O’Sullivan dreams of World Cup shot

Now that she’s operating in the best league in the world, Germany-based striker Fiona O’Sullivan wants to augment it by featuring at the World Cup for Ireland.

The San Francisco-born striker, who declared for Ireland through her Bantry-born father, will win her 23rd cap for Ireland in tonight’s friendly against Austria at Tallaght Stadium (7.30pm).

This game is the final warm-up for Sue Ronan’s side before they embark on their 2015 World Cup qualifying group, which starts in September with the visit of Slovakia.

With captain Ciara Grant retiring after the last campaign, Ronan wants her experienced cohort that includes 26-year-old O’Sullivan to help integrate youngsters into the team.

The forward has put plenty of miles on the clock, having moved from the United States to Sweden and then Germany, via a stint in France.

She’s just been rewarded for an impressive debut season in the Bundesliga with a contract extension by SC Freiburg.

After playing at such a high level throughout the campaign, O’Sullivan is hoping to bring that quality onto the international stage.

“The Bundesliga has become the strongest league in Europe, with the clubs hand-picking players from other league across the continent,” she said.

“We’ve just had one of our clubs (Wolfsburg) win the UEFA Champions League and the standard of games is high every week. I came back from an injury late in the season to play for SC Freiburg so I’m feeling in good shape for this game against Austria. It gives me a chance to solidify my place in the team for the World Cup qualifiers. Although we started the last campaign well, results went against us later. We’ll be hoping to improve for these qualifiers. It will be a marathon, not a sprint.”

Ireland manager Ronan will try some new talent tonight. Some of that change is enforced as Arsenal’s Niamh Fahey tore her anterior cruciate ligament. That rules the Galway native out of Ireland’s first three qualifiers against Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia. Ronan indicated yesterday she’ll aim to have her midfield powerhouse back for the crucial home tie against Germany next April.