Ireland fall to narrow loss against USA in Missouri

USA 1-0 Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland fell to a 1-0 friendly defeat against the USA in St Louis, Missouri in the early hours of Wednesday morning as a speculative Alana Cook effort settled another competitive contest.

The Girls in Green rued two defensive lapses last Saturday night when they were beaten 2-0 by the Americans in Austin.

They'll be frustrated again by the concession of another avoidable goal as Cook's 43rd-minute punt into the box caught out the badly positioned Courtney Brosnan.

Up to that point Ireland had looked relatively comfortable, stitching together some fluid attacks primarily through Kyra Carusa, Denise O'Sullivan, Heather Payne and the impressive Lucy Quinn.

However they tired on the turnaround, never really threatening their illustrious hosts until centre-back Louise Quinn was thrown up front late on to offer a physical presence.

The USA saw it out to make it two wins from two, but Ireland will certainly take positives from the double-header against the world's No 1-ranked side.

Beaten, yes, but defintely not overawed or overwhelmed. They next face Zambia at Tallaght Stadium on 22 June and then have another friendly two weeks later against France that will serve as a World Cup send-off.

Before Ireland had kicked off at the CityPark stadium, Australia - who they face in their World Cup opener on 20 July - ended England's 30-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 friendly victory at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium.

The scale of the task is obvious, not least to manager Vera Pauw who has consistently talked up the importance of playing the highest ranked teams as often as possible.

The Dutchwoman firmly believes taking on the best accelerates improvement and there is plenty of evidence within