Ireland disappoint again in World Cup defeat by USA
· Yahoo Sports
What a difference four days have made for Ireland.
On Thursday, they were 11 minutes away from knocking co-hosts and world number three Belgium out of the World Cup.
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They’ll finish a disappointing tournament a week later by playing South Africa for 13th place.
A 3-1 defeat by the USA on Monday condemned Ireland to a third place finish in the crossover Pool, well below the expectations the group of players and coaches had before the tournament began.
USA 'fought harder' than Ireland
After Scotland had beaten New Zealand 2-1, Ireland knew they had to beat the USA by two goals in order to move into the play-off for ninth place and remain above the Scots in the world rankings.
They started well and took the lead when Niamh Carey turned in a cross from Aisling Utri In the opening quarter.
They had plenty of penalty corners but couldn’t convert and by half-time the Americans had equalised through Lucy Adams.
They then took the lead from a penalty corner strike from Mia Schoenbeck in the third quarter and with Ireland chasing the game, added a third from Abigail Tamer.
"This is the raw experience of tournament hockey and the highs and lows that come with it," explained Ireland’s Katie Mullan.
"We knew what we had to do today, we came out and we started well, we got the lead, we had some corners and we had some chances.
“We fought hard but credit to the USA, they fought harder.”
Playing for 13th place is exactly where Ireland’s world ranking suggests they should be, but this squad has much higher aspirations, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Olympics in two years' time.
They will point to a narrow defeat by Spain and that terrific effort against Belgium, but for a side that believes they should be higher ranked than they are, they need to be winning games against Scotland and the USA, and right now that isn’t happening.
"I think this is a really big learning one for us. We want to be at World Cups, we want to be competing for a lot more than we are at the moment, but we have to learn, and we have to prepare ourselves to be able to be at the top level," added Mullan.
"I suppose the fight was there and we just need to piece it together a bit better on the ball to create a few more opportunities."
Drop in rankings 'something we're just going to have to deal with'
The ramifications for Ireland go beyond the World Cup.
They’ve fallen below Scotland in the world rankings and that means they will not be among the six seeded countries at the 2027 EuroHockey championships in London.
They will now have to qualify for the quarter-finals against the likes of Wales, Italy, France, Austria and Ukraine.
Failure to do so could well cost them a place in the Olympic qualifiers at the start of 2028.
"It's just something we're going to have to take on the chin,” said captain Sarah Hawkshaw.
"Scotland have been brilliant this tournament, I take absolutely nothing away from them, they deserve spot in terms of their performances consistently throughout.
"It's something we're just going to have to deal with. There's no point dwelling too much on these things.
"Of course, we would rather we weren't in that position. We've a big dream for this group. We do believe we can do very, very well."
Twelve of this Irish squad will play their club hockey in European leagues when the new season gets under way next month.
They have the Nations Cup and EuroHockey to look forward to next year ahead of what they hope will be a huge Olympic qualifier.
They’ve proved they can compete with the best in the world, but they will have to find a way to beat some of these top eight sides if they are to achieve that dream and play in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028.