The Republic of Ireland will be World Champions USA first opponents since lifting the Women's World Cup in France at the weekend.
The game will take place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the venue of the 1994 World Cup final.
It will be on the August 3rd in at 7pm local time, but Irish fans will have to stay up late as the contest will commence at 3am on this side of the world.
CONFIRMED | #IRLWNT will face the USA in the first fixture of the World Cup winners’ five-game victory tour of America 🏆
🇺🇸 v 🇮🇪
🏟️ Rose Bowl, Pasadena
August 3, 7pm Pacific Time (3am Irish)
Full details 👉 https://t.co/acU7tBicRW #COYGIG pic.twitter.com/C0GV85VsN3— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) July 9, 2019
Champions
The game will be USA’s first match on home soil after winning the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France on Sunday.
It will be just the third time that the USA Women’s National Team has played at the famous Rose Bowl, where Roberto Baggio famously missed his penalty against Brazil in 1994.
Ireland captain Katie McCabe said: “It's a great opportunity for us to be asked to go over to play the USA. It will be great preparation for us to test ourselves against the best in the world ahead of our European Championships campaign. Also, it will be good to get the squad back together after not having seen each other in a while.
It will all help towards getting us ready for the game on September 3rd.”
Test
Unsurprisingly the FAI executive are happy, with a stern test for the Irish players ahead of the Euro qualifiers in the Autumn.
FAI General Manager Noel Mooney said: “To play the greatest team in Women’s international football in the Rose Bowl in front of a huge crowd is going to be a great test for our team but we have confidence that Ireland can compete well and hopefully dampen the party mood there a little with a big performance and result. We may or may not have our new manager in place but we believe that this will be a great experience for the squad and they will do themselves proud.
“We are really looking forward to the European Championships Qualifiers kicking off in Tallaght against Montenegro on the 3rd of September. Playing the USA, back-to-back FIFA World Cup winners is quite a game for us and will hopefully be a help in our aim of competing ourselves in the UEFA European Championships in England in 2021.”
While the team know who their opponents will be, it is unclear who will be in charge of the team.
The Ireland women's team is without a manager after Colin Bell left for Huddersfield at the end of June. There is speculation that Dave Connell is understood to be a potential frontrunner for the role.
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