The Girls in Green, (dear the sweet baby Jesus is there no one in the marketing department), enter the tournament ranked 22nd in the world of women’s lesser footy.  They are in Group B, along with Canada, Nigeria, and Australia.  Canada is ranked 7th, Australia 10th, and Nigeria 40th.  That’s not a particularly great set-up for Ireland.  The Girls in Green, (shudder), open against the Aussies on 7/20, follow that with Canada on 7/26, then conclude against Nigeria on 7/31 in what could be an interesting game as both national teams fight for some points in what looks like it might be the Group of Death, based on the three groups I glanced at so far.  It’s at least somewhat competitive among the top 3, anyway.

The outlook for Ireland isn’t dire, but it’s not encouraging either.  Any article that contains phrases like “regardless of what happens” and the team might be “among the strongest” is probably not a good sign for your overall success as a squad.

I have absolutely no idea who the best player is on the Irish squad.  A quick search lead to results where the first player was retired and the second dead.  At that point I gave up.

Anyway, here’s Amber Barrett scoring the goal against the Scots that I guess put Ireland through to the Cup finals.  Note the crowd behind her.  I’ll just go ahead and assume that, since the game was in Scotland, the weather was awful or Nessie had eaten everyone.

That last link does a nice, (if somewhat cliched), job of discussing the make-up of the squad, the tactics they’ll likely use, and then gently suggests that none of it really matters and that the Girls in Green, (punts leprechaun), will be going home after the group stage ends.  It’s probably an accurate prediction.