Ireland are improving with every game, says Pauw

Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw hailed her team after they were narrowly beaten 1-0 by world number one side the USA in Missouri early this morning.

It was the second defeat against the USA in the space of four days but Pauw took plenty of positives from the nature of the Irish display.

With the World Cup now less than 100 days away, the Ireland manager has been eager to test her side's mettle against the very best teams in the world and there’s are none stronger than the USA.

Ireland were the better side for long periods in front of the partisan crowd at Citypark and a fortunate first-half goal was ultimately the difference between the two teams.

The USA scored what proved to be the match-winning in the 43rd minute when Alana Cook floated a hopeful ball into the Irish penalty area from distance and managed to catch goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan out of position as the ball sailed over her and into the net.

For Pauw her side’s performance was another sign of improvement as they build towards the World Cup and speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards, she emphasised her pride in her players.

"Every game we have our best game ever, I’m so proud of that," she said. "We step up and step and step up and we’ve made a huge jump here.

"I’ve said before the camp we need this kind of resistance because without resistance you cannot push yourself. If this is 100%, you cannot push yourself and today it was 120% compared to last week.

"They are ranked number one and it hurts so much to lose like this because how many chance did they actually get? Maybe two dangerous situations, that was it in the whole game, against the number one team in the whole world.

"We have had many dangerous situations and we’re just not there yet but that will come, the