Sinead Farrelly looks back at playing in the World Cup as she returns to Gotham FC

As Sinead Farrelly stood in the tunnel at Stadium Australia, she knew she was soon to take part in something big. Not only was she set to start the Republic of Ireland’s first ever women’s World Cup game, but it was a matchup with co-host Australia in the teams’ tournament opener.

Yet she didn’t truly know how big the moment was until she emerged from that tunnel and stepped into a sea of 75,784 fans, a sellout crowd in the building’s biggest global moment since the 2000 Summer Olympics.

So it might have helped, she admitted, that she had just seen Gladiator for the first time in the days before then.

“The second you hit the stadium, just this whole crowd uproared,” Farrelly said Wednesday in a news conference hosted by Gotham FC, her first public comments since returning to the club from the World Cup.

“It was like a movie,” the Havertown native said, and even that sounded like an understatement. “It’s one of those things, too, [where] you want to be so present during it, but there’s all these other things running through your head, and you’re about to start the game, and all this stuff. But that was a moment that I’ll remember forever.”

So was the surprise that came next. While the great majority of the crowd was wearing Australia’s shade of green, a lot of fans were wearing the Irish kind.

“When we sang the Irish national anthem, hearing the people in the crowd sing along and hearing how much support we had from the Irish fans was just incredible,” Farrelly said. “We knew that there’s a big Irish population in Australia, and we knew they were going to show up for us. But just at that capacity, we were just blown away.”

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She felt the support around the team’s home base in Brisbane, too, from fans who recognized her to the city’s overall support for the World Cup.

“Running into people knowing who we were and rooting for us, there was just such soccer buzz around everywhere,” she said. “And that was very cool.”

Ireland’s campaign ended in the group stage with two losses and a draw. Still, this was just about being there, especially for Farrelly — a comeback story for the ages, returning to play eight years after suffering alleged abuse that wouldn’t be revealed until 2021.

“It was exactly in July [last year] when I decided I was going to try and come back ... a year, almost to the day, when I was playing in the World Cup,” she said. “I’m mind-blown honestly. I don’t understand it. I think it’s really reminded me of — like, it changes your lens a little bit on life, of how much can change in an instant.”

Her turn toward the philosophical had everyone listening at rapt attention.

“Everything’s fleeting, and sometimes we get caught up in — even the happy moments are fleeting and go by, but especially, like, the low moments and the dark moments,” she said. “Where you’re at doesn’t mean that’s where you’re going to be. And I’m someone who felt like my past kind of followed me where I went, and I felt like I couldn’t escape it.”

Now, Farrelly said, “I feel like I’m kind of living this completely different life, this impossible life, and it’s just crazy. It just feels like it’s opened up my horizons of, like, there’s no real limitations.”

Those words struck with immense force, especially for people who’ve followed her entire career.

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On Sunday, Farrelly will return to club action when Gotham hosts Racing Louisville at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. (5:30 p.m., Paramount+).

There’s no guarantee that both teams’ World Cup players will play, but if they all do, there could be 11 on the field: Gotham’s Bruninha (Brazil), Farrelly, Ifeoma Onumonu (Nigeria), Kristie Mewis (U.S.), Kelley O’Hara (U.S.), and Lynn Williams (U.S.) against Louisville’s Ary Borges (Brazil), Alex Chidiac (Australia), Savannah DeMelo (U.S.), Uchenna Kanu (Nigeria), and Thembi Kgatlana (South Africa).

“It took me a while to adjust here, and just getting back into soccer again, and I feel the best that I’ve felt, the most confident that I felt,” Farrelly said. “It’s been a long journey to get here, but I’m just so grateful that I stuck with it, and just having the support that I’ve had. Because I almost feel like I’m getting to the other side of it now, and when I was in it, I wasn’t sure that was possible.”

And later this month, Gotham’s ranks of World Cup veterans will grow further. The club announced Wednesday that it signed Esther González, a forward on Spain’s World Cup title-winners. González, 30, has 27 goals in 38 games for Spain, including a tally against Costa Rica in last month’s group stage.

She’s the second Spaniard Gotham has signed this year, following the arrival of Maitane López in early July. At a time when so many people want to see the NWSL up the ante on foreign signings, this is a feather in Gotham’s cap and the league’s.

“I love Spanish-style soccer,” Farrelly said. “I’m just super excited to have her here, and I know the team is as well. … And the fact that she just won a World Cup, too, is wild. We’re excited to celebrate with her when she gets back and honor her.”

They will celebrate Farrelly too, no doubt, and she will keep taking it all in.

“I’m just, like, blown away,” she said, with a look and sound of long-sought true happiness. “I’m surprised. I hope I continue to get surprised by life. And [I’m] just wanting to keep this open attitude.”

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