Sinead Farrelly’s dream year continues as Gotham win women’s soccer league in San Diego

It’s unlikely that Sinead Farrelly will want 2023 to end, it having already been a year to savour before Saturday night. You know the gist: in April she played her first competitive game of football in almost seven years when she made her debut for NJ/NY Gotham. A week later she won her first cap for the Republic of Ireland. And, of course, she went on to play in the World Cup during the summer. On Saturday in San Diego? She only went and won the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) title.

That feat was all the more remarkable considering Gotham finished bottom of the league a year ago, their turnaround under Spanish coach Juan Carlos Amorós spectacular, this the New Jersey-based club’s first ever NWSL title.

Farrelly came on in the 69th minute of their 2-1 win over OL Reign, for whom Megan Rapinoe was making her final appearance before retirement, her swansong ending after just three minutes when she suffered an Achilles injury.

The occasion was an emotional one for Farrelly and her team-mate Mana Shim, who had also left the game for a lengthy spell, the pair both having gone public with their allegations against their former coach Paul Riley, prompting an NWSL investigation into abusive behaviour in its league.

Gotham had knocked two-time NWSL winner Denise O’Sullivan’s North Carolina Courage out at the quarter-final stage of the playoffs, but the quality of the Cork woman’s season was recognised when she was named in the league’s ‘Best XI Second Team’.

Back on this side of the Atlantic it was a mighty weekend for current and former Peamount United players, Irish international Erin McLaughlin among the National League side that wrapped up their title-winning campaign with a 6-1 win over Sligo Rovers on Saturday evening.

And over in England former “Pea” Eleanor Ryan-Doyle, who has been blossoming at Championship side Durham since joining them from Birmingham during the summer, scored their winner against Sheffield United. It was set up by Corkonian Saoirse Noonan, with whom Ryan-Doyle is developing a highly useful partnership.

On the good news front Leanne Kiernan returned to action for Liverpool, after a lengthy injury lay-off, in their League Cup defeat by Manchester City last week; manager Matt Beard reckoning she’ll be good to go in the WSL in around a fortnight.

And Ruesha Littlejohn was also back on the pitch, coming on as a sub for London City Lionesses in their 1-0 defeat by Birmingham City, her new podcast-mate Lucy Quinn – they’ve been signed up by 90min for the bi-weekly Life’s a Pitch – creating the only goal of the game from a corner. Quinn was named the Championship player of the month for October, so she’ll be rubbing it in big time in their next podcast. (Her team-mate Lily Agg missed a late penalty, so she’ll be getting some grief too).