Syracuse women’s soccer: alum Courtney Brosnan stands tall against USWNT

The Syracuse Orange women’s soccer program has struggled to find on-field success since moving to the ACC. It’s not easy to compete against some of the toughest programs, but the Orange may get a boost from this year’s Women’s World Cup.

Former Syracuse goalie Courtney Brosnan has taken the reins as starting keeper for the Republic of Ireland squad. In two games against the defending champion US National Team, Brosnan was able to showcase her talents to a national audience.

The US won both games, but despite a misstep in the second game, Brosnan impressed her manager Vera Pauw.

“Everyone said how fantastically Courtney has played,” insisted Pauw. “Yes, of course, we’re all gutted about the goal and Courtney in the first place but let’s see all the fantastic saves and how she played throughout this week.”

Brosnan, who plays for Everton, accepted responsibility for the play that led to a 1-0 US

Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

in the second game of the series, but she wouldn’t let it take away from the positives for her squad.

“I’m really disappointed in myself, I want to do my best for the team but it was just unlucky,” she said.

“It doesn’t take away from the performance from the girls so we can walk away with that and get ready for the summer....We’re tying to make steps in the right direction and that’s testing ourselves against this high quality opposition. That means playing out and pushing our boundaries so it’s nice to see us doing that against the best team in the world.”

Ireland opens World Cup Group B play against Australia on July 20th on Peacock. The other Group B squads are Canada and Nigeria and we’ll be tracking Courtney and her squad this summer.