{"id":309663,"date":"2025-11-27T06:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309663\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:13:08","slug":"the-latest-american-soccer-talent-with-irish-heritage-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309663\/","title":{"rendered":"The latest American soccer talent with Irish heritage \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Americans are here<\/a>, and Irish football is better for their presence. <\/p>\n

Plenty was made of Kevin O\u2019Toole\u2019s inclusion in the Republic of Ireland senior men\u2019s squad for the recent qualifiers against Portugal and Hungary. The 26-year-old is a regular in the MLS for New York City, but his selection, even considering the number of injuries and suspensions at left back, was questionable. <\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s front, however, US soccer is full of talent with Irish surnames keen to capture the FAI\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

This past season Kelly Brady<\/a> scored 26 goals for Athlone Town. The New Yorker\u2019s form could earn her a contract at an English club or a spot on an American roster in January. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a free agent now,\u201d Brady revealed. \u201cI haven\u2019t signed back with Athlone and am keeping my options open, seeing what suits me best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s pressure to go and go play in England but I\u2019ll do what\u2019s best for me and see what falls on my plate. I\u2019ll weigh up my options and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s English manager Carla Ward is well connected, having previously coached Aston Villa, so Brady has had some trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s things happening,\u201d she added. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing on the table or set in stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brady\u2019s two cup final headers to overcome Bohemians were enough to convince Ward that the 23-year-old can add value to a squad that already includes big personalities from across the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Courtney Brosnan\u2019s heroics in the Ireland goal means she is an inspiration to girls across the country. Marissa Sheva transformed, before our eyes, from a Penn State track athlete to Ireland starter with a habit of scoring spectacular goals. Since 2020, Kyra Carusa has led the line with aggression and composure.<\/p>\n

\"2222 November 2025; Kelly Brady of Athlone with her PFA Ireland Women\u2019s Player of the Year 2025 and PFA Ireland Women\u2019s Premier Division Team of the Year 2025 awards during the PFA Ireland Awards 2025 at The College Green Hotel in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile *** NO REPRODUCTION FEE *** <\/p>\n

Besides the established trio, Sinead Farrelly made a brief but memorable impact<\/a> in midfield at the 2023 World Cup. Farrelly\u2019s personal story and will to play international football before she was advised to retire last year due to post-concussive syndrome left an indelible impact on the game.<\/p>\n

Now could be Brady\u2019s time to shine. A behind-closed-doors friendly against Hungary in Marbella on Saturday would be as good a place as any to make her debut, although Carusa and the returning Leanne Kiernan could slow her rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from the US, I played a lot of sports growing up, including Gaelic, I tried running around to cause chaos for defences. That\u2019s what I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fit and up to speed. I\u2019ll try come in here, impress and get into another camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next camp is in March when Ireland launch their World Cup 2027 qualification campaign at home to France and away to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

A low-key game against Hungary, that the media will be able to see via an FAI stream, is the ideal moment to see how Brady makes the step from the University of Mississippi to Athlone to senior international football.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 19s, I think I had good potential and it was thought: \u2018Maybe you can make it to this level.\u2019 But the sacrifice that comes with making it up to the senior squad is a lot. I had my sights set on it, but obviously nothing is ever guaranteed. You\u2019ve got to stay healthy, you have to be playing well.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing over to Ireland, my hope was that one day I\u2019d be in the squad, so I was able to do well enough \u2212 thank God. I had a great year, was able to impress and draw some attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Americans are here, and Irish football is better for their presence. Plenty was made of Kevin O\u2019Toole\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,138391,561,82],"class_list":["post-309663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}