ROI Women’s U17 Soccer Team chosen as Texaco Young Sportstars Award winners
DUBLIN, 10th NOVEMBER 2010 – The Republic of Ireland Women’s Under-17 Soccer Team has been chosen winners of the 2010 Texaco Young Sportstars of the Year Award
In making the breakthrough to World Cup and European Championship tournaments, the FAI Women's U17 team certainly did it the hard way.
To qualify for the European finals, they had to dispose of Slovenia, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, the Ukraine and Poland. In the semi-finals, they were drawn against Germany, undoubted king-pins at this level having gone 23 games unbeaten, but their glory days were about to come to a shuddering halt; Ireland beat them 1-0 to qualify for a final against Spain - and a tilt at the World Cup.
In the end, penalties separated these exceptional girls from glory. They held Spain to a draw in the European final, only to lose out in a penalty shoot-out.
Then, in the World Cup, they topped their group with victories over Canada and Ghana. That it all ended in tears with a quarter-final defeat by Japan is as much due to a controversial penalty decision given to the Japanese as any other factor. And that Japan went on to the final only to lose out on penalties shows how close these Irish girls came to the ultimate prize. They have truly set a new benchmark for women's football in Ireland.
Introduced as part of the annual Texaco Sportstars Awards programme, the Young Sportstar Award is aimed at a younger generation of sports stars of 18-years and under, its purpose being to recognise and applaud success on the part of young people and to encourage them in their efforts to become sport stars of the future.
Alongside the eight senior sports stars chosen to receive Texaco Sportstars Awards and the 2010 Hall of Fame winner, the team will be presented with their specially-commissioned Texaco Young Sportstar trophy at the awards ceremony which takes place in Dublin next week. There to receive the award on behalf of the team will be their captain Dora Gorman from Barna in County Galway.
Congratulating the team on their success, Enda Riney, Country Chairman, Chevron (Ireland) Limited said that, ‘In a branch of football which has yet to develop to its full potential, their achievement is truly remarkable.’
