Women's Hockey World Cup qualifier: Ireland were just 29 seconds away from securing an unexpected victory over the United States in yesterday's opening World Cup qualifying game in Rome but the result and performance will have instilled confidence in the camp for the remainder of the tournament.

Riet Kuper's team dominated possession for long periods and only their inability to defend their slender advantage as the pressure took it's toll will have caused the Dutchwoman concern. On the positive side this will be regarded as a point gained as Ireland so often fail at the first hurdle.

In the second Pool B game of the day, New Zealand made hard work of beating Azerbaijan 2-1 suggesting that Ireland have a chance against both those sides. Tomorrow Ireland face Korea more in hope than expectation after a rest day today.

"It worked well playing half-court and taking our chances to counter attack when we could, " said Kuper. "But it was obviously very disappointing to concede a late goal like that. I was not happy with the way we gave away the ball at a time we had to be composed.

"However, if I had been offered a point before the game I would probably have taken it. On the day, though, the US didn't ever look like scoring from play. But when you concede corners there's always a chance one of them will go in."

Ireland forced three penalty corners to their opponents' two in a largely uneventful first half in which neither side forced any real chances. The Irish goal came from a 41st minute free. Having initially lost possession to a defender, Jill Orbinson regained it and expertly carved her way into the circle to set up Cathy McKean and the Loreto striker swept the ball into the roof of the net.

Nerves seemed to creep into the Irish play in a torrid last few minutes. The Americans drove forward capitalising on misplaced passes and after possession was squandered in the last two minutes, two penalty corners were awarded in quick succession and from the second, Katy Doton drove the ball past Angela Platt for the equaliser.

IRELAND: A Platt; C Parkhill, C O'Brien, J Orbinson, F Connery; N Symmons, L Caulfield (Capt) , C Carey; J McDonough, E Cregan, C McKean. Subs: S Beaney, K Elkin, B McKeever

Yesterday's results: Pool A: China 2 Scotland 0, England 3 Ukraine 0, Japan 5 France 0. Pool B: USA 1 (K. Doton) Ireland 1 (C. McKean), New Zealand 2 Azerbaijan 1.

Today's programme: Pool A: China v England, Ukraine v Japan, France v Scotland.