February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Mark Jones
Republic 3, Andorra 1
DUBLIN — The Republic of Ireland remain in the hunt for a prized place in next year’s soccer World Cup finals following last Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Andorra at Lansdowne Road.
The Irish (4-0-2, 14 points) are now three points clear at the top Group 2, having played the same number of games as Holland. However, Portugal, who are also three points in arrears, have a match in hand.
The victory over Andorra was far from vintage Ireland. In fact, the home team had to suffer the embarrassment of going a goal behind midway through the first half against a team of part-timers which has lost all of its eight games to date. That situation was soon rectified by Kevin Kilbane (34th), and then Mark Kinsella (36th)and Gary Breen (76th)put the result beyond doubt.
Manager Mick McCarthy can take some solace in that he chose not to select Robbie Keane and Kenny Cunningham, who, if they had been booked, would have missed the vital game against the Portuguese in Dublin on June 2. Equally, both Roy Keane and Niall Quinn were ruled out through injury.
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However, McCarthy would have wanted his replacements to perform better than they did. The longstanding problem of goal scoring is still an issue as both strikers, Gary Doherty and David Connolly, failed to find the net. In fairness to Doherty, he showed that he could be an adequate substitute for Quinn should the veteran center forward’s injury problems persist, but Connolly was a major disappointment against one of the weakest defenses in European soccer.
On top of the striking difficulties, neither Mark Kinsella nor Matt Holland were up to scratch in midfield, while Mark Kennedy had a poor game on the right wing.
Despite the win, McCarthy was subsequently criticized for not selecting Robbie Keane, who should surely be experienced enough now to avoid any disciplinary trouble. Certainly, Keane’s cutting edge in attack was sorely missed.
Despite the obvious shortcomings, McCarthy was pleased with the result.
"We are not going to win any friends, we are not going to win any plaudits with these type of games, but we won. We are top of the group [and] no one thought we were going to get anywhere near it," he said.
McCarthy got the thumbs up from his Andorran opposite, David Rodrigo, who predicted that Ireland would qualify for next year’s finals in Korea/Japan as group winners.
National League
Meanwhile, as the National League enters its closing phase, five teams have a chance of taking the title. Reigning champions Shelbourne — on 57 points — have a one-point advantage after coming back from three goals down to earn a dramatic 3-3 draw in Derry. Bohemians hold second place, but both Shels and Bohs have a game in hand over St. Patrick’s Athletic and Cork, each of whom have 53 points. Bray are next on 52 points thanks to 3-1 victory over FAI Cup finalists Longford Town.