USWNT legend Heather O’Reilly scores winner as Shelbourne FC advances in UWCL qualifying

HAO’s march to the UWCL is picking up steam

Heather O’Reilly came out of retirement to play in the Champions League, and she just helped Shelbourne FC get one step closer to qualifying.

O’Reilly, who less than three weeks ago announced that she was coming out of retirement to join the Irish champions, nodded home the game’s only goal as Shelbourne defeated Slovenian side ZNK Pomurje 1-0 in the first round of the UWCL qualifying process.

The three-time gold medalist needed just four minutes to get on the scoresheet as Shelbourne turned a furious start into a lead. The former USWNT winger, who had hung her boots up in 2019, reacted first after a cross into the area wasn’t headed clear, sneaking past her marker to float a header back across goal and into the upper corner.

Before O’Reilly’s goal, Shelbourne had already won a penalty kick only to see it saved, but they never really let their hosts out, with O’Reilly eventually providing the crucial touch to give them the lead.

“What a dream come true,” O’Reilly said in a video posted by Shelbourne after the match. “I don’t head the ball a ton, I’m usually on the serving end of things, but it was bouncing around in the box, and I just put a little bit of height on the header. I knew I had to get it up and over the goalkeeper, and I placed it exactly where I meant to place it.”

O’Reilly and Shelbourne will remain in Slovenia for the final of the four-team tournament that makes up the UWCL’s Champions Path first round, which is exactly as convoluted as it sounds. They’ll face Icelandic club Valur IF, who won the first game of Wednesday’s double-header 2-0 over FC Hayasa of Armenia, in a one-off final.

Sunday’s game will pose a taller task, as Valur’s squad features 10 players with caps for Iceland, including numerous long-time regulars for the national team, as well as Venezuela forward Mariana Speckmaier (who won the NWSL championship in 2021 with the Washington Spirit) and in Cyera Hintzen and Brookelynn Entz, two Americans who were drafted by NWSL clubs in recent years.

If O’Reilly and Shelbourne win again, they’ll join 10 other teams that won four-team, geographically centralized tournaments in the second round, along with Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), Rosengård (Sweden), and HB Køge (Denmark), who all received byes. If they can win a two-legged tie in the second round, O’Reilly’s dream of UWCL soccer will be one more achievement added to her endless list of successes.

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