USA 1 Ireland 0
Vera Pauw was a portrait of contrasting emotions in St Louis on Tuesday night. The Ireland manager watched her side lose the second of two back-to-back World Cup warm-ups against the United States and was pained by the nature of it, a Courtney Brosnan error gifting the hosts the only goal of the game.
However Ireland’s performance against the World Champions was a step up even on Saturday’s impressive showing in the first meeting in Texas. Here her team were purposeful and positive, passing their way through and around the talented hosts and for long stretches frustrating the Americans defensively.
Kyra Carusa may have found an equaliser and there was a mini late surge when substitute Amber Barrett and defender Louise Quinn looked for openings but a 15th-straight defeat to the US would be the result. Zoom out and there were so many reasons for optimism but first Pauw had to process pain too.
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“This one hurts because we have done so well. It’s a friendly so winning and losing is not really the big thing,” she said afterwards. “But if you lose in this way after doing so well against the world champions then of course it hurts.”
Pauw kept the changes to a minimum with midfield duo Ruesha Littlejohn and Lucy Quinn coming into the starting line-up. Ireland, wearing their new white away kit, started with a real zip on a warm spring evening by the Mississippi. Lucy Quinn fired a shot over the bar less than a minute in. US captain Becky Sauerbrunn clattered Brosnan’s crossbar soon after as she chased a first international goal on her 216th cap.
But thereafter, Ireland settled into an impressive rhythm, wing backs Heather Payne and captain Katie McCabe bombing forward in support of Quinn and the impressive Marissa Sheva while Carusa linked play wonderfully.
[ Ireland will take both heart and lessons from defeat against USAOpens in new window ]
From some really promising passages of play McCabe, Payne and Quinn all had looks at Casey Murphy’s goal. At the other end Brosnan was marshalling her defence commandingly although Sophia Smith fired over a warning after Diane Caldwell was caught in possession.
Ireland were largely comfortable and just minutes away from the break when Brosnan’s low moment arrived. A US corner had been cleared by Denise O’Sullivan and the danger looked to have eased as defender Alana Cook picked up the ball 45 yards out from goal. Her punt caught Brosnan on the front foot initially and while the goalkeeper peddled back, it was too late and the damage was done.
“Everyone said how fantastically Courtney has played,” insisted Pauw afterwards. “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.”
With the US making a host of changes and Pauw belatedly following suit the second half was less open. In a scrappier game now, Ireland arguably had the better half-chances. The excellent O’Sullivan played in a nice ball for Carusa on 84 minutes but the striker found the side netting. There were a couple of other late salvos but nothing materialised for the visitors.
Irish heads hung as US players did their lap of honour but there was immediate perspective too.
“Obviously we’re disappointed to lose the game,” said veteran Caldwell. “We pushed them at the end and got some chances. We were unlucky to concede the goal that we did, we were disappointed with that. But again this was a better result on paper than Saturday’s result. There’s a lot of positives to take.
“We have really increased the level of this team in the standards. It’s been a massive jump in terms of the bravery in the way we want to play. Not only being defensively strong, but having our threats and being able to do that against the number one team in the world, I think nobody expected that.”
Pauw knew that agreeing to the rapid back-to-back tests against the world’s no. 1 side was a daunting challenge but with 99 days to go to the World Cup, she said Tuesday’s performance had been another signal of Ireland’s pedigree in advance of their first taste of the tournament.
“If you see how we played and how in times of the game they couldn’t handle us, how we used the spaces, we have made a huge jump in this camp,” she said. “I had said before you need to play the highest opposition to do that. You don’t know in advance of time if you’ll manage but we played with guts which was one of the key things that we came here for. You only improve if you have the guts to fail.”
USA: Murphy; Huerta, Cook, Sauerbrunn (Davidson 28), O’Hara (Krueger HT); Sanchez, Horan (Mewis 59), Sullivan (Ertz HT); Thompson, Morgan (Hatch HT), Smith (Rodman HT).
IRELAND: Brosnan; Payne (O’Hanlon 84), Connolly, Quinn, Caldwell (Nolan 58), McCabe; Quinn (McLaughlin 69), O’Sullivan, Littlejohn (Grant 58), Sheva (O’Gorman 69); Carusa (Barrett 84).
Referee: Crystal Sobers (TRI)
Attendance: 22,294
