Women's Soccer
It's a few years now since a team from Belarus travelled by bus to Ireland for a women's international football match. Perhaps back then the cruellest part for the visitors was reaching Dublin only to discover the game was to be played in Drogheda, which, between road works and rush-hour traffic, probably entailed an odyssey as arduous and time consuming as the one they had just completed.

On Wednesday the Irish women's team headed off for Moscow and while there were aircraft involved, things weren't quite as cushy as for their male counterparts. The journey took 18 hours including stopovers, after which Noel King and his squad had their first of what has turned out to be many battles with the Russian capital's chaotic traffic system.

They'll plunge themselves into it once more at lunchtime today as they make their way to their first game of the new World Cup qualifying campaign. But to judge by the mood in the camp over the past couple of days, there is no great expectation their fortunes will pick up much when they finally have the gridlock behind them.

The odds are certainly stacked against them in this afternoon's game. Russia are ranked well above the Republic, who in addition to having travelled without leading striker Olivia O'Toole are competing at this level for the first time.

Asked if he would consider a draw a good result in the circumstances, King laughs and says, "You'll hear our celebrations from back there."

In O'Toole's absence the Ireland manager will look to Belfast-born Laura Hislop to pose a threat for the visitors up front.

King is hoping her pace will enable Ireland to hit the home side on the break. From her own point of view, the 22-year-old is aiming to avail of the opportunity to step out of O'Toole's shadow in what will be the biggest game of her career to date.

Hislop, who is based in Boston, was voted Most Valuable Player in the American colleges' second division last season, and as she prepares to complete her degree in Criminal Justice she is weighing up her options for the future.

The rules in the United States are that students can play third-level football for only four years, and having played three already, the Irish woman expects to move into coaching at whatever university she attends while continuing her studies.

"Ideally I would have loved to give the professional league a go," she says, "but that collapsed and despite a lot of talk in American about it being relaunched there hasn't been any sign of it so far."

At international level Hislop is already a fairly experienced player, having earned more than 20 caps and averaged nearly a goal every second game, but King's preference for playing with a lone striker and O'Toole's firm grip on that role has meant she has spent most of her time playing in either a more withdrawn role or out on the wing.

"Personally I think Livvy (Olivia O'Toole) and I could play well together but we've come a long way playing with just one up front and I can see why Noel doesn't want to change things now," she says.

"Really that means that I have to wait for my chances and do as well as I can when they come because Livvy has been tremendous for us and it's hard to imagine displacing her for the moment."

Like the rest of her team-mates she acknowledges that the new campaign will be immensely tough, with World and European champions Germany also in the group.

Qualification is more or less out of the question but there are still clear targets and one point today would be an important step forward.

"I think second in the group would be great for us," she says. "If we can do that then we avoid the play-offs and we're sure of competing at this level again next time around. In the meantime we'll learn a lot from playing against better teams and so we'll progress.

"If we can keep going forward at the rate we have over the past couple of years then we should get to the stage where we really can challenge some of the best teams.

"We're not quite there yet, though," she adds, "and today is, eh, going to be tough."