Courtney Brosnan taking cool and calm club form into Ireland’s World Cup qualifiers

Courtney Brosnan usually has a sunny disposition, even during the tougher times in her career she had a habit of smiling on through. These days, though, she has plenty of reasons to be cheerful, not least her form for Everton in the WSL and her new contract with the club.

Add in that she’s set to resume her position in goal for Ireland in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against France and the Netherlands after missing the last three internationals, and it’s little wonder she had a spring in her step during training in Abbotstown on Thursday – even if the wind was in danger of lifting her back to Liverpool.

Before a knee injury ruled her out of both legs of the Nations League playoff against Belgium last October, Brosnan had made the goalkeeping position her own, missing just one of the previous 42 games through suspension. She’s firmly established herself as Everton’s number one as well, thus far seeing off the challenge of former England underage international Emily Ramsey.

With her contract due to expire at the end of the season, there was plenty of speculation about one of the bigger guns making a move for the 30-year-old, who made more saves than any other WSL goalkeeper last season. Granted, at times her defence ensured she was kept busy, as they have done again in this campaign – Everton are eighth out of the league’s 12 teams and sacked their manager, Brian Sorensen, earlier this month.

Despite that upheaval, Brosnan opted to remain with the club she joined from West Ham five years ago, Everton extending her contract until June 2028.

“I’m really excited about that,” she said. “I’ve been feeling good on the pitch and good in my performances, so I just want to keep pushing forward. It’s always a big thing when you’re making decisions about your future and where you’re going to be, but I’m really proud of the journey that I’ve been on with Everton and, yeah, excited that they wanted to keep me on board.”

Asked if she’s in the best form of your career, Brosnan replied: “I don’t know. You can never think too positively in the good moments or too low in the low ones. Football is always ups and downs, it’s a journey. As a goalkeeper, you just try to keep that cool, that calmness, make sure that you’re prepared and enjoying it all.”

On the international front, she has long insisted that qualifying for the 2023 World Cup must not be a one-off for Ireland and that they need to make a habit of reaching major tournaments. The next challenge, then, is making it to the 2027 finals in Brazil.

“We know this team has a lot more to achieve, and can achieve. We can look back with a lot of pride on beating Belgium in that playoff and winning promotion to Nations League A, which is where we want and deserve to be. We know the competition is going to be very difficult, but we want to be playing against the likes of France and the Netherlands. Our full focus now is on this campaign and the road to Brazil.”

A winding road it will most probably be too. Only the winners of Ireland’s Nations League group will automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup, and, as the lowest ranked side (27) of the four – France (7), the Netherlands (11) and Poland (24) the others – that’s highly unlikely to be Ireland.

But even if they were to finish bottom of the group, they would still be guaranteed a two-leg playoff against a League B side. That would effectively be a semi-final, the winners going through to a playoff ‘final’. Seven of the eight winners at that stage would qualify for the World Cup, the eighth – based on their overall ranking in the league phase of the qualifiers – going in to an inter-confederation playoff in February 2027. Yes, yes, dizzying.

Ireland won’t worry themselves about that convoluted process for now – their focus firmly on the campaign opener against France in Tallaght next Tuesday, and their trip to Utrecht the following Saturday to take on the Dutch.

With 51 caps to her name, and being just one of four regular Irish starters in the WSL – along with Katie McCabe, Anna Patten and Denise O’Sullivan – Brosnan is happy to help fill the leadership vacuum left by a raft of retirements over the last year or two as they head in to this campaign.

“We’ve lost some big names, big personalities and big leaders, which is always difficult when you’re in transition. But I think myself and other players have tried to really step up and be the leaders now. I have a lot of experience at international level, so I try to guide the younger players and just drive those standards with the likes of Katie and Denise.”

They’ll need to be high for the assignment ahead.

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