Vera Pauw: If you fear failure you will never succeed

Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has absolute faith her team will stand up to the world number one-ranked USA on American soil on Saturday night.

Ireland face the reigning World Cup holders in Austin in the first of two friendlies [live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7pm].

It's a onerous test for the Girls in Green but Pauw believes it will serve them well as they ramp up preparations for their World Cup opener against Australia in Sydney in July.

Adversity builds character, insisted Pauw, referencing past experiences with her native Netherlands who she led to the Euros back in 2009.

"It could go wrong, but if you fear failure you will never succeed," she told RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue.

"That is what is in this group so strongly, and they know it, we discuss it. It can happen.

"Before the European Championships in 2009, the Netherlands was going for the very first time, the last [warm-up] game was against Germany. After 15 minutes we were 4-0 down. That will not happen here, but at the end we lost 6-0 and everybody said, 'why did you do that?'.

"It was the first time... a full stadium, the whole stadium singing the anthems, getting goosebumps, getting into a game, being overwhelmed, having to repack yourself. In that European Championships we actually went to the semi-finals. That game against Germany brought us to a point where we could face that pressure.

"So I do not fear it at all. We'll do everything to make Ireland proud again, to make ourselves proud, to give them a very good game and we'll see what happens."

Pauw also spoke about the presence of Sinead Farrelly in the Irish camp this week.

The US-born midfielder has been training with the squad and is eligible to represent the Girls in Green; she played with the USA up