Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan insists that Ireland's two World Cup warm-up defeats to the USA this week are the perfect preparation for the summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

A first international goal from Alana Cook saw Ireland suffer a second defeat in four days to the USA as they went down 1-0 in St Louis.

Cook's hopeful ball from 45 yards out left the backpedalling Brosnan floundering and although she managed to get fingertips to the ball, she could only follow it over the line.

Ireland had created opportunities before falling behind to the world champions and pressed them hard in the closing stages but were unable to make the breakthrough.

Despite losing twice in the space of four days to the US, there were plenty of positives for Vera Pauw’s side to take from the trip and Brosnan believes that those games will stand to Ireland when the World Cup begins.

"We can be really proud of the performance we put in against the best team in the world," she told RTÉ Sport.

"You can see how we’ve grown from the first game to the second game even so it just shows we’re making steps in the right direction. It’s not the result we wanted but it’s great to see the performance and hard work from the team."

We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Despite being at fault for the goal, Brosnan was able to put that first-half error behind her and produce a string of fine saves for Ireland in the second-half.

She admitted to being disappointed with the nature of the goal but was able to quickly shake it off.

"I’m really disappointed in myself, I want to do my best for the team but it was just unlucky," she said.

"It doesn’t take away from the performance from the girls so we can walk away with that and get ready for the summer.

"I like claiming crosses, I like relieving the pressure from the backline so making one mistake won’t stop me from doing that, trying to help the team.

"We’re tying to make steps in the right direction and that’s testing ourselves against this high quality opposition. That means playing out and pushing our boundaries so it’s nice to see us doing that against the best team in the world.

"Pushing ourselves now is so important and it’s only going to be beneficial."

Irish player-of-the-match Lucy Quinn agreed with Brosnan that the standard of Ireland’s recent opponents will stand them in good stead them for the World Cup.

Ireland open their campaign against co-hosts Australia on 20 July and for Quinn, taking on the number one ranked side in the world is the perfect build-up to face the Matildas.

"I’m super proud of the girls, we were competitive with the best team in the world and we’re disappointed with the result," she said.

"That shows the progress that we’ve made and how hard the girls have worked. We just couldn’t get over the line today but it’s really good steps that we’re making.

"We had a game plan, we know what we’re capable and we’ve got players that are dangerous. We can bring on players from the bench to sustain that pressure and it’s a shame that we didn’t get anything out of the game."

Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.