Vera Pauw delivered a frank and familiar riposte to the “absolutely ridiculous” allegations of body-shaming contained in a National Womens Soccer League into abuse.

The only difference this time was that the message was being delivered in a novel setting, in a country where she has effectively been banished from coaching ever again.

Pauw, who was once a coach at Houston Dash, was cited for allegations of mistreatment of players and subsequently sanctioned, rendering any future employment in America conditional on her accepting “a sincere commitment to correcting behaviour.”

And in the presence of her lawyer, Thomas Newkirk, who is acting for Pauw and over 220 coaches who have lost their jobs, and FAI president Gerry McAnaney, Pauw looked an accusing nation in the eye.

There wasn’t much she said that was novel, to Irish ears at least, but there was a renewed sense of the personal pain it has caused her.

For perhaps the first time, she related the claims of abuse she has faced in recent times, to the sexual abuse she once suffered in her youth.

Power, and its abuse, are compelling forces in what she firmly believes is a travesty of justice.

Clearly, the manner in which the investigators dismissed her jarred with the former memories of how her reporting of sexual abuse were not dealt with adequately.

Particularly when the accusations levelled at her were conflated with the findings in the NWSL report concerning rapists and sexual predators.

“Not only me, but other women were put into this report alongside rapists,” she said. “Can you imagine? With my background. Do you know my background?

“Can you imagine what that does to a person? Can you feel what that does to a person? If you read it, can you imagine?

“You need to see the reactions from all my players going back to 1998 who know what nonsense this is.

“I have been raped. I have been sexually assaulted. I have perceived power abuse, intimidation, isolation. The worst thing that a woman can get in an organisation.

“I am absolutely aware of the power that I have as a coach. And that is why whenever there is abuse, I use education and not punishment.

“I know I have the power in my hand. I have perceived coaches using the power, let alone abusing the power.

“They say I didn’t co-operate but they did not do their job, they did not investigate, they reported. We need to look at the 220 female coaches. You need to write about that!

“That is something where you’re completely thrown, wondering what is happening here? But then I got so much support from my team and the people in Ireland who do know me.

“I was so angry because everywhere I go the health and safety of my players is important. I have put my head on the block to prevent abuse, it has cost me money, my place on FIFA, cost me everything to put the health and safety of players first.

“And I’m accused of things that haven’t even happened. And what if it would have happened? If it was a male coach, nobody would have argued about it.

“But now the report claims I am the opposite of what my character is. I never punish players, I never swear. I’m honest and I stand for development and that is what I stand for.

“And the amount of support I got from players going back to 1998, we wouldn’t have this conversation.”

Pauw appeared alongside Denise O’Sullivan, who will celebrate her 100th cap by leading out Ireland in Austin (Saturday, 7.37 Irish time) but she spent 13 minutes in silence as Pauw responded once more to the same questions from different people.

“I wasn’t looking forward to this,” she told the mostly US media assembled in Austin. “But we need to prepare for a World Cup.

“These allegations are absolutely ridiculous and false, there is no truth in them and I find safety in truth.

“I need to face it and I need to sacrifice myself for the sake of this team and the World Cup.

“There is no reason to have any doubt in the way I deal with things. Body-shaming is absolutely false. That is the one thing that I do not do.

“The accusation of fruit. How can an adult say to another adult you cannot eat fruit.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing you can contemplate. Maybe you warn them three hours before a game because there may be a hunger dip when the insulin kicks in.

“But what is the standard? Can you not educate players to get the best out of themselves with what is technically coaching?

“How does it get to this? And then there is double standards. If it is a man, it would be their task to get the best out of their players. Not for one second is it meant to harm players, it is absolutely nonsense.

“I am one of over 220 female coaches accused of abuse while just doing coaching. It is saying we are not safe to do our jobs. And there are double standards there.”

When there was talk of football, even then it was tinged with a deep irony. Sinead Farrelly, the whistleblower who exposed her former Portland coach Paul Riley as a sexual abuser, will appear for the country of her Cavan-born father, Seán.

“I’ve been in contact with Sinead before she started back seriously training and I wanted to make sure she was comfortable so we started by talking about my situation,” revealed Pauw.

“She trusts me. She trusts the truth.”

And then, mercifully, some football chat.

“Sinead is a player who makes the ball free like no other player in our squad, she does that under pressure and that can give us a calmness in our play. That is our first impression.

“There was uncertainty because she was out for such a long time. Hopefully she brings what we are looking for, more control in our attacking player.”

O’Sullivan is also a player who can be at ease on a ball in traffic.

“She has only been here a few days but already she is the stand-out player, her calmness is different to anyone else, her ability to get into spaces, on the half-turn. She’s an excellent player.”