VERA PAUW AND her Republic of Ireland women’s players are relishing “the ultimate test” against all-conquering USA as their World Cup preparation hits new heights.
The FAI confirmed the glamour double-header of international friendlies this afternoon, the sides doing battle twice in three days Stateside in April.
Ireland will play the world champions and number one-ranked side in Austin, Texas, first on 8 April, before St Louis, Missouri hosts the rematch on 11 April.
It’s understood that US Soccer initially approached the FAI – a massive compliment to this Irish side – but would only play on home soil.
Denise O’Sullivan is set to earn her 100th cap in Austin, with Ireland’s World Cup warm-up schedule now complete, concluding with Tallaght Stadium send-off games against Zambia and France to follow on 22 June and 6 July respectively.
Ireland fell to a 3-0 defeat to USA in the Rose Bowl shortly after they won the 2019 World Cup, with Tom O’Connor in interim charge ahead of Pauw succeeding Colin Bell at the helm. They also lost 3-0 in San Jose and 5-0 in San Diego in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Vlatko Andonovski’s side will be joined by the Netherlands, Vietnam and Portugal in Group E as they defend their World Cup crown this summer’s tournament, and this is a massive challenge before Ireland face Australia, Canada and Nigeria in Group B.
“It is beyond the best preparation,” Pauw said after yesterday’s 0-0 draw with China PR in Spain. “We could have taken a lot of games against minor countries, and I said, ‘No, no, no. Just wait, wait, wait, it will come because of the contacts we have’.
“We now have the perfect preparation. First we took Morocco because we knew there would be a drop, we wanted to play behind closed doors against Germany, and they came to us and we needed that pressure.
“Who would have dreamt of playing the World Cup holders, it’s the best you can get and then playing an African nation before playing at the highest level against France before a closed door game in Australia that we still have to finalise.”
The tight turnaround between the games isn’t ideal, she admits, with squad rotation key.
Captain Katie McCabe, Louise Quinn and US-born new recruit Marissa Sheva were among the players who reacted to the major news, which broke while the team were in Spain this week.
“It will be interesting to see how much we’ve progressed in those few years since we last played them,” McCabe said. “You can’t ask for anything better than this.
“We’ve shown as well before the World Cup campaign, playing those top-quality oppositions to really test us – yeah, we weren’t winning the games but they were really challenging us from a mental and physical point of view. To get two games against the number one side in the world, that’s what we want. We want to be challenged. It’s really exciting, it’s fantastic both Associations could organise it. It will be a tasty one.”
The Arsenal star insisted there were no feelings of being overawed in 2019 – and there certainly won’t be this time around, the Irish team having made significant strides in recent years.
“Nah, I wasn’t starstruck. It’s just 11-v-11. They’re stars in their own right over there, what they stand for, and they use their platform in such a positive way and I fully support that. But at the end of the day, we’re stepping on the pitch and it’s 11-v-11. I can confirm no one will be starstruck.”
Quinn, likewise, is ready for battle ahead of the World Cup. “That’s the ultimate test,” the Birmingham City captain enthused.
“We feel like we’ve prove to ourselves what kind of team we are, how many clean sheets we can keep against top nations, the bit of variety in our play. We know they are probably going to dominate possession more than likely but we know what we can bring.
“In our group we have three champions of their continents. We’ve really got our work cut out for us so to play the number one side in the world is going to get our mindset around it. There’ll be plenty of Irish there for us, it’ll be good to have big crowds that will prep us for July.”
And Sheva echoed her new colleagues’ sentiments, the Washington Spirit attacking midfielder possibly winning her second Ireland cap on home soil.
“That’s really exciting. It will be awesome for us. We want to play against the best teams in the world in order to prepare for the World Cup. No better test that the US, that will be awesome.
“Thankfully I’m in this camp and wearing this badge so I can’t really speak on [how good USA are]. But they’re always going to bring it, they’re a really, really tough team. They’re consistently at the top so 2023 is probably going to be no different. They’re going to be a tough opponent.”
Off-field attention now turns to Pauw being in the spotlight Stateside after misconduct allegations in a recent NWSL report and subsequent fallout.