The dust had barely settled on the World Cup draw in Auckland when the Republic of Ireland delegation were getting into the nitty-gritty of their tournament preparations.Ireland will face co-hosts Australia, Canada and Nigeria next summer in a very tough Group B that presents challenges on and off the pitch.It's going to be a hell of an ask.
Taking on the Aussies on home soil is daunting; reigning Olympic champions Canada are dark horses to go all the way; while Nigeria are one of the toughest opponents Ireland could have drawn from Pot 4.On top of that the Girls in Green face a gruelling travel schedule that will see them start in Sydney against Australia, fly over 3,000km to take on Canada in Perth and then come back to Brisbane for their final group game against the Nigerians.Pauw, who travelled to New Zealand for the draw, will spend the next two days mulling over potential bases for her side in Australia.First though they need to figure what they're doing next month in an international window that offers precious time they must utilise to the max."We have good hopes of having games in November, that we find the money to do this.
FIFA is coming with preparation money."Pauw revealed that her budget for the year was used up for last June's training camp in Turkey, which was important preparation for the qualifier in Georgia.
That was the priority, as Ireland felt they couldn't afford to take anything for granted and assume they'd need it in November.FIFA are set to provide funds to help teams get ready for the World Cup and Ireland's primary sponsors could also contribute, but there's still work to do to nail down a blueprint for the next nine months."We're busy trying to find opponents," said Pauw."As you remember, we