Northern Ireland v USA

Northern Ireland have only ever capped four players in a full international who have been attached to clubs in the USA. Former Everton midfielder Dave Clements became the first when he made his final two appearances for his country when with New York Cosmos back in 1976. Former Glentoran legend Billy Caskey was at Tulsa Roughnecks when he played the last of seven matches for Northern Ireland in a 4-0 defeat to France in 1982. Midfielder Dave McCreery was also at Tulsa, winning 12 of his 55 caps while turning out for the NASL side. The last player to be attached to an American club was Larne-born Jonny Steele who made all three of his appearances for his country between 2013 and 2014 while playing for New York Red Bulls.

Northern Ireland have played the USA on five occasions at U19 level – all of the games taking place in the Milk Cup, now known as SuperCupNI. Northern Ireland came out on top in three of those encounters and the USA have ended up victorious twice. The full results are: 2004 – Northern Ireland 2-1 USA 2005 – Northern Ireland 2-4 USA 2008 – Northern Ireland 3-1 USA 2010 - Northern Ireland 0-3 USA 2013 – Northern Ireland 3-1 USA

From the records which are available the only player to have won a full cap for Ireland/Northern Ireland who was born in the USA was Billy Andrews who won three caps between 1908 and 1913. The wing-half was born in Kanas City circa 1886 but was raised in Belfast from a young age. During his playing career Andrews had spells with Distillery, Glentoran and Belfast United before moving to England and turning out for Oldham Athletic, Grimsby Town, Stockport County and Darlington. He won his first full cap against Scotland in March 1908 while still at the Oval and made his final two appearances five years later against England and Scotland while plying his trade with Grimsby Town.

Goalkeeper Cecil Moore was capped just once by Northern Ireland when he played in a 2-0 defeat to Wales in a Home International encounter at Windsor Park in March 1949. The former Glentoran netminder moved to the States in the early 1950s where he played for New York Americans. When the USA faced England at the Yankee Stadium in New York in June 1953, a match arranged to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation, Moore was selected for what was to be his only appearance for the full American national team. Thus Moore became one of only two players, Jack Reynolds being the other, to play an official international for Northern Ireland and another country (other than the Republic of Ireland).

Accrington Stanley striker Dion Charles won three caps at Under-21 level back in 2016, but three years before that he also made a number of appearances for the Northern Ireland U19 side who were then managed by former international defender Stephen Craigan. One of Charles’ games for the U19 team came in the Milk Cup in July 2013 when he played the first 45 minutes of a 3-1 success over a USA U20 outfit at Drumahoe. Current Ballymena United striker Paul McElroy scored a brace against the Americans that day with Luke McCullough, now of Glentoran, also getting on the scoresheet.

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