![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5080662_10_articleinline_3456271.jpg\" "\\"Andrew")
Andrew Moran during a Republic of Ireland training session. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nOne of Andrew Moran\u2019s regrets from his short stint in America was missing out on squaring up against Lionel Messi but he\u2019s using the same pitch the Argentinian graced in Spain as a springboard to revive his international career.<\/p>\n
Ireland are using the La Finca resort near Murcia in Spain as a training base, the exact location the World Cup champions visited last November for a similar exercise.<\/p>\n
Messi followed up that international assignment by firing his club Inter Miami into the final of the MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference but it was Vancouver, rather than Moran\u2019s Los Angeles FC, they did battle with.<\/p>\n
Moran, 22, joined teammate Son Heung-min on the scoresheet in that 2-2 draw but ultimately missed out on a final place by losing in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cVancouver had Thomas Muller and quality players like that,\u201d the attacking midfielder says, citing another World Cup winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we’d won that game we would’ve been up against Messi so that obviously would’ve been unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really good. We had some top players on our team, a really technical type of football, probably not as intense as England.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the heat and everything over there, it’s tough to apply full pressure but I really enjoyed the style of play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That would be the third and final loan spell from Brighton for Moran as the club accepted a bid from Championship club Preston North End in the January transfer window.<\/p>\n
He played 11 league appearances in the second half of the season yet it wasn\u2019t enough to reclaim his place in the Ireland squad for their World Cup playoff semi-final in Czechia.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson is a fan of the diminutive playmaker and has included him among the 20 players in this camp that culminates in Saturday\u2019s friendly against Grenada (5pm, Irish time).<\/p>\n
Moran\u2019s third and most recent cap in November 2024 was a rare highlight of the 5-0 mauling by England at Wembley but his international career has stalled while the team\u2019s fortunes improved. Midfield remains the area Ireland still requires reinforcements.<\/p>\n
Andrew Moran during a Republic of Ireland training session. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably need that bit more consistency in my game to take that next step,\u201d said the player who initially broke through at Brighton in 2021 alongside compatriot Evan Ferguson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had a full pre-season at the club that I’m going to be at, really, in senior football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always been going on loans late in the window and stuff like that, so I’m really looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone here was probably in the 21s, where you’d say the same thing about it so everyone’s at different ages, but it’s not as easy as you’re just going to walk into the Ireland team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lads that are regulars for years now here so that’s what you need though, that competition to keep everyone pushing as hard especially at their clubs because you know now you’ve got to be playing well to even get in the squads, particularly playing midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think I\u2019m a more attacking-style midfielder, that I can provide that creativity in the final third. I\u2019m probably not as good in a deeper role where I\u2019m under pressure all the time and I can\u2019t be as creative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have a good few numbers 10s similar to me that are doing really well at their clubs. Finn Azaz is in the play-off final now, he is flying and Jack Moylan has just won League One.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After friendlies against Grenada, Qatar and Canada, it’s straight into the Uefa Nations League campaign in the Autumn and Euro 2028 qualifiers kicking off next March.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was watching the playoff game at home and I thought we did really well against the Czechs,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we easily could have won the game. It wasn\u2019t an impossible mission. We felt we could and should be getting to the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just about bringing that into the next campaign, this bit of momentum we\u2019ve built.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Andrew Moran\u2019s regrets from his short stint in America was missing out on squaring up against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-449206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}