Jess Ziu earned her first Republic of Ireland start in the side's 11-0 trashing of Georgia back in November, and now the Shelbourne player is hoping to use this week’s Pinatar Cup in Spain to cement a spot in Vera Pauw’s starting team moving forward.
That 2023 World Cup qualifying trashing of the Georgians in Tallaght has left the team in second position in Group A, and Pauw will be hoping that their three games in the coming days – starting with Poland on Wednesday – can help strengthen their hand further as they head into the tail-end of the qualification process.
Ziu is hoping to be one of those catching the manager’s eye.
"I made my debut when I was 16 [against Belgium], I waited three years then for my first start to come and then the score was unbelievable, I don’t think anyone saw it coming and it just capped off a good year for me personally because we won the league with Shels which people probably didn’t think would have happened," said Ziu.
"I think everyone is in the same boat coming into this tournament," she continued.
"It’s a good tournament to get some minutes under my belt and hopefully if I do get that, I can show the management what I can do.
"I thought the game against Georgia was good but I think I can still give more."
Ziu played 75 minutes of that win over Georgia before being replaced by Amber Barrett, and her rest was well earned.
Pauw has shown a desire to try different players in unfamiliar positions and for Ziu, that was a mostly unfamiliar wing-back role, although Dave Bell had played her there occasionally with the Irish U17s.
"To be honest, even if I was playing centre-back, I'd take it," she said.
"I'm not usually one to moan about where I'm playing because I'm actually naturally a centre-mid but even for Shels I’m playing right wing.
"I liked playing right wing-back against Georgia because I had more freedom attacking, I’m more of an attacker than a defender.
"When it comes to the better teams, the likes of Poland, it depends what way we set up. If we set up more defensive, I’d probably have to work on my defending a bit more because I’m a true and true attacker.
"It’s a position that I don’t mind playing, it’s a lot of running, you never stop running. Hopefully I stay there."
As well as this weekend’s assignment in Spain, Ziu also has the Women’s National League start date in her view as Shelbourne seek to defend the title they dramatically captured last November.
It looked like Peamount United were going to prevail, especially when they led 2-0 early on against Galway on the final day, but they would concede five times from there with Shelbourne’s 3-2 win over Wexford Youths securing the title.
"I remember on the pitch I was just saying to the girls that Galway were beating Peamount," said Ziu.
"’Pearlo’ [Pearl Slattery], the captain of Shels, was saying 'just keep your head in the game, our game is still on.’
"I could hear people saying the trophy is on its way over in a taxi. I’d never won the league before with Shels so it was just an unbelievable moment."
Fresh from claiming a dramatic Women's National League, Shelbourne are now going in search of a league and cup double as they face Wexford in the FAI Women's Cup final which will be live on RTÉ #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/uVHMNp7pm6
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 15, 2021
How long she remains at the club remains to be seen though. Teammates Jamie Finn and Emily Whelan made the switch to England last year, and it wouldn’t be a major surprise to see Ziu follow them across the water at some stage.
The player said that for now, her focus was on her current club.
"I re-signed for Shels so I’m here till the summer anyway so we’ll see what happens there.
"Me personally, I just want to score goals, get some assists, work on some little small abilities that I could probably get better at.
"Keeping in the national team, that’s the big goal for me. I think I’m around the national team three years now. Those three years were fun, getting called in, sitting on the bench was unbelievable, but I’m kind of pushing now, I want to get a starting spot on the team."
