock-out stages, are ranked lower than Ireland, although you have to question the algorithms – so many of them, deprived of funding, have limited opportunities to get together and to play friendlies against higher-ranked opposition. Nigeria are ranked 40 in the world ... as we’ve seen, they’re way better than that.

But I fell into that trap of thinking that because they were ranked significantly lower than us, they should have been our target team in our group. As it proved, it was Canada who were there for the taking, mad as that sounds when they are the reigning Olympic champions.

So, when I reflect on our campaign, there is still a lingering sense of what-might-have-been, proud as I am of the team’s efforts when, as I’ve said before, they showed they belong at that level.

But I looked at the absolute joy of the Moroccan team when they found out that they had gone through to the last 16, and I couldn’t but imagine if that was our girls.

At the end of it all, though, I have regrets, but no little hope.

We’ll learn from this experience, our very first on this stage, we’ll take heart from being so competitive in all three of our group games. We can grow from this.

I look at someone like Courtney Brosnan who took so much stick after our last Euro qualifying campaign, but she has grown immeasurably since then, and along with Katie McCabe’s goal she provided us with the moment of the tournament with that wonder save against Nigeria. She grew.

Ruesha Littlejohn has a claim to be our player of the tournament. She was outstanding. And considering how limited her game time was with Aston Villa last season, as she struggled with injuries, her effort was phenomenal. She went in to this World Cup having been released by Villa, so there was added pressure with that, she was in the shop window, trying essentially to persuade a club to give her a job in the new season. She grew.

Kyra Carusa was another who I thought did brilliantly for us. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time because she has everything we needed in a striker because of the way we play. Big, strong, physically imposing with an incredible workrate. Her bullying Kadeisha Buchanan off the pitch in the Canada game stands out as a big moment for me. She’s not intimidated by any situation and she’s happy to mix it at any level. She was excellent. She grew.

Katie? Enough of the talk about emojis. She scored a goal in the World Cup, an Olimpico, a goosebump moment. She should be celebrated for that. She gave absolutely everything, I just wish we could have played more football so that we could have seen more of what Katie McCabe can bring to this team. Which is SO much.

There’s been some talk about Vera Pauw’s cautious approach being the right one, because we don’t have the quality to be more ambitious. I disagree.

Our performance in the first half against Canada dispelled that notion. And I think the performances of so many of our players at club level dispel that too. We’re a small nation, we don’t have a huge pool of talent, but we’ve got some excellent footballers – the challenge is to bring the best out of them. Start with playing them in their right positions. Let the likes of Katie, Denise O’Sullivan and Megan Connolly play where they can shine.

There’s been no end of Debbie Downers – and we in the media have been prone to that – but there are plenty of positives to take from our debut at this level. There are lessons to be learned, of course, by the girls, by the FAI and by the coaching staff. But we can grow from this, and aim a little bit higher next time.

We have huge talent coming through. And hopefully this World Cup will be a catalyst, especially as a spike for participation levels. The likes of Jessie Stapleton, Erin McLaughlin, Tara O’Hanlon and Ellen Molloy. Their technical ability is superior to our generation. And they all have aspirations to play professionally. And now that we have played in a World Cup, they will expect that it will be the norm for Ireland to compete at that level. That’s a good expectation, although it won’t be easy to achieve given the rising standards of so many of the supposedly “lesser” nations.

I want to sign off by paying tribute to the squad’s “elders”, Niamh Fahey, Áine O’Gorman, Diane Caldwell and Louise Quinn. It was a genuine – and emotional – thrill for me to see them at the World Cup.

These are the girls who helped me have an international career, I was protected by them on and off the pitch, I owe them everything. I’m so proud of all that they’ve achieved, they’ve given service for so many years when nobody really cared. These girls did it when no one was watching.

I don’t know their plans, but I really hope they don’t all retire. They still have so much to offer, they’re still well able, it would be a shame to lose that many experienced heads.

They were the leaders in 2017 when the squad took its stand against the FAI. Back then we were all hoping rather than believing in the future of the women’s team.

Now we’re believing.