Ireland captain Katie McCabe is hoping the team can leave a "lasting legacy" after this year's World Cup - starting with a "big crowd" at the Aviva Stadium in September.
Ireland will take on Northern Ireland in their Nations League opener at the national stadium - the first time a senior women's international will be played at the venue. And, though the 27-year-old had previously expressed some reservations at moving games to the Aviva and away from the comfort of Tallaght Stadium, she is all for kicking off their next campaign in Dublin 4.
"Hopefully we get a big crowd in!" she told Dublin Live. "The timing of it is fantastic to capitalise off the back of the World Cup, it works out brilliantly.
"I’ve played In the Aviva before [in FAI Cup finals] and they were fantastic occasions, so to do it in an Ireland shirt will be even better. And I hope it becomes a more regular thing, it’ll be another history making moment but we want this sort of thing to be ongoing and not just a once-off.
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"We want to leave a lasting legacy. It’s never been done before, us qualifying for a World Cup, so we want young girls and young boys with their Ireland tops on, watching us play against Australia in that opener and looking up to us.
"For us as a team it’s all about inspiring that next generation of young players coming through. We want to give kids the ability to dream, to see us and be like us.
"It’s hopefully going to be a watershed moment for women’s football in Ireland, and we just want to keep the momentum going."
Left-back McCabe is enjoying a couple of weeks rest after the end of the WSL season in England. She says the Ireland group haven't set an exact goal for the tournament yet, but that they're not going to Australia just to "be part of it".
She said: "We haven’t dissected everything just yet, but we know what we’re capable of showing. We’ve tested ourselves against really good opposition over the last year, and we won’t be going over there just to enjoy it and be part of it.
"We want to compete, we know we’ve got a really difficult group, Australia the hosts, Canada the Olympic champions, and a very good team in Nigeria with quality players. By no means is it going to be easy but when you’re playing on the world stage at a World Cup, you don’t want it to be easy.
"We’ll be ready to push all the way and go as far as possible."
The Arsenal star caught the second half of the Champions League Final, in which Barcelona picked up their second European crown in three years after a 3-2 comeback win over Wolfsburg - who knocked the Londoners out in a dramatic semi-final in extra time at the Emirates. But McCabe - who was named in the Team of the Tournament - wasn't drawn on whether the Arsenal squad had any regrets after the late loss.
She said: "It’s all hearsay isn’t it? No idea how it would have panned out.
"Ultimately we had a game at the Emirates that broke records for attendances, we had 60,000 people supporting us. It was obviously unfortunate that we didn’t get it over the line, but it only leaves you hungrier for more next season."
Arsenal, in particular, were hit with a spate of ACL injuries during the season, with Vivienne Miedema, Beth Mead, and captain Leah Williamson all going down with them during the season. And McCabe said she'd welcome more research into the nature of the injuries.
She said: "I’m no medical specialist, I don’t know the right terms and that to be using.
"But it was gutting for us to lose that calibre of player throughout our season, they’re all really important players in our team. I don’t want to see injuries like that to happen, never mind to my teammates but to anyone in the game.
"There needs to be a lot more work done in terms of how we can avoid it but I’ll leave that one up to the medical specialists. All we can do as footballers is prepare as best we can for the games.
"Injuries are part and parcel, but if we can avoid long term injuries like ACLs going forward through putting more research into it, that can only be a positive thing."
PepsiMax has revealed Ireland captain and Arsenal player Katie McCabe as its latest brand ambassador. This dynamic partnership brings together the maximum refreshment of PepsiMax and McCabe's exceptional football skills on the field which were most recently seen with the Arsenal Women's Team reaching the UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals in May this year.
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