Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
The U.S. Men’s National Team will have the pleasure of spending a few days this November on the Emerald Isle.
After reports emerged last July about a possible friendly match between the USMNT and the Republic of Ireland, The FA of Ireland confirmed the match on Monday, stating that Ireland will host the USA at the Aviva Stadium on Nov. 18 in Dublin. The match is the first meeting between the two nations since 2002, when Ireland beat the USA, 2-1, in front of 39,000 fans at Lansdowne Road.
U.S. Soccer has yet to officially confirm the friendly match, though a formal announcement is expected very soon.
The upcoming trip to Ireland is the second confirmed trip to Europe for the USMNT this fall, following a scheduled friendly match on Sept. 3 at the Czech Republic in Prague. The FIFA calendar has three open windows for international matches this fall. From Sep. 1-9, Oct. 6-14, and Nov. 10-18.
According to separate reports, U.S. Soccer is also in discussions with the Colombian FA for a friendly match in September in San Antonio, Texas and the Ecuadorian FA for a friendly match in October.
The Republic of Ireland are currently ranked No. 70 in FIFA’s World Rankings and feature a familiar face to American soccer fans in LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane. Ireland’s squad also includes a number of players plying their trade in the English Premier League, including Sunderland defender John O’Shea, the Everton trio of Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, and Aiden McGeady, and Hull City forward Shane Long.
Four days before facing the USMNT, Ireland will be visiting Scotland in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualification match.
———–
What do you think of this report? Do you think Ireland can provide a good level of competition for the U.S. squad? Do you plan on potentially traveling to the match?
Share your thoughts below.
Glad someone finally confirmed this, since I bought plane tickets based on a rumor a month ago!
Maybe they were not available due to Euro Qualifiers. Maybe they don’t want play us
Very few opportunities to schedule with European teams due to their Euro qualifying
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_qualifying
Looks like there might be a 1 open date in March and thats it for 2015 too
Overall i think Rep of Ireland Czech are good opponents for us.. The rest of the dates will be filled with American opponents.
why not a match against Poland or Serbia?
or Sweden?
playing Ireland is about as pointless as playing Malta or Finland. It’s just an excuse for folks to get drunk and watch us thrash them 5-0
come on JK
Or Azerbaijan.
what happened to the Colombia game, thought an official announcement was to come?
WHEN FREDDIADU PLAY AGAIN
Someone answer the man!
He played yesterday in Serbia. I don’t think he can play again before Saturday.
He played 1 match and now it’s his midseason break. I think he may be scheduled for another appearance in late spring (training for the 2015 Gold Cup).
Wouldn’t mind a rematch against Germany!
I agree. Plus, it fits the general theme of scheduling our matches in beer loving countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany.
Would be nice if Jurgen scheduled more home games!
I’d love to see some away games in Asia or Africa or Latin America
Why? Players do enough flying as it is.
It’d be fair and diverse, duh
plus would be nice to get out of the safe zone.
have a friendly in Mozambique
Asia? Yeah, gotta love those 3am kicks
WHEN FREDDI ADU PLAY AGAIN
this is not frank
Cool another European team to beat up on!
Just like you did in Brazil haha