Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly and Sellersville’s Marissa Sheva make Ireland’s World Cup team

You don’t have to be a soccer fan, or even a sports fan, to see that Sinead Farrelly is in the midst of an all-time comeback story.

Eight years ago, the Havertown native played what looked like the last game of a soccer career that began with the former Philadelphia Independence in 2011. At the time, in late 2015, her career presumably was over because of a major car crash she was in that September.

Much of the rest remained hidden from the public until six years later: September 2021, when Farrelly blew the lid off abuse scandals in women’s soccer and launched an era of reckoning in the NWSL.

Her final plot twists were still to come. The 33-year-old shocked the world in a good way when she returned to playing this year with Gotham FC, then was invited to join the Republic of Ireland’s national team in April for games against the United States.

On Wednesday, Farrelly, who qualifies to play for Ireland through her Irish father, earned her next and greatest on-field accomplishment: a place on the Irish World Cup team.

“It’s been really overwhelming,” Farrelly said. “So I just do moment-to-moment. It’s been amazing; it’s been hard, difficult, challenging, beautiful, awesome, and joyful. I just think it’s been all the things.”

Amid all the noise and controversy that came with Farrelly’s allegations against former club manager Paul Riley and her return to playing, she mostly has stayed quiet. A few minutes with journalists at Gotham’s game Sunday, a few minutes after her Irish debut in Austin, Texas, and a podcast series with former U.S. star goalkeeper Briana Scurry have been her only major public remarks in recent times.

But as Farrelly stood in the media pack Sunday, the look in her eyes was as bright as stadium lights. Through years of hard work and perseverance, the former phenom is thriving again in a sport she loves, even if the sport has too rarely loved her back.

» READ MORE: Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly signs with Gotham FC two years after NWSL abuse scandal

“It’s been such a parallel to what life is about, and so I just feel really grateful,” she said. “Every day is an opportunity for self-growth and just, like, be a better person, teammate. I’m excited to be here, and I’m taking it one day at a time.”

Leading the cheers on the Irish squad will be another Philly-area native, Sellersville’s Marissa Sheva. The 26-year-old midfielder earned her first Ireland call-up in February and has also earned her way to the World Cup. Sheva qualifies because of the Irish roots on her mother’s side and still has family members who live in Ireland.

“It’s surreal, and it doesn’t feel like it’s happening yet,” Sheva told The Inquirer. “I think that it probably won’t feel real until I’ve landed in Australia and we’re preparing for the opening game of the tournament. … But yeah, it is just a childhood dream come true, and I am so honored and humbled and excited to represent Ireland there.”

» READ MORE: Briana Scurry is hosting a podcast series with Sinead Farrelly on her return to women’s soccer

After warmup tests against France and Colombia, the Irish will play in one of the World Cup’s toughest and most star-studded groups next month. They kick off the tournament against Sam Kerr and cohost Australia, then face Christine Sinclair’s Canada and Asisat Oshoala’s Nigeria.

“Opening against the hosts in front of 80,000 people in Sydney, it’s going to be an amazing experience, but it’s going to be tough” Sheva said. “I think we’ve shown that we are a gritty group and that we have a lot of talent and we’re one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever been a part of. So I think we have a chance to squeak out of the group.”

Ireland has some firepower of its own in Arsenal’s Katie McCabe and the North Carolina Courage’s Denise O’Sullivan, and there’s a lot of stout defense behind them. Though the U.S. swept the April series, the scores were just 1-0 and 2-0. Observers around the world have talked up a potential upset Down Under.

“I’ve heard that quite a bit,” Sheva said. “I think after the U.S. games, we’ve gained quite a few fans, just in the way that we play and how gritty we are, and giving the U.S. a game on home soil. So I think we’ve proved that it doesn’t matter where we play, whose fans we play in front of; we’re going to give them a game.”

» READ MORE: In April, Marissa Sheva took another big step toward making Ireland’s World Cup team

Those two invocations of a famed word from her hometown prompted a question: Do the other Irish players know what “gritty” means around here?

“I don’t think so,” she replied, getting the joke right away. “I think they’d be frightened if I showed them a photo of Gritty. That’s funny — I’ll have to have a laugh with Sinead about that one.”

In fact, Farrelly might not be the only teammate who gets it. Goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan is from Millburn, N.J., and striker Kyra Carusa is from San Diego, more talent mined from the Irish-American diaspora.

Sheva said she and Farrelly have chatted often since that April camp. They hadn’t done so too much before then, but knew their families had known each other for a long time. The two women played for the same Downingtown-based United Spirit Gaels youth team years apart and have brothers who were youth club teammates.

“Sinead is just an amazing person and player, and I look up to her immensely,” Sheva said. “I think it just goes to show you how small the soccer world is, everything coming full circle in that way. So it’s been amazing getting to know her after looking up to her for so many years.”

While Sheva hasn’t known Farrelly well one-on-one for long, she knows Farrelly’s story.

“To take that many years out, not be in the game for seven years or however many years it was, and be able to seamlessly play in an international game against the top team in the world is just incredible,” Sheva said. “It just goes to show you how talented she is and how much the game missed her. ... I don’t know how much Ireland has consumed U.S. media around her retirement and then coming back to the game, but I hope they understand how truly remarkable it is — because she is a world-class talent, and we are so lucky she’s back playing.”

» READ MORE: Marissa Sheva reflects on her Republic of Ireland debut in February

This week brought Farrelly’s turn to praise Sheva.

“She really was the person that took me under her wing at the last camp, because she was in with Ireland the camp before,” she said. “It’s just fun to have a buddy there. And all the girls are great, I’m excited to be with the whole team, but she’s just, like, a safe spot for me.”

Unfortunately, not everything will be perfect for Farrelly when she arrives at the Irish camp in Dublin. She suffered a broken right arm in Gotham’s previous game, on June 18 at Louisville. But she was able to play through it, and played Sunday in a cast.

“I’m more mad it just doesn’t look cool,” she said. “I’m going to be at the World Cup, and I made them put black over it because when it’s white, it stands out. I was going to write inspirational quotes, but I don’t like attention, so I’m like, ‘Of course it’s going to like draw more attention to myself — why?’ It’s fine. God’s plan.”

That Farrelly was able to say those words while laughing is another sign of how far she has come. But playing through a World Cup with a broken arm is the sort of thing that will remind the world where she started.

If her self-proclaimed love of Wawa meatball subs isn’t enough, her extraordinary life of hard work to reach this moment surely is the greatest proof.