February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The prodigal son hadn’t been expected to play the full 90 minutes of last Thursday’s friendly game against Romania at Lansdowne Road, but to an initial combination of hissing and cheering he remained on the pitch long enough to admire Matt Holland’s late winning goal.
Keane’s vision, his experience, and his authority made the team function infinitely more smoothly than they had in the almost two years since his last appearance. Where once the responsibility in the key area of midfield shifted from player to player uneasily, there was never any doubt who was in charge during this 1-0 victory.
The former captain’s presence enabled the new guard of Andy Reid and Liam Miller to fully express themselves, while the old guard of Holland, apart from his sublime match-winning volley, also performed well. When asked what Keane brought to the table after his exile, Kerr suggested it was obvious. “Composure, passing ability, shape.”
As for the tireless Holland, who had been one of Keane’s critics during the infamous standoff with Mick McCarthy at the 2002 World Cup finals, he was now playing the realist. “Roy’s a world-class player and with him in the side we have a better chance of qualifying for the major tournaments,” he said. “We would really like to qualify for the World Cup and, hopefully, Roy can help us achieve that aim.”
With several of the players, including Keane, unavailable for a tournament game against Nigeria in London two days later, Kerr was brought back down to earth with a bang as the Nigerians won 3-0. “It wasn’t an ideal situation because we gave so much against Romania to win the match. Six of the starting team played again and that was hard going.”
Kenny Cunningham, Steve Finnan, Alan Maybury, Robbie Keane, Holland and Miller all started against Nigeria and their fatigue at the end of a long season permeated the Irish performance. Kerr’s side was outclassed and it will be difficult to sustain energy levels with further matches against Jamaica today and Holland in Amsterdam on Saturday.