O’Reilly Factor Dilutes Victory
Heather O’Reilly, a 19-year-old high school senior with a better-than-average chance at making the United States roster for this fall’s Women’s World Cup, saw that chance diminish -- but not necessarily disappear -- on Saturday night.
Seventy-four seconds after making her first start for the U.S., O’Reilly scored what proved to be the winning goal as the Americans rolled over Ireland, 5-0, in front of 19,584 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus.
Moments later, she was taken off the field on a stretcher, her left leg having been broken in a collision with Irish goalkeeper Emma Byrne on the scoring play.
O’Reilly, a starter on the winning U.S. team at the first FIFA Under-19 World Championship last year in Canada, will be sidelined for at least six weeks. That puts in doubt her chance of making the U.S. team.
Veteran players Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy were shocked by the news. It was only last month that the defending world champions lost forward Shannon MacMillan to torn knee ligaments. And now O’Reilly.
Foudy was one of the first players to reach O’Reilly when she crumpled to the ground under Byrne’s challenge.
“She said, right as she went down, ‘Oh, please don’t be broken; it feels like it’s broken; I heard something pop,’ ” Foudy said. “It was just like [MacMillan]. We were blessed with a bunch of forwards and now we’re down two.”
Hamm, who played only the last 30 minutes and still managed to increase her world-record total to 140 goals, praised the way the teenager, in only her ninth game for the national team, had been unafraid to go in alone against Byrne and score on a well-taken header.
“That goal tonight was a courageous goal,” Hamm said. “She was going in for a 50-50 ball with the keeper, who can slide, and she puts that ball away and we lose her, hopefully for no more than six weeks.”
April Heinrichs, the U.S. coach, intends to name her roster sometime after the team’s next match, against Brazil in New Orleans on July 13, and before its final two World Cup warm-ups, against Costa Rica and Mexico in September.
How long she will delay her decision is uncertain.
“Instantly, I thought, we can’t afford to lose another forward,” Heinrichs said of her reaction to the collision. “It’s just devastating to us.
“Any team in the world can defend for 90 minutes. We really try to go after opponents and attack. Losing Heather O’Reilly, who was certainly competing, not only for a position on the team but for playing time ... she’s just been tremendous for us. So it’s devastating.
“She’s not out for the World Cup, but she’s out six weeks, and I don’t know what that’s going to do [as far as making roster decisions]. Give me some time.”
On a more positive note, the U.S. got a two-goal performance by Abby Wambach, while Foudy scored one goal and assisted on two others as the Irish were outmatched on an 85-degree evening.
The U.S. was ahead, 4-0, after 42 minutes, and from then on it was merely a matter of seeing if Ireland could manage a single attempt at a goal. It couldn’t. The U.S. outshot the Irish, 24-0.
After O’Reilly’s goal in the second minute, off a cross from Foudy, the U.S. captain doubled the lead with a goal of her own in the 12th minute, slamming a shot into the net after Byrne had made a save on Kristine Lilly but the Irish defense failed to clear the loose ball.
Wambach made it 3-0 in the 21st minute, side-footing a Christie Pearce pass into the net, and then 4-0, in the 42nd minute, when she headed in a cross from Foudy.
Hamm ended the scoring in the 79th minute, finishing a move begun by Tiffany Roberts.
By then, however, everyone was more concerned about O’Reilly than the score.
