Martin O'Neill may take Ireland to US to face Brazil bound teams
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Martin O'Neill may take Ireland to US to face Brazil bound teams

MARTIN O’NEILL is looking to take Ireland to America next summer to face teams preparing for the World Cup in Brazil.  

This would provide the Ireland manager with a final window of warm-up games to prepare his team before the opening qualifier of the Euro 2016 campaign in September.

The FAI is also said to prefer a return visit to the US to any offers from within Europe after coming close to filling Yankee Stadium last June with a clash against 2010 world champions Spain.

"That is certainly an option, absolutely," O’Neill said.

“There’s a game in March coming up and then the next time will be sometime in summer.

“I’m thinking from a distance where, if they were really, really meaningful games, then it might be interesting.”

The final decision will not be made until the World Cup draw in Brazil in December takes place.

The scheduled August friendly has been removed from the calendar so O’Neill will be keen to arrange challenging games for the Ireland squad next summer in preparation for the European competition.

Ireland will next play Serbia in a friendly in Dublin on March 5.