We Are Entitled To Dream

It couldn’t have happened on a more auspicious day. Michael D. Higgins had been installed as President at lunch time. Now, even as the inauguration party proceeded in Dublin Castle, the Irish team took to the field in Tallinn against Estonia in the Euro 2012 play-offs.

What followed may not have been pretty. But it was certainly resounding.
The opening exchanges were business-like but uncultured. The two teams went at it in a similar style, neither of them inclined to get the ball down and play football. Still, there was a feeling that the Irish were stronger, and that in Aidan McGeady and Damien Duff, we had players capable of changing the course of the game.
Football is a wonderful expression of chaos theory in action. If you rewind the clock and unpick any action, it follows that nothing would have transpired in the same way afterwards. A tiny change at that instant might magnify into an enormous difference by the end of 90 minutes.
It is one of the oldest clichés in the book: goals change games. It is tautologous. The game is constantly in the process of changing. And goals are what it is all about. So, of course they do. But it is worth bearing that truism in mind nonetheless.
There were 13 minutes on the clock. Jonathan Walters and Robbie Keane were involved in the move, before Aidan McGeady took possession on the left. Just then, centre midfielder Keith Andrews did something we had been told was forbidden under Giovanni Trapattoni. The Ipswich Town man almost got ahead of the ball, taking what he later humorously described as a wander into the Estonian box. The cross was sweet, and invited the perfect finish that Andrews applied to it with his head. It was a goal all the way.

The outcome of our Euro campaign hinged on that moment. What might have happened subsequently, if Keith Andrews had not taken that chance to press forward, we will never know. Would Ireland have won? Possibly not. What we can say is that either Andrews was given the license to roam forward or he was disobeying orders. I haven’t seen anyone ask the question but it is one worth putting to Giovanni Trapattoni. Either way, it was the making of us. The bottom line is, in football, sometimes you have to take risks to deliver the prize.
That goal was important not just in that it gave the Irish team a platform. It was important too in putting an inexperienced Estonian team, playing in what was the biggest game of any of the players’ footballing lives, under a different level of pressure. The cauldron proved too hot for central defender Andrei Stepanov, who received a second deserved yellow card in the 34th minute. He had to walk.
The old argument that going down to ten men can be an advantage in football is absurd, if the team with 11 men retains the right attitude. For the remainder of the first half it was far from clear that the Irish had done that. A really good team will know that when you’re a goal up against ten men, it is time to go for the jugular. You set out – metaphorically speaking of course – using your numerical advantage, to murder the opposition. On the other hand, if you start to play at 80%, and the opposition succeed in galvanising themselves and up their game, then you are in trouble. Do the maths.
Tactically, the Estonians began the second half in a more conservative style and the Irish immediately looked less vulnerable. Perhaps their manager Tarmo Ruutli had decided that they could live with a 1-0 defeat – and if they kept the scoresheet that way, who knows, they might even snatch a goal at the death?
The Irish players, on the other hand, showed a greater resolve. They started to take the game to the opposition. Again, there was a passage of good football on the run-up to the second goal, with McGeady providing the inspiration. He cut inside, his shot was parried and – as has so often been the case playing for Ireland – Robbie Keane was quickest to the loose ball. He scooped a cross to the back post where the excellent Jonathan Walters headed home. Game over.
The ruthlessness with which the Irish 11 subsequently went about the business of finishing off the tie was impressive – and may yet be the making of this team. They defended well and pushed forward at every opportunity. Robbie Keane scored a superb poacher’s goal before Stephen Hunt won the penalty that gifted Robbie his 53rd Irish goal. The fact that a second Estonian was sent off was a bonus, in terms of weakening them for the return leg in Dublin. But this game was about something different: at last the Irish players could walk tall.
I am writing this not knowing what will happen – or what has happened by the time you are reading it – in Dublin. The working assumption is that we have not imploded in the most spectacular fashion ever in the European Championship and that we are through to the finals.
Clearly, the majority of those who featured in the group stage of the competition will be entitled to feel that they should be on the plane to Poland and the Ukraine. Giovanni Trapattoni is conservative by nature. He has fashioned a team that will play the game the way he decrees it. He will allow nothing to upset that apple-tart. Or cart even.
But it would be wrong for him not to work towards introducing other players into the mix between now and June. We have decent options almost everywhere (and especially upfront with Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane, Shane Long, Jonathan Walters and Simon Cox all in contention), except in the centre of midfield. And while we owe a debt of loyalty to Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews, any real talent that becomes available in that area must be considered. In addition, superb young talents like Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy should be given an opportunity to shine in whatever friendlies are arranged.

Contrary to the general view, I have always believed that this is a very talented group of players. Some of them – Richard Dunne, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane in particular – may feel that they are at the end of long and, only a fool would dispute, distinguished international tenures. But these players have been brilliant for Ireland over the past 12 months and they will see Euro 2012 as the opportunity to finally leave an indelible mark on Irish and hopefully European football history.
In truth, it is hard right now to imagine the current squad having enough guile to poleaxe Spain, Germany or Holland in the Euro finals. But if a new young Roy Keane figure were to emerge, how differently might we be entitled to feel then? There are other permutations. Would we be better off with John O’Shea at centre back and Seamus Coleman on the right? Should Anthony Pilkington of Norwich – already an Under-21 cap – be brought quickly through? Is there a case for reintroducing Steven Reid – currently playing regularly at right-back for West Brom – to add passing ability to the centre of midfield?
Giovanni Trapattoni will err on the side of caution. But he must also have an eye to the World Cup and bring players through who might be vital to that cause. Or to put it another way: we need to think seriously about capping Pilkington in a competitive game before England start to think along the same lines.
In the meantime, the players will approach the tournament with a hard-won sense of belief. If they can build on that, start to keep possession a bit more effectively, and play with the kind of swagger that we showed against France in Paris in the World Cup play-off in 2009, then who knows? As the election of Michael D. Higgins confirms, we are entitled to dream.
Bring it on!