Northern Ireland v USA

MANAGER’S VIEW

It’s great to be back at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park, although it’s not great to be here once again without the vocal support of the Green and White Army.

I believe the game will be beneficial to us in our preparations for the World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria – and the qualification campaign as a whole. It will, of course, provide me with an opportunity to rest some players and to provide other players with an opportunity to show what they can do on the international stage. We have good depth in the squad now and I am confident that whoever is in today’s starting eleven will play for the shirt and put in a good shift. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions the game is, of course, being played behind closed doors. It’s a real shame because I think both our fans and USA fans would have created an unbelievable atmosphere at a packed National Football Stadium. I expect the Americans to be really up for the game. After all, they are using it as a warm-up for several competitive matches later this year, beginning with the Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) Nations League finals in June, the Concacaf Gold Cup the following month and FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers in the autumn. It would be great if we could meet them again at next year’s World Cup final tournament! Ian Baraclough Northern Ireland Manager

Our friendly against the United States of America today is, of course, sandwiched between two FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar qualifiers. The first of those saw us lose by two goals to nil to Italy in Parma on Thursday. I was disappointed with our first half performance against the top seeds in our group. We were too passive, especially with our pressing. We did not produce the intensity that was required. We spoke about bringing intensity to our performance beforehand and unfortunately that just did not happen in the first half. The second half performance was much better, however, as we pressed, created chances and forced the Italians into making mistakes. We had a bit more belief in ourselves after the break and that’s something we must build upon going forward. When we play on the front foot in matches we are a much better team. We also need to take the intensity that we showed in the second half in Parma into all our other matches in this year’s World Cup qualification campaign, starting with our second European Qualifying Group C match against Bulgaria in Belfast on Wednesday. Moving to today’s game, I am genuinely excited at the prospect of playing USA and the players are, too. I must admit I jumped at the opportunity to take on Gregg Berhalter’s team because I believe it will be a great test for us against a growing football nation. The MLS is getting stronger each season, while American players are now plying their trade far and wide, with quite a few playing for big European clubs.

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