This week we look at Northern Ireland's women's national team, which had a very good Turkish Women's Cup earlier this month, and talk to their starting goalkeeper Jackie Burns, as well as review their domestic league. We also look at the 2021 UEFA Championship draw.

Northern Ireland review

Northern Ireland had a very good Turkish Women's Cup recently, finishing third out of eight teams.Alfie Wylie, the national team manager who joined from Linfield, took 22 players to Turkey for the third edition of the national team tournament in Turkey (Alanya Gold City Women's Cup 2019) from February 27 through March 5, 2019. Eleven players came from the Irish League—with five from Linfield, two from Glentoran, two from Cliftonville and one each from Derry City and Crusaders. Seven are based with clubs in England, one plays in Scotland, two are with U.S. universities and one is currently without a club.

Northern Ireland Squad for 2019 Turkish Women's Cup

Goalkeepers:

Jacqueline Burns (Carson Newman University, U.S.)
Becky Flaherty (Everton ENG)

Defenders:

Julie Nelson (Crusaders)
Ashley Hutton (Linfield)
Jessica Foy (Glentoran)
Freya Holdaway (Crystal Palace, ENG)
Natalie Johnson (Leicester City, ENG)
Demi Vance (Glentoran)
Emma McMaster (Cliftonville)
Rachel Newborough (Boston College, U.S.)

Midfielders:

Marissa Callaghan (Cliftonville)
Rachel Furness (Reading, ENG)
Sarah McFadden (Durham, ENG)
Megan Bell (Linfield)
Ciara Sherwood (Crystal Palace, ENG)
Kerry Montgomery (Motherwell, SCO)
Caitlin McGuinness (Linfield)

Forwards:

Simone Magill (Everton, ENG)
Lauren Wade (Unattached)
Rebecca McKenna (Linfield)
Louise McDaniel (Linfield)
Gemma McGuinness (Derry City)

Northern Ireland started the spring tournament with a comprehensive 6-0 defeat of Jordan, with a hat-trick from Rachel Furness of Reading in England. Furness (31) played at Southern Mississippi State University and then in Iceland, followed by five seasons with Sunderland. Simone Magill of Everton in England, Linfield's Ashley Hutton and Motherwell of Scotland's Kerry Montgomery also scored. This was a significant win for the Irish as Jordan (ranked nine places above the Irish in the FIFA rankings of national women's teams) spent significant time and money preparing for the Asian Women's Cup last year which they hosted, but missed out on a first ever spot in a Women's World Cup for an West Asian/North African side after a surprising first game loss to the Philippines derailed their hopes from the outset. Wylie said the performance against Jordan was: "emphatic and dominant. You can't ask for better than to beat a team by six goals and keep a clean sheet." Magill and Cliftonville Ladies' Marissa Callaghan both won their 50th caps in the win over Jordan.

The Irish then lost to France B 3-1, who won the tournament for the second year in a row, with Furness scoring the loan goal, followed by a win over Kazakhstan 4-0, and finished third by defeating Uzbekistan 2-1 in the placement round. Furness scored her sixth of the tournament along with a tally from Durham's Sarah McFadden. Wylie used a starting squad against Uzbekistan that had 530 caps between them, the most experienced squad he had ever fielded. Northern Ireland's head coach said: "It was probably the strongest group of players I have taken to a tournament. We had a few players missing, however we had a really good blend of youth and experience and the performances showed the players mean business going forward….We had a good training camp in January and our trip to Turkey definitely instilled belief in the squad. Off the pitch, in trying to lay down a foundation for the year ahead, we challenged the players to find a common focus, a common theme. That focus is that they can up their game, that they mean business. There is a lot of positivity. Resilience and belief have grown within the squad. I think that was reflected in the performances."

The 2021 European qualifiers start in August and Northern Ireland's improvement should stand them in good stead of a realistic chance of making their first ever senior international team tournament, with 16 teams (including host England) versus only 9 from Europe in this summer's Women's World Cup. Northern Ireland has Norway, Wales, Belarus and Faroe Islands in Group C of the qualifiers. Northern Ireland's main competition to advance to at least the playoffs should be traditional power Norway and Wales, who just missed World Cup 2019 in qualifying (See more on the UEFA 2021 qualifiers below).

In an exclusive interview with TribalFootball.com, goalkeeper Jackie Burns talked about her team's strong Turkish Women's Cup run and hopes for the 2021 European Championship Qualifiers within UEFA, which begin late this summer: "We had a pretty good team in terms of experience and younger players. It was probably one of our strongest teams that we had in a while. It was good to get in and experiment with different formations and be given a 'get out of jail card' to go and express ourselves, to challenge in the tournament, and it was great to get third place." Burns, a native of Cookstown, played in three of the four tournament games: against Jordan, two-time consecutive tournament champions France B and Uzbekistan. Burns (22) has 23 caps for the Northern Ireland national women's team and is one of two players based in U.S. colleges in the squad.

About the 2021 UEFA Qualifiers, Burns said: "We need to focus on staying together and being committed to succeed and know that we can achieve something in the next qualifiers; we can put our name out there as Northern Ireland and let everyone know how capable we are at competing at a higher level."

Carson Newman University of Tennessee, where Burns will be a senior this year, has had a few Northern Ireland players over the years and that word-of-mouth pipeline has been beneficial to both the players and the school. Burns will graduate in December after the 2019 fall season at Carson Newman.She was an All-American goalkeeper at the Division II level last season (Third Team).

As far as her plans after college, she said: "In the bigger picture, I want to play pro at a higher level, I'm not sure where. The main thing is to stay in the States but if I can't reach that goal, I'll probably go to Central Europe, like Sweden, where I can develop as a player and just improve my game." The Northern Irish Premier League is not an option for her at this stage; she has been the national team setup since the U-15 level and played in the Premier League at home: "I played before I left but going to the likes of America, it is no comparison as you have all the set-ups [coaching and facilities] here to develop players at the highest level. [The Northern Ireland Premier League] is not at a high competitive level compared to what it would be like here."

Burn's coach at Carson Newman, Simon Duffy is a native of the Republic of Ireland (County Meath) and has put together a powerhouse at Carson Newman, utilizing a number of players from Europe. In 2018, he had three players from England, two from Germany, and one each from Scotland, Portugal, Iceland and Northern Ireland. Duffy told TribalFootball.com that in general: "There are so many companies now that help the players along in showcasing their talents to prospective coaches in the U.S.; we did a couple of showcases in England (including Irish players) as well as one in Iceland and Germany this year. We have players from all over." Carson Newman has had a long-tradition of Northern Irish players, including former players forward Lauren Wade and defender Julie Nelson, who were both on the 2019 Turkish Cup side, as well as Burns.

From last year's squad, Duffy had Burns as a full international as well as Portugal's Catarina Realista, who just finished her Master's Degree and is playing with Benfica, who are third currently in the 1A Divisao Women's League: "Having two players at the Division II level being called up for their senior women's national team is fantastic.' He has new players coming for this season from England, Finland, Spain and Sweden.

In regards to recruiting Irish players, Duffy said: "In the Republic of Ireland, Gaelic Football is a big draw and women's Rugby is getting very big. I just came from Iceland and been there a few times—the women's football structure is frankly light years ahead of the Republic of Ireland. The resources they have, the development of the female players, is fantastic. I can't find a lot of football players from the Republic [to consider coming to the U.S. for university]. I don't know if they have been advised to not go to the U.S., to play locally in Ireland or England; I'm finding it very, very difficult to get top level players from Ireland to come over to the U.S. and play. I just think the development of the players over here, to be able to work with the players and train every day, they are not able to do that in Ireland. Everybody would benefit from it [playing in U.S. colleges]."

Northern Ireland Premier League 2018 Final Table

Northern Ireland Second Division 2018 Final League Table

Portadown stayed up in the Premier League by besting Second Division side East Belfast 3-1 on aggregate in the relegation/promotion playoffs, tying the first leg away 1-1 and then winning at home 2-0.

Linfield has won the last three championships, but trail all-time (from 1999 onward) to Glentoran Belfast's 7 titles, with Crusaders Newtownabbey Strikers next at 6. Lisburn Distillery (now in the Second Division) won their three titles from 1999-2001 while Newry City triumphed in 2015, ahead of Linfield, who also finished second in 2014 behind Glentoran.

Linfield lost all three of their matches in the UEFA Women's Champions League last fall, against Ajax of the Netherlands, Thor/KA of Iceland and Wexford Youths of the Republic, scoring twice with 7 goals allowed.

UEFA Women's EURO 2021 Qualifying Group Draw

The UEFA Women's EURO 2021 qualifiers begin at the end of August, 2019. The nine group winners and three runners-up with the best record against the sides first, third, fourth and fifth in their sections advance directly, along with hostsEngland qualifying automatically in thefinal tournament to be held in July 2021. The other six runners-up will have home and away playoffs for the three remaining berths in the 16 team finals, from October 19-27, 2020

Cyprus and Kosovo are both making their senior women's competitive debut. Norway qualified ahead of Wales for the 2017 finals. Portugal defeated Finland to the 2017 play-offs on their way to their debut finals.

Group A: Netherlands (holders), Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Kosovo, Estonia

Group B: Italy, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Malta, Georgia

Group C: Norway, Wales, Belarus, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands

Group D: Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Moldova, Azerbaijan

Group E: Scotland, Finland, Portugal, Albania, Cyprus

Group F: Sweden, Iceland, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia

Group G: France, Austria, Serbia, Kazakhstan, FYR Macedonia

Group H: Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania

Group I: Germany, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Greece, Montenegro

Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get your copy today.

Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey