Katie McCabe: Ireland ready to embrace step into unknown at first World Cup

Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe is ready for her side to embrace “unknown territory” as they continue preparations for the Women’s World Cup.

Ireland have been drawn in Group B of this summer’s global showpiece alongside Canada, Nigeria and tournament co-hosts Australia, who they face in their opening match on July 20.

It marks an historic moment for the Irish women, who will be competing for the first time in a major tournament finals and McCabe is looking forward to the challenge ahead.

“It’s unknown territory for us, we’ve never qualified for a major tournament before, this is all new for us,” she told the PA news agency.

“So we’re just going to take it in our stride, I think taking it day by day and ultimately focusing on what’s important, which is training and the football side of things.

“It’s going to be an amazing summer, it’s something we’ve dreamt about for as long as we’ve been playing football.

“So to say we’re actually on the way there now next week after we play France in our send off game, heading to our first major tournament is going to be fantastic.

“We’ve got a really tough group, Australia – the hosts, Canada – Olympic champions, one of the best teams in Africa…

“By no means is it going to be easy, but we’re certainly not going to go there to just take part in it and happy to be there, we’re going to compete and really challenge ourselves.”

Ireland have been preparing for the tournament with recent friendlies against current World Cup holders the United States and Zambia.

The will also face France next Thursday before travelling to Brisbane, where they play Colombia in another warm-up six days before their opener against Australia.

They kick off their campaign against the Matildas at Stadium Australia in Sydney, a ground which holds 81,500 fans and McCabe believes the size of the venue shows how far women’s football has grown.

“I’m hoping we drown out the Australian fans, the Irish fans there – we’ve got the best fans in the world with the support we get all over the place, it’s fantastic,” the Arsenal player added.

“It speaks volumes the stadium’s getting moved from a 40,000 seater to an 80,000 seater, it goes to show that it’s going to be the hottest ticket in town and this World Cup is going to be a new one in women’s football.

“You think the growth of the game went through the roof the last few years, it’s only going further now.”