Soccer

Ireland players aim to take chances against much-changed USA

While the Americans look for ways to unlock Ireland’s defence, Vera Pauw’s side hope to hone their finishing and, for some players, enhance their claims for World Cup selection

Teenage sensation Alyssa Thompson will pose a new challenge to the Irish defence after being called up by the US for the match in St Louis. Photograph: Ryan Byrn/Inpho
Teenage sensation Alyssa Thompson will pose a new challenge to the Irish defence after being called up by the US for the match in St Louis. Photograph: Ryan Byrn/Inpho
Joe Callaghan
Tue Apr 11 2023 - 05:00

USA v Republic of Ireland, CityPark, St. Louis. Kick-off: 12.30am Weds; Live RTÉ2 (12.25am).

CityPark, the newest stadium in Major League Soccer with the paint barely dry, was sun-kissed and spring-fresh as the United States players smiled and stretched and began some Easter Monday lunchtime drills. A couple of minutes in, the mood changed quickly.

Forward Trinity Rodman took a ball full to the face and went down in pain. Her team-mates stood still in concern as a physio rushed to her. The daughter of former NBA defensive menace Dennis Rodman is clearly built of strong stuff too as, after a brief treatment on the sidelines, she rejoined her colleagues. But the jitteriness around the home of St Louis City was palpable.

The reigning world champions lost their most formidable forward, Mallory Swanson, to a sickening knee injury against Ireland on Saturday afternoon in Texas and her prospects of going to Australia and New Zealand appear no greater than zero. Manager Vlatko Andonovski will now use the rapid renewal with Vera Pauw’s side in the early hours of Wednesday morning to give his reserves some game time with his frontliners kept well away.

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Pauw is likely to do similar – to a point. While the friendly meeting is the last for the Americans before they name their World Cup squad, Ireland’s fringe will likely have another, namely the late June date with Zambia. But time is nonetheless getting tight for those whose seats are less than assured.

Even with a full line-up change by the hosts, Pauw appears to be unlikely to risk the same, so pillars such as Denise O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe will start but finish a lot earlier than they did on Saturday. As he weighed up his own dilemmas, Andonovski again praised Ireland’s approach.

“I don’t think anything surprised us,” he said before Monday’s training session. “We knew they were going to be a tough team, we knew they were going to be organised, disciplined and positioned very low on the field, defend well and then transition and look for one or two opportunities. They’ve showed that in the last eight or nine games that they played and then they showed us that they’re very good at it.

“I said after the game, the fact that we scored two goals and created four or five opportunities against Ireland, for us that was pretty good. In game one we checked the box that we needed to check and in game two we’re moving away from that and it turns into a more evaluative game now, with lots of changes on the roster. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a new 11 from what we saw in game one. Is Vera going to do that? I don’t know.”

The match in St Louis will mark a homecoming for veteran Becky Sauerbrunn, who will be feted before kickoff in her 216th appearance. For all the caps racked up, the defender has yet to score an international goal in her 15-year career. Andonovski revealed that the US had drawn up a set-piece routine especially for her to break the habit last Saturday afternoon. Pauw’s team had other ideas.

“We did have one designed for her in the last game but all credit to Ireland for defending it well,” he smiled, before revealing it was a first-half corner kick that Louise Quinn cleared. “I do really want to see her score a goal!”

The luxury of spending time plotting set pieces for celebratory goals is something Pauw cannot even dream of. While Saturday’s 2-0 defeat marked further progress for her side as they held firm against the game’s best team until Lynsey Horan’s late penalty, they wasted a host of first-half openings. Ireland’s all-time record against the Americans now reads: 50 conceded, just one scored.

“We still want to raise the standard, we still don’t want to concede but we need to finish our chances,” O’Sullivan said. “We created a lot of chances and I think that’s the thing now for this team, to take those.”

Having secured World Cup qualification last October, striker Amber Barrett has admitted she is probably in the cohort who are not yet sure of a place at the tournament. Barrett has just five goals in 34 caps but that’s still one more than the other five attackers in this squad combined. Whatever about the result, breaching the US defence would be another sign of progress on this tour.

Midfield places are suddenly less assured too, with the recruitment and rapid debut of Sinead Farrelly, who Pauw clearly sees as a starter in Australia. The 33-year-old won’t start on Tuesday but could feature from the bench with Roma McLaughlin, Jamie Finn, Ciara Grant and perhaps even Ruesha Littlejohn suddenly under pressure to impress. Similarly, Aoife Mannion’s addition has added another body in defence meaning someone will miss out. Tara O’Hanlon joined Farrelly in winning a first cap in Austin. Two more debuts could arrive with Shamrock Rovers striker Alannah McEvoy and Sophie Whitehouse waiting.

[ As Ireland gears up for the World Cup, could this be the year of Sinead Farrelly? ]

[ Aoife Mannion: ‘Putting on the Ireland jersey made me a better version of myself’ ]

In another sign of the riches at the USA’s disposal, Andonovski called up teenager Alyssa Thompson, the number one draft pick in the NWSL this year, to replace the stricken Swanson.

“We believe Alyssa can play against teams like Ireland in a low block,” Andonovski said. “She is an exciting player. For an 18-year-old it’s borderline arrogant the way she can run at you.”