Sell-out crowd for Ireland’s clash with United States

The Republic of Ireland Women's National Team have been given a tough task this Sunday, May 10th as they play the United States in Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California. The game is part of the United States send off series, as they prepare for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada that kicks off in June. The United States are among the favourites to lift the cup and will be chasing their third star over the famous crest.

Ireland will face a strong World Cup squad and will be without first choice players captain Emma Byrne, three-times International Player of the Year Niamh Fahey, 2013 Player of the Year Louise Quinn, Sophie Perry and Diane Caldwell, who are all required by their clubs that weekend.

The squad does however include Californian born Fiona O'Sullivan who plays in the English FAWSL for Notts County and American based players FIFA Puskas Award runner up Stephanie Roche who currently plays in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) for the Houston Dash and NCAA Champion Megan Campbell who plays collegiate soccer for Florida State University. The challenge is a daunting one for the girls in green as they last met the United States in their Olympic Gold medal victory tour in 2012 when they suffered a 5 - 0 loss in Oregon and a 2 - 0 loss in Arizona in a double header.

The United States are fine tuning their squad ahead of the FIFA women's World Cup but star forward Alex Morgan and midfielder Tobin Heath are doubtful for the game tomorrow. The game gives Ireland's head coach Sue Ronan a better idea of her pool of players with five uncapped players within the squad for tomorrow's game. Ireland's most recent game was a 1 - 0 away defeat to Spain, who have since been landed as top seeds in Ireland's EURO 2017 qualifying campaign that kicks off in September.

You can follow the live action and build up on Extratime.ie. The game will also be broadcast live on Setanta Ireland with the match set to kick off at 8:06pm (Irish Time).